Post-Ireland? Essays on Contemporary Irish Poetry eds. by Jefferson Holdridge and Brian Ó Conchubhair (review)

This expansive collection not only revisits familiar staples of contemporary Irish poetry from fresh angles, but also brings younger writers such as Sinéad Morrissey and Caitriona O'Reilley into the conversation. The overall movement of the book connects this younger generation of writers with their predecessors, while also considering how these poets will relate to those writers whose work is yet to come. Indeed, the collection is at its strongest when it sets its eyes on the future, or links familiar authors to contemporary concerns about multiculturalism and transnational identities; when it occasionally flags, it is often from the tenuous connection of the "post-Ireland" of its title to the fragment of Irish literature under discussion. But the finest essays in this collection demonstrate the capacity of Irish writers to work with apparent archaisms that are "usually framed by some more radical, modern consciousness," and it is this consciousness, these critics suggest, linked to a willingness to listen to the past, that will continue to give Irish poetry—for whatever definition of Irishness—continued power and vitality going forwards.

In their introduction, Holdridge and Ó Conchubhair avoid making any definitive statements about the future of Irish poetry, acknowledging instead the entry of a transitional period whose ultimate destination is unclear. Instead, they suggest certain consistent concepts in discussions about contemporary Irish poetry, and the younger generation of contemporary poets in particular—among them Ireland's various linguistic, cultural, and religious inheritances, and to what extent these are embraced or resisted; current dichotomies of influence between Europe and America; Ireland's history and the legacies of sectarianism, provincialism, or colonialism; and the extent to which identity is a concern or whether it is a paradigm that is being left behind or transformed. Some readers who turn to the volume hoping for more definitive statements on the identity of Irish poetry might be frustrated by the diffuse hypotheses offered by the collection, but those who venture in looking to have their understanding of Irish identity challenged and expanded will be rewarded.

The ordering of the essays follows no particular schema, but readers searching for connective threads will quickly see several themes emerging: questions of form and technique, matters of language, and issues of tradition and identity dominate the collection overall. But these threads are loose guidelines, and a number of essays reside in multiple categories—for example, Ailbhe Darcy's study of Dorothy Molloy, which raises questions of internationalism and nationalism as issues of language and tradition, expressed in Molloy's interrogation and challenge of a "modern Irish tradition of craft and mastery" through the subjective experiences of illness and gender. Both of these experiences can threaten the boundaries of formal rigor and intellectual mastery that Darcy argues are integral to past understandings of the Irish tradition. Examining Molloy through her Irishness, and her engagement with that tradition, clarifies her poetic project as one deeply engaged with Irish poetic identity, despite her seemingly post-nationalist identity as a poet living in France and Spain. As Darcy points out, however fluid borders become, no poet is free of ideology or free to pick traditions at will; it is particularly important to remember how lyric poets have been shaped by their linguistic communities. "Irish poetry that speaks from outside Ireland," she writes, "is no less interested than other poetry in testing this boundary between the individual (formed out of Irish society) and the (Irish or non-Irish) linguistic community in which the individual must operate." Recognizing that this quality of transnational Irish poetry allows one to more fully explore the various "forces that meet, collide, and negotiate" in the poems on the page, Darcy reveals how it is more fruitful to consider issues of identity, tradition, and form in relation to each other, rather than separately, and she offers a useful model for pursuing the question of "post-Ireland" and identity in transnational poets...