A voice of their own?: the role of women in contemporary Irish poetry

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to describe and evaluate the distinctively female voice in contemporary Irish poetry, concentrating on the works of Eiléan Ni Chuilleanáin, Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Both the private and the public dimension of their poetic output are analysed, with special reference to their attentiveness to ordinary life, their self-conscious femaleness, their concern for the past and their involvement in social and political affairs.