Le Julie Breathnach-Banwait
Caitíona Ní Chléirchín
Our last Agallamh le Scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge/Interviews with Irish Language Writers in this series, features the poet Caitríona Ní Chléirchín.
Is file gaeilge í Caitríona, criticeoir, eagarthóir agus léachtóir as Contae Mhuineacháin ó dhúchas. Tá cheithre chnuasach filíochta foilsithe aici. Bhuaigh a céad cnuasach ‘Crithloinnir’ duais Oireachtais do scríbhneoiri nua i 2010 agus bhuaigh a dara cnuasach – ‘An Bhrídeach Sí’- duais Michael Harnett i 2015. D’fhoilsigh The Gallery Press cnuasach dátheangach léi darbh ainm ‘The Talk of the Town.’ Is léachtóir gaeilge í in Ollscoil Bhaile Átha Cliath agus ba eagarthóir gaeilge í le Poetry Ireland Review ó 2019-2020.
Caitríona Ní Chléirchín is an Irish-language poet, critic, editor and lecturer originally from Co. Monaghan. She has published four collections of poetry. Her début collection Crithloinnir: Shimmer won the Oireachtas Prize for New Writers in 2010 and her second collection An Bhrídeach Sí: The Fairy Bride (2014) won the Michael Hartnett Prize 2015. The judges of that award described her poetry as: ‘powerful, courageous, sassy and important…Her mastery of Irish and sense of being at home in tradition and modernity is evident in poems set in the 17th century, poems framed by Gaelic mythology… The poems are full of passion.’ The Gallery Press recently published her collection The Talk of the Town in 2020 with translations by Peter Fallon. Her collection Safó (Coiscéim, 2020) was mentioned as one of the top 20 books in 2020 by Tuairisc.ie. She is an Irish-language and literature lecturer at Dublin City University. Her doctorate was a psychoanalytical body-centred reading of the Irish-language contemporary poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Biddy Jenkinson. She was the Irish-language editor of Poetry Ireland Review 2019-20. Éabhlóid published her new collection of poetry Rince Aeir: Skydance in 2024 and was hailed by Máirín Nic Eoin for it’s dramatic lyricism and powerful images.
On ispiration and style of writing:
I write from a place of intense emotional experience of living and consciousness, of being a woman and being within a woman’s body and soul, and my experiences of love and loss, of love of language and acute sensitivity to language and tone, and love of the natural world as well as the pain and joy of existence. I have been told that I have a lyrical voice – my style is lyrical, simple, free.
On other writers that have influenced her:
Contemporary Irish-language women poets such as Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Caitlín Maude especially, but also Liam Ó Muirthile. French women writers such as Marguerite Duras. They have inspired me to write from the strength of my own experience and to write my body, which is often a place of pain. I grew up in County Monaghan, in Ulster and I have been profoundly influenced also by Patrick Kavanagh and Seamus Heaney and the love of landscape and placename.
On a piece of writing that she feels strongly about:
It is a poem called ‘Cealg’/’Sting’. It is about the experience of emotional pain and torment in love. I explore the physicality of emotion here, from the perspective of a woman’s body.
Cealg
‘Ba bheach im chroí thú.
Tháinig tú ag blathú tríd mo chíocha,
is ba chealg mhilis iad na póga,
cealgphógadh do mo chealgadh.
Sting
You were a bee in my heart.
You loomed through my breasts
full flower, your kisses like sweetened stings.
Your sting-kisses deceived me completely.
Translated by Peter Fallon.
Advice to other writers:
Find time for yourself to write. Express yourself freely. Give yourself freedom. Protect your time and space and prioritize your creativity. Don’t listen to your inner critic or the external critics. Just keep writing. And give yourself time. Believe in your own voice.
Particular themes that she is drawn to:
Yes, I am drawn to the themes of love and desire, loss, death and love of landscape. I’m drawn to these themes because they are for me, the most important essence of being alive and having a voice.
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Julie Breathnach-Banwait
Julie has been a regular contributor to Tinteán for many years and has recently joined the Editorial Collective. She is an Australian based Irish language poet and writer. To date she has published four collections of poetry. Dánta Póca and Ar thóir gach ní are Irish language poetry books published through Coiscéim (Dublin). Bobtail Books (Australia) have recently released two bilingual books of hers: Cnámha Scoilte/Split Bones – a bilingual book of prose poetry and Ó Chréanna Eile/From Other Earths – a bilingual book of poetry, co-authored with the Australian Irish language poet and writer Colin Ryan. Both are available at http://www.bobtailbooks.com.au. Her next collection – hypnagogia/hiopnagóige is imminent with Pierian Springs Press.
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