According to Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, the name Sheila derives from Cecily, ‘the English form of the Latin name of the…virgin martyr St Cecilia…The Anglo-Normans brought the name to Ireland and in time it became in the Irish language Síle.. Continue reading
Ní fhágfaidh mé agat ach focail
lán de bhrí … I’ll only leave you words, full of meaning Continue reading
It is a remarkable fact that three writers associated with The Nation newspaper emigrated to Melbourne in the mid-1850s: Edward Hayes, Charles Gavan Duffy and Gerald Henry Supple. Professionally diverse, they shared a deep love of poetry and song. Continue reading
Today, on our morning swim together.
I watch her dive, hair streaming,
at home among the waves…
You won’t find these in the bush.
Thistles, nettles, tumbleweed,
three-cornered jacks, horehound, Continue reading
Travellers have been acknowledged as a distinct ethnic group within the Irish population. Continue reading
For many in Ireland, ‘Around the Boree Log’ was our introduction to Australia. Continue reading
Around the Boree Log is more than a source of nostalgia for parlour poetry. It is also a source that provides an insight into the language of Irish Australia in the early twentieth century. Continue reading
The poem begins with a recognition of the unbroken chain (slabhra) from the celtic Brigid to the abbess who built her own convent in Kildare, to a modern day Brigid taking care of her family, and through to the writer, the poet. Continue reading
Our Christmas Day, the day that Christ was born,
a full nine months from when the angel told
the blessed Virgin what she could expect. Continue reading
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
Continue reading
