The Hospital by Patrick Kavanagh is a Petrarchan sonnet about the Dublin chest hospital where he had a lung removed in 1955, and about loving ordinary things. Here’s a plain-English…

Shancoduff by Patrick Kavanagh is a 16-line poem about the cold, north-facing hills of his family’s farm near Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, which he proudly calls his Alps until passing cattle…

Paula Meehan is a prescribed poet for Leaving Cert English at Higher Level in 2027 and 2028, and three of her poems are on the Ordinary Level list. Here’s the…

Dijeridiú by Louis de Paor is a short Irish poem about listening to the didgeridoo in Australia and not quite understanding it, written during the Cork poet’s years there (1987…

Ag Tiomáint Siar (Driving West) by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill follows a drive over the Conor Pass into Dingle, where every bend of the Kerry Gaeltacht seems to have a story….

Eanáir 1991 (January 1991) by Biddy Jenkinson is a 23-line poem in Irish in which a woman refuses her lover’s kisses and touch while bombs fall, and asks that the…

Trén bhFearann Breac (Through the Speckled Land) by Colm Breathnach is a four-part poem about travelling through a country where every town has two names, one Irish and one English,…

Every Leaving Cert Irish poem has changed for June 2027 and June 2028. Here are the five common poems for Ordinary and Higher Level and the five Higher Level additional…

In April 1820 Anthony Daly, a one-eyed carpenter remembered as a captain of the Whiteboys, was hanged at Seefin near Craughwell, Co. Galway, and tradition says the blind poet Raftery…

Úirchill an Chreagáin, The Churchyard of Creggan, is Art Mac Cumhaigh’s 18th-century aisling from south Armagh and a common poem for Leaving Cert Irish, Ordinary and Higher Level, in 2027…

Glaoch Abhaile by Áine Ní Ghlinn is a 21-line poem about a young Irishman in London who tells his mother he has a cosy flat and will be home for…

Iníon (Daughter) by Áine Durkin is a 16-line Irish poem in which a mother speaks to her teenage daughter just after a row, remembers thinking her own mother a fool,…