Death Of An Irishwoman, By Michael Hartnett

This week’s Irish poem comes in at number 86 in the top 100 Irish poems list.

A very powerful poem in which Michael Hartnett says goodbye to his grandmother. In ‘Death of an Irishwoman’ Hartnett talks about his appreciation for his Gaelic grandmother and although she lived a simple life he feels guilty for not being around more, “I loved her from the day she died.”

His grandmother died in 1965. In 1974 Hartnett vowed to write only in Irish and moved from urban life in Dublin back to rural west Limerick.nbsp;

This lasted over 10 years where he did in fact stay true to his word.

He moved back to Dublin in 1984 and returned to writing in English with Inchicore Haiku (1985), a book that deals with the turbulent events in his personal life over the previous few years.

So this poem marks a significant turning point in the poet’s life.

Other notes:

Púcas and darkfaced men – This is the Irish(Gaelic) term for Pookas, Hobgoblins and Fairies. This has no racial reference. It is more referring to the devil so to speak.

DEATH OF AN IRISHWOMAN

Brigid Halpin’s cottage in Camas as it is today. The photograph is by Dermot Lynch.

I loved her from the day she died.

Death of an Irishwoman is Michael Hartnett’s elegy for his grandmother, Bridget Halpin, an Irish speaker who lived in a small cottage at Camas in west Limerick and died in 1965. As a boy he spent a lot of time in her house, and hearing her talk with her neighbours gave him his first feel for the Irish language.

The poem opens by admitting how the modern world might see her: poor, old fashioned and full of superstition. Then it turns that view on its head. Her pride, her toughness in hard times and her belief in the night world of the púca become a kind of dignity that the world around her no longer understood.

The ending ties her to a whole way of life, from country dances and old songs to a troubled history and the Irish language itself. When she dies, that world slips a little further into silence. The poem was published in A Farewell to English (The Gallery Press, 1975).

The poem is still in copyright, so I have not printed it here. You will find it in Michael Hartnett’s Collected Poems (The Gallery Press).

I hope you enjoyed my notes on this powerful Irish poem. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly dose of Irish where I share a new Irish poem every Friday. You can subscribe here.

Further reading: Exploring Michael Hartnett’s earlier life.