I have been on a bit of an Irish poems streak so to speak in recent weeks. It started with a lovely 200-year-old Irish poem that many of you enjoyed and then followed up with my list of the top 10 Irish poems.
While many of you enjoyed the top 10 Irish poems I did get a lot of requests for more.
So with thanks to the Irish Times, I have this even better list of Ireland’s top 100 Irish poems!
I plan to include a random Irish poem from this list every week on my weekly dose of Irish. Additionally, it will be published weekly as an article. So in 100 weeks time, you will have hopefully read every one of these Irish poems.
I will also be reading these poems with you. And I look forward to taking the journey.
Some you will love and some you will not. One thing is for sure it is an extremely diverse list of Irish poets speaking about many topics in the Irish poems.
Be sure to comment below if you have any favourite Irish poems.
As the weeks go by please come back to this list and see Irish poems I have added.
You can of course also subscribe to my free weekly dose of Irish where I can send it straight to your inbox. Join here.
Ireland’s Top 100 Favourite Irish Poems
- The Lake Isle of Innisfree, by W. B. Yeats
- He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, by W. B. Yeats
- Mid-Term Break, by Seamus Heaney
- The Song of Wandering Aengus, by W. B. Yeats
- On Raglan Road, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Easter, 1916, by W. B. Yeats
- When You are Old, by W.B. Yeats
- Canal Bank Walk, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Stony Grey Soil, by Patrick Kavanagh
- The Stolen Child, by W. B. Yeats
- An Old Woman of the Roads, by Padraic Colum
- In Memory Of My Mother, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Sailing to Byzantium, by W. B. Yeats
- The Wild Swans at Coole, by W. B. Yeats
- The Deserted Village, by Oliver Goldsmith
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde
- September 1913, by W. B. Yeats
- Digging, by Seamus Heaney
- A Christmas Childhood, by Patrick Kavanagh
- The Wayfarer, by Padraic Pearse
- Advent, by Patrick Kavanagh
- I See His Blood upon the Rose, by Joseph Mary Plunkett
- The Great Hunger, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Thomas McDonagh, by Francis Ledwidge
- The Mother, by Padraic Pearse
- The Planter’s Daughter, by Austin Clarke
- Caoineadh Á i Laoghaire, by Eibhlin Dubh Ni Chonaill
- Among Schoolchildren, by W. B. Yeats
- The Second Coming, by W. B. Yeats
- Inniskeen Road, July Evening, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin, `Erected to the Memory of Mrs Dermot O’Brien’, by Patrick Kavanagh
- An Irish Airman Foresees his Death, by W. B. Yeats
- Clearances, by Seamus Heaney
- Epic, by Patrick Kavanagh
- Another September, by Thomas Kinsella
- The Lost Heifer, by Austin Clarke
- A Disused Shed in Co Wexford, by Derek Mahon
- June, by Francis Ledwidge
- Snow, by Louis MacNeice
- Personal Helicon, by Seamus Heaney
- Mise Raifteiri an File, by Antoine Ó Raifteiri
- Mirror in February, by Thomas Kinsella
- Cuirt a Mhean, by Brian Merriman
- Cill Chais, by Aodhagán Ó Rathaille(A poem in Irish)
- The Fiddler of Dooney, by W. B. Yeats
- The Blackbird of Derrycairn, by Austin Clarke
- Blackberry-Picking, by Seamus Heaney
- Spraying the Potatoes, by Patrick Kavanagh
- A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man, by Flann O’Brien
- Anois Teacht an Earraigh, by Antoine Ó Raifteiri
- The Circus Animals’ Desertion, by W. B. Yeats
- The Fisherman, by W. B. Yeats
- Ecce Puer, by James Joyce
- Incantata, by Paul Muldoon
- Cúl an Tí By Seán Ó Ríordáin – Irish And English Version
- To a Child Dancing in the Wind, by W. B. Yeats
- The Tower, by W. B. Yeats
- Night Feed, by Eavan Boland
- She Moved Through the Fair, by Padraic Colum
- Death of a Naturalist, by Seamus Heaney
- Requiem for the Croppies, by Seamus Heaney
- Autumn Journal, by Louis MacNeice
- Dublin, by Louis MacNeice
- Dark Rosaleen, by James Clarence Mangan
- The Meeting of the Waters, by Thomas Moore
- Bean Sleibhe ag Caoineadh a Mhac, by Padraig Mac Piarais
- The Ballad of Father Gilligan, by W. B. Yeats
- Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland, by W. B. Yeats
- The Fairies, by William Allingham
- Pangur Ban, Anonymous
- Follower, by Seamus Heaney
- Padraig Ó Conaire, Gaelic Storyteller by F.R. Higgins
- To My Darling Daughter Betty, by Tom Kettle
- The Fool, by Padraic Pearse
- The Splendour of God, by Joseph Mary Plunkett
- Sheep and Lambs, by Katharine Tynan
- Broken Dreams, by W. B. Yeats
- Down by the Sally Gardens, by W. B. Yeats
- Under Ben Bulben, by W. B. Yeats
- Valparaiso, by Padraig de Brun
- A Cradle Song, by Padraic Colum
- A Drover, Padraic Colum
- Woodman, Patrick Deeley
- Christmas Day, Paul Durcan
- Going Home to Mayo, by Paul Durcan
- Death of an Irishwoman, by Michael Hartnett
- Postscript, by Seamus Heaney
- Station Island, by Seamus Heaney
- Father and Son, by F.R. Higgins
- For Rita With Love, by Pat Ingoldsby
- Pegasus, by Patrick Kavanagh
- An Bonnan Bui, by Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Ghunna
- ‘Tis the last rose of summer, by Thomas Moore
- An tEarrach Thiar, by Mairtin Ó Direain
- Oiche Nollag na mBan, by Sean Ó Riordain
- Mise Éire, by Padraig Mac Piarais
- The Host of the Air, by W. B. Yeats
- Leda and the Swan, by W. B. Yeats
- A Prayer for my Daughter, by W. B. Yeats
- All Legendary Obstacles, by John Montague
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Maureen Ferriter
Saturday 13th of February 2021
I was in a very small, wee pub in Ballyferriter and an Irishman closed the doors and songs were sung. And then a man started to recite a poem and we all were very quiet. The first words were,”‘Twas a small hotel in a Dublin”...the repeated stanza that I recall was “Are you the Michael Farrely’” I’d love to get the words to that poem. Does anyone know of it? Maureen Ferriter ‘ ‘
autumnaljourney
Saturday 28th of November 2020
I know "On Raglan Road" by Patrick Kavanagh. It's also a beautiful song found on the album "Tears of Stone."