Derek Mahon (1941–2020) is widely recognized as one of the most important Irish poets of his generation. This collection of new critical essays offers an important retrospective assessment of the nature of his poetic achievement. Bringing together many leading scholars of modern and contemporary Irish poetry, including a notable number of accomplished poet-critics, its contributors range widely across Mahon’s body of work. Their essays offer fresh considerations of the biographical, geographical and literary contexts that shaped his poetic voice. This includes paying attention not only to more familiar influences but also to previously little considered interlocutors. The stylistic and formal achievement of his voice is re-evaluated in ways that range from attentive close readings to considerations of his controversial practice of self-revision, and his engagements with music and experiments in translation. The politics of a poet often misleadingly considered apolitical are also reframed to take in the engagements of his early work through to the ecocritical commitment of his later poetry. Indeed, a notable aspect of this book is the consideration it gives to all the phases of Mahon’s career. As a whole, the collection opens up many new ways of reading and understanding Mahon’s important body of work.

Derek Mahon (1941-2020) is widely recognized as one of the most important Irish poets of his generation. This collection of new critical essays offers an important retrospective assessment of the nature of his poetic achievement. Bringing together many leading scholars of modern and contemporary Irish poetry, including a notable number of accomplished poet-critics, its contributors range widely across Mahon's body of work. Their essays offer fresh considerations of the biographical, geographical and literary contexts that shaped his poetic voice. This includes paying attention not only to more familiar influences but also to previously little considered interlocutors. The stylistic and formal achievement of his voice is re-evaluated in ways that range from attentive close readings to considerations of his controversial practice of self-revision, and his engagements with music and experiments in translation. The politics of a poet often misleadingly considered apolitical are also reframed to take in the engagements of his early work through to the ecocritical commitment of his later poetry. Indeed, a notable aspect of this book is the consideration it gives to all the phases of Mahon's career. As a whole, the collection opens up many new ways of reading and understanding Mahon's important body of work.

Derek Mahon is one of the leading poets of his time, both in Ireland and beyond, famously offering a perspective that is displaced from as much as grounded in his native country. From prodigious beginnings to prolific maturity, he has been, through thick and thin, through troubled times and other, a writer profoundly committed to the art of poetry and the craft of making verse. He has also been no-less a committed reviser of his work, believing the poem to be more than a record in verse, but a work of art never finished. This virtuoso study by Hugh Haughton provides the most comprehensive account imaginable of Mahon's oeuvre. Haughton's brilliant writing always serves and illuminates the poetry, yielding extraordinary insights on almost every page. The poetry, its revisions and reception, are the subject here, but so thorough is the approach that what is offered also amounts indirectly to an intellectual biography of the poet and with it an account of Northern Irish poetry vital to our understanding of the times.

“The most terrible disaster that one group of human beings can inflict on another is war. Wars cause misery on an indescribable scale. Yet we go on doing it to one another, generation after generation. Why? Warfare is a recurrent and universal characteristic of human existence. The mythologies of practically all peoples abound in wars and the superhuman deeds of warriors, and pre-literate communities apparently delighted in the recital of stories about battles. Since our species became literate a mere 5,000 years ago, written history has mostly been the history of wars. Thousands who knew war evidently sickened of it and dreamt of lasting peace, expressing their vision in literature and art, in philosophy and religion. They imagined Utopias freed of martial ambition and bloodshed which harked back to the Golden Age of classical antiquity, to the Christian vision of a paradise lost, and to the Arcadia of Greek and Latin poetry, so richly celebrated in the canvases of Claude and Poussin. All these things bear eloquent testimony to the human longing for peace, but they have not triumphed over our dreadfully powerful propensity to war.” —from the Introduction by Anthony Stevens In this multi-disciplinary collection of essays on the manifestations of war in poetry, fiction, drama, music and documentaries, scholars and practitioners from an international context describe the transformation of the war experience into chronicles of hope and despair, from Herodotus up to the present day.

In Poets of Modern Ireland: Text, Context, Intertext, Neil Corcoran discusses the work of Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Austin Clarke, Padraic Fallon, Louis MacNeice, and Ciaran Carson, constructing a critical account of the poets' work and putting it in the context of the contemporary debate surrounding their work. The contexts and intertexts Corcoran establishes for the study include the contentious debate between "nationalist" and "revisionist" criticism; the relationship between Irish and American poetry; the writing of "place" and its political significance; the focus on sexuality and eroticism; the persistence of religious impulse or theological content; the Irish language and the pre-occupation with forms of translation; and the foregrounding of textuality, which has affinities with, and may be usefully interpreted in relation to, some postmodern literary and cultural theory. Poets of Modern Ireland is a major contribution to the critical reception of modern poetry and focuses upon the major issues of debate in poetry criticism in Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States.

Discover this evergreen destination with the most incisive and entertaining guidebook on the market. Whether you plan to ride the length of the wonderful Wild Atlantic Way, take a foodie tour of the southwest or discover a city reborn in Belfast, The Rough Guide to Ireland will show you the ideal places to sleep, eat, drink, shop and visit along the way. - Independent, trusted reviews written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and insight, to help you get the most out of your visit, with options to suit every budget. - Full-colour maps throughout- navigate the backstreets of Dublin's Temple Bar or Derry's famous city walls without needing to get online. - Stunning images - a rich collection of inspiring colour photography. -Things not to miss - Rough Guides' rundown of Ireland's best sights and experiences. - Itineraries- carefully planned routes to help you organize your trip. -Detailed regional coverage- whether off the beaten track or in more mainstream tourist destinations, this travel guide has in-depth practical advice for every step of the way. Areas covered (all Ireland's counties) include: Dublin; the Midlands; Cavan; Mayo; Galway; Clare; Limerick; Kerry; Cork; Kilkenny; Kildare; Meath; Belfast; Antrim and Derry. Attractions include: The Giant's Causeway; Dublin's Trinity College; Titanic Belfast; the Wild Atlantic Way; Bruna Boinne; Skellig Michael; Kylemore Abbey; Bantry House; the Burren and Croagh Patrick. -Basics- essential pre-departure practical information including getting there, local transport, accommodation, food and drink, health, festivals, sports and outdoor activities, culture and etiquette, the media and more. -Background information - a Contexts chapter devoted to history, traditional music and literature,plus a handy language section and glossary. Make the Most of Your Time on Earth with The Rough Guide to Ireland.

As the first major book-length study of the poetry of Derek Mahon, this volume of fourteen essays represents a long overdue account and assessment of one of the foremost living English-language poets. In considering the central issues of Mahon's poetry--the relation between poetry and politics, the conflicting claims of art and nature, the representation of gender, the importance of place, the poet's response to violence, and his characteristic techniques of displacement, ambiguity, and intertextuality--these essays also represent a variety of critical approaches to the poetry.

This study questions the validity of John Hewitt's prominence in Northern Irish Protestant writing and asserts the need for a more accurate history of this genre. Confronting the perceived wisdoms of a highly politicized discourse, it undermines Hewitt's status within it as a matchless, acceptable Protestant for a critically re-visioned Ireland. Challenging the substance of Hewitt's self-representations as icon of cultural liberalism, radical secular dissenter, and verse-apologist for the Planter condition, this book shows that his elevation over the majority of northern Protestants is tenable only within an incomprehensive history of Northern Irish Protestant writing that diminishes other important figures. The study provides a framework for a more equitable study of Protestant voices.