13.12.18

Abstract

This piece takes the form of a long experimental poem in three parts followed by a ‘guidebook’ which is referenced throughout so that it can be read alongside. The poem is a heteroglossic exploration, using fictional voices and fragmented texts, of the blurred visibility (the ‘weighted silence’ as I have called it) of women in Irish history and literature, and an attempt to creatively problematise that omission. The first section begins in the mythological beginnings of Ireland, the second takes place in the first years of the hypermasculine ‘Irish State’, and the third occurs in the present. The various voices clash and coincide, speak over and beyond each other, and rise together in a palimpsest of re-articulation.