In 1896, Patrick Pearse joined Douglas Hyde’s Gaelic League, which had as its principal aim ‘the necessity for de-Anglicising Ireland’ – the title of an address Hyde delivered in 1892. Pearse believed passionately that the… Read the Article »The superiority of Irish literature
On 10 September 1923, the Irish Free State – not even one full year in existence – joined the League of Nations. On that day, a delegation led by William T Cosgrave, president of the… Read the Article »Ireland joins the league of nations
Renowned Irish academic Maurice Harmon, for many years professor of Anglo-Irish literature at UCD, was a frequent contributor to Studies about contemporary Irish poetry and died last October. The below extract is from an article… Read the Article »Thomas Kinsella as a nature poet
It is a truism of Seamus Heaney criticism that the poet had a very strong sense of place, and particularly a very strong sense of home. In the presentation speech given before Heaney received his… Read the Article »On Heaney, home and homecoming
Kavanagh wrote an important essay in Studies in 1959. It gives an account of what he called his ‘hegira’, his re-birth on the banks of the Grand Canal, as he recovered from his cancer treatment. It was in… Read the Article »The re-birth of Patrick Kavanagh
Eavan Boland (1944-2020) was one of the most important Irish poets of the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Her influence on a whole generation of women writers was immense, both through her own poetical craft… Read the Article »Eavan Boland on women poets in Ireland