Recent Irish Poetry and the Slightly Magical

An in-person public lecture by Trinity Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow Prof Lucy McDiarmid (Montclair State University) organised by the School of English in partnership with the Trinity Long Room Hub. Recent Irish poems feature a pig that says ‘thank you,’ a disappearing street, an excised tongue that sings, a mummified cat, many talking cats, a neoliberal Jesus, water that isn’t from Lourdes but might be useful anyway, and a silent man in a cell who talks through ferns. Are these entities actual, fantasies, dreams, the mischief of a pucca, acts of God, or pranks? – That would be an ontological matter...and the subject of this talk. Lucy McDiarmid is the author or editor of eight books. Her scholarly interest in cultural politics, especially quirky, colorful, suggestive episodes, is exemplified by Poets and the Peacock Dinner: the literary history of a meal (2014) and The Irish Art of Controversy (2005). Her recent work focuses on two entirely distinct topics: At Home in the Revolution: what women said and did in 1916 (2015) and Recent Irish Poetry and the Slightly Magical (completed ms.). She is a former fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and of the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Her reviews appear in the TLS and the Irish Times. At the Trinity Long Room Hub she will be consulting the manuscripts of Leland Bardwell’s poems as part of a study of non-standard, unconventional, ‘odd’ Irish writers of the last 100 years. At Montclair State University she holds the Marie Frazee-Baldassarre Professorship in the English Department. Register here. Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: tlrh@tcd.ie