Frank Sewell – författare

Recently, chapters on individual Irish-language authors have formed part of publications regarding modern Irish art and culture in general. Such chapters are welcome but they have excited the curiosity of readers to the degree that longer, more detailed works are now required to put writing in Irish into perspective. In this study of four modern poets (two each from two generations), Sewell attempts to illustrate not only the accumulative but the transformative nature of tradition. Chapters 1 and 2 turn from the mid-20th century master Seán Ó Riordáin to the contemporary poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh because the comparison and contrast highlights significant aspects of the amazing development of Irish poetry and, indeed, society in the period. Here, importantly, the word 'development' is meant in a neutral way - the image used is that of a zig-zag movement in the pattern of the continuing Irish tradition. Chapter 3 returns to the slightly earlier, major Irish-language poet Máirtín Ó Direáin. In doing so, it returns home (from the internationalism of the previous chapter on Searcaigh) to Ireland - a major focus and concern for the more solely traditionalist Ó Direáin. This switch back (in time, geography, social mores or outlook) fits and illustrates Sewell's concept of the zig-zag movement of a country's culture as it proceeds from generation to generation. The positioning, therefore, has a thematic purpose. The fourth and final chapter focuses on the contemporary poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill who has managed to synthesise tradition and modernity (central concerns of this book) and who, in doing so, has become the current trail-blazer of Irish poetry in either language.

The Oxford History of the Irish Book is a major series that charts one of the most venerable book cultures in Europe, from the earliest manuscript compilations to the flourishing book industries of the late twentieth century. For the first time, it offers a history of the Irish book as a created object situated in a world of communications, trade, transport, power, and money, and examines the ways in which books have both reflected and influenced social, political, and intellectual formations in Ireland. It is an important project for the understanding of Ireland's written and printed heritage, and is by its nature of profound cross-cultural significance, embracing as it does all the written and printed traditions and heritages of Ireland and placing them in the global context of a worldwide interest in book histories.Volume II, with eighty-two chapters by seventy leading commentators on, and participants in, Irish book history, spans approximately 450 years of Irish-language book production, distribution, and reception. It begins with the 1567 publication of John Carswell's Gaelic version of the Book of Common Order and follows the story of the printed book and journalism in Irish into the twenty-first century, the internet, ebooks, and other formats. The volume covers religious publications from the sixteenth to eighteenth century, competing versions of Irish history, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century texts which reflected an 'antiquarian' interest in Ireland and its culture, ongoing literary production in the nineteenth century, printers, publishers, literacy, books, and volumes produced by learned societies interested in Irish language and culture, Gaelic Revival publications, post-Independence literature and its publishers, journalism from the late eighteenth to twenty-first century, lexicography, nonfiction, educational publishing, folklore and place lore, translation, the contribution of scholars from outside Ireland, publishing in the Irish diaspora, typography, book design and illustration, the reception of Irish-language texts (from censorship to bestsellers), book collection, and, finally, sources for the study of Irish book history. This major study of Irish-language book history provides a useful resource for readers interested in Irish history, book history, Irish Studies, the Irish language, Celtic Studies, Translation Studies, linguistics, post-colonialism, and the Irish diaspora.

The first bilingual volume of poems by leading Irish twentieth-century poet Seán Ó RíordáinIn the mid-twentieth century, a new generation of poets writing in Irish emerged, led by the young Seán Ó Ríordáin, among others. Ó Ríordáin’s work has stood the test of time well, and he continues to engage today’s Irish readers and writers. This well-rounded selection of poems brings most of Ó Ríordáin’s works to English-language readers for the first time. The poems appear in their original Irish alongside English translations by some of Ireland's leading poets. Also included for the first time in English is Ó Ríordáin’s essay What Is Poetry?, considered an extraordinary touchstone of critical insight for poets and literary commentators.The volume reflects Ó Ríordáin’s seven main concerns: poetry and its place in the artist’s life; the plural self; the relationship between the individual and society; gender relations; the nature of animals; Ireland, its language and culture; and mortality.

Cathal Ó Searcaigh is one of the leading Irish poets of the past twenty-five years. His poetry is widely published in the original Irish and in translation. This, however, is the first collection of critical essays dealing with his work. Gathered here are eight essays by Irish, American and Japanese writers; an interview with the poet himself; original poems; and previously unpublished photographs and translations. The collection's international array of both contributors and perspectives reflects the breadth and scope of Ó Searcaigh's work, and also provides an indication of the high esteem in which his work is held.Remarkably diverse issues and themes are explored in Ó Searcaigh's poetry. These include language, place, religion, sexuality, tradition, modernity, and also the influence of other poets from Ireland and beyond. For those unfamiliar with the poet's work, this volume provides a useful introduction to his poetry; and for those already familiar with his writing, each essay offers new readings of, and fresh returns to, favourite Ó Searcaigh poems, some of which are key texts in the contemporary Irish literature scene.