Máire Mhac an tSaoi
Máire Mhac an tSaoi is a scholar, a novelist, and one of the greatest poets in Modern Irish.
Her work includes the poetry collections Codladh an Ghaiscígh (1956), Margadh na Saoire agus Véarsaí Eile (1973), Shoa agus Dánta Eile (1999) as well as the work of scholarship Dhá Scéal Artúraíochta (1946), the novella A Bhean Óg Ón (2001) and her autobiography The Same Age as the State (2003). She worked for a while as well on the team of the English-Irish Dictionary under Professor Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
Describing her autobiography, the poet Seamus Heaney had this much to say: “There is truth to experience here, a forthrightness about passion and transgression that is thrilling and exemplary.”
Máire Mhac an tSaoi was appointed Honoury Professor in Irish Studies in National University of Ireland, Galway, in 2005.
A view of the life and times of Pearse Ferriter, and especially the part played by Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork. A new work by one of the greatest poets of our time, and an unusual book which casts the light of scholarship on the lives and the minds of the Gaelic gentry in the time of great change in the 17th Century. History and folklore are combined with a detailed account of the poet's milieu and an insight into literary and social conventions of the time. The author's detective work succeeds in adding blood and meat to the bare bones of history. “This Beautifully illustrated book concerns a romantic interlude in the shared history of early 17th-century Ireland and England. At the heart of the matter is a graceful syllabic poem in Irish by Piaras Feiritéar (1653), accomplished poet of Catholic Old-English stock in West Kerry. Feiritéar wrote it in honour of Meg Russell, the ógh Ghallda or “foreign girl” identified therein as a relation of the contemporary earl of Bedford. This was Francis Russell, the 4th earl. Máire Mhac an tSaoi makes the case that she was in fact a daughter of Francis Russell. She details the circumstances in which a poem in Irish by a person of “middling rank” might conceivably have been presented to an earl’s daughter born and raised in England.” —Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, The Irish Times "An Irish-language book about a remarkable Irish woman written by a remarkable Irish woman". —Marc Coleman, Sunday Independent A link to a review in the Sunday Independent A link to an article about the author on the Irish Studies site, NUI Galway
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Máire Mhac an tSaoi€10.00
"THE 10 BEST POETRY COLLECTIONS SINCE THE TURN OF THE CENTURY!" — Comhar Rilke has found a fitting translator in Máire Mhac an tSaoi. Not only does she translate the accomplishment and the ambition of the original German poem, she also stimulates the poetic language of Irish in a way that shows once again her linguistic and imaginative abilities. This book will be appreciated by readers of Rilke as much as by readers of Máire Mhac an tSaoi.
A prize-winning jewel of a novel from the pen of one of Ireland's finest poets, telling the story of a man close to the poet's own heart - Garret FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond (1335-1398), chieftain, viceroy, poet, and a man who loved women - the man baptized by the Irish as 'Gearóid Iarla'. "An illustration of the desires, heartbreaks, sufferings, and of the humanity of nobles and commoners. That is Máire Mhac an tSaoi's special gift, the gift of imagining... She has complete mastery of her craft." -Tadhg Ó Dúshláine, RTÉ RnaG. “Is seoid drithleach atá sa leabhar seo. Tá cur síos ann atá chomh beo, chomh braiteach, chomh lán de chroí is de nádúr, le haon rud atá léite agam le fada an lá, in aon teanga. Is fada ó bhraith mé chomh gar do shuíomh agus do phearsana staire. Anuas air sin tá giotaí comhrá agus cainte ann atá chomh blasta sin nach bhfuil aon tsamhail agam orthu ach mar a bheadh gráinní salainn ar an lus súgach, a bhaineann geit phléisiúrtha asat agus a chuireann fonn ort a thuilleadh a bhlaiseadh. Tá daonnacht agus grinneas agus dea-stíl scríbhneoireachta sa leabhar seo chomh maith le haon rud atá scríofa.” —Liam Mac Cóil "Léiriú ar mhianta, ar bhriseadh croí, ar fhulaingt, ar dhaonnacht mhóruaisle agus ghnáthdhaoine. Sin bua Mháire Mhac an tSaoi, bua na samhlaíochta.... Tá sí ina máistir go hiomlán ar an gceird." —Tadhg Ó Dúshláine, Comhluadar na Leabhar, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. "Éiríonn le Máire Mhac an tSaoi an cúlra staire a shníomh isteach san úrscéal ar bhealach an-chaolchúiseach." — Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail, Comhluadar na Leabhar, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. "Mac an tSaoi has not only written a beautiful and natural ode to a forgotten era of Irish life, an ode characterised by its humanity and poetic language but she has also usurped some of the more recent traditions that circumscribed the image or representation of Gearóid Iarla." — Micheál Ó hAodha, Dublin Review of Books Review of Scéal Ghearóid Iarla ar an Dublin Review of Books Scéal Ghearóid Iarla ar Clubleabhar.com Videos Máire Mhac an tSaoi ag léamh as Scéal Ghearóid Iarla Agallamh le Máire Mhac an tSaoi faoi Scéal Ghearóid Iarla More books by Máire Mhac an tSaoi Cérbh í Meg Russell? Scéal Ghearóid Iarla available as an eBook for the Kindle (amazon)