Full Description
Ethnology draws on the mystical cry for the dead of Cathy Galvin's Irish-speaking ancestors. Within an epic narrative she reclaims place, people and language, creating a bridge between our own times and a Connemara community on the margins of Europe. Drawing on classic forms within literary and oral traditions, Ethnology becomes a love song for Connemara, witness to vivid encounters: between the living and the dead and between the poets, folklorists and ethnologists who have written about the West of Ireland for their own agendas. In her first full-length book of poetry, fragility and strength are finely balanced, focused on the ruins of an island cottage built by her great-grandfather. Here, Cathy Galvin locates both mourning, humour and joy. The poems give a vivid, original voice to the tradition of keening, of honouring the loss of those we love.
Contents
9 Introduction
11 Preface: Title Deed
Book One: Specimens
15 Island Road
16 Blunt Needles
17 I Collect
18 Boat People
19 Physiography: 1
20 Dusk
21 Women Come to Find Me
22 Hawk
23 Physiography: 2
24 Snow
25 Na Ceachtanna: Lessons
30 Adúirt mo Mhamó
31 An Ghaeltacht
32 Place Names
33 Starlings
35 From the Kitchen on the Edge
36 Back Tonight to a Deserted House: 1
37 Back Tonight to a Deserted House: 2
38 Back Tonight to a Deserted House: 3
39 Saint's Toolkit
40 Warming the Bones
41 Adúirt mo Mhamó Arís
43 Walls
44 Ethnology
Book Two: Mother
47 Waters Break
48 Rough Translation
51 What They Say to a Child
52 Guy's Hospital, London
53 Straight Lines
54 Source
55 Bríd
56 Caoineadh
58 Swell
59 Credo
Book Three: Love Songs of Connacht
63 Mythology
68 Crow
69 Body of the Boat
70 Anraith
72 Man at Rosroe
73 At the Michael Hartnett Festival
74 Folklore Collector
76 Belly of the House
77 Joe
78 The Singer's Centenary: Carna
80 Coventry Carol
81 Shells
82 Playwrights
83 Cromwellian
84 Turn to the Wall
Book Four: Son
87 Before
88 Samhain
89 After
97 Old Woman
99 Notes & Acknowledgements
111 Biographical note
