Eilean ni chuilleanain

1. Eileannichuilleanain 6th YEAR POETRY

2. Street • This short poem tells the story of a man who “fell in love” with a girl when he saw her passing in the street. On one occasion he follows the girl home. • The girl in question is a butcher’s daughter and the man would see her walking from the shop along the street. • She wore a butcher’s knife on her belt: “Dangling a knife on a ring on her belt”. The knife would be bloodied from her work and drops of blood would fall on the pavement.

3. Street • One day he decided to follow her as she made her way to the “shambles” or slaughterhouse. • The door at the back “stood half-open” and inside the girl’s shoes were placed neatly at the foot of the stairs. • Red moon-shaped marks were visible on each of the steps, darkest at the bottom and fading as they reached the top. • It seems the girl’s feet were bloodied as she climbed the stairs and every step she took left a red outline of her heel.

4. THEME: A strong, assertive woman • The girl in the poem is an interesting character. She is doing a job that would normally be associated with a man – slaughtering and butchering animals. • The knife that hangs from her belt dripping blood upon the pavement is a very masculine symbol, something that represented power and strength. • In what seems to be an otherwise very normal street, this girl is a striking character.

5. THEME: A strong, assertive woman • When the man follows her back home we see another side to this strong, assertive woman. • He sees her shoes neatly arranged at the bottom of the steps that are immaculately clean. It is an image of domesticity, something more traditionally feminine. • However, the bloodied footprints on the step are a reminder of the work she has been doing. • That they fade towards the top suggests that she is leaving behind one world that she inhabits – the masculine world of the butchers – and entering the more feminine.

6. THEME: Love • The poem suggests that love is something that often happens locally. We fall in love with people we see in our daily lives. • We might imagine that the man has watched this girl passing by on many occasions. Perhaps he lives or works on the same street as her. • To him she appears a fascinating character, the knife hanging from her waist, dripping blood on to the ground. • Perhaps he is too shy to speak to her, intimidated by the power she displays striding past in her butcher’s gear.

7. THEME: Love • Some readers feel that the poem hints at the darker side of love and attraction. • The images of the knife and blood in the poem hint at violence and the fact that the man follows the girl, seemingly silently, back home down a winding path behind the slaughter house is quite unsettling. • We never quite know what his intentions are and we never find out if the man followed her into the house or left.

8. LANGUAGE Imagery: • There is something cinematic about the story of the poem. The poet focuses on the girl’s trousers and her belt and then zooms into the drops of blood on the pavement. • We are then following the path down to the back of the shambles where we are brought to a “door half-open”. We move inside the door and are presented with an image of the stairs with the shoes neatly arranged and the blood marks on the steps. • The images are intriguing and suggest much about the girl and the world she inhabits.

9. The Bend in the Road • The poem describes a spot along a road where the poet once stopped when her child felt sick. • There was a bend in the road where they stopped and a tall house cast a shadow over the car. There was also a tree shaped like a “cat’s tail”. • Twelve years have passed since this occurred. Since that day, however, this particular spot on the road has been remembered as the place where their child felt sick “on the way to the lake”

10. The Bend in the Road • Though the road is still “as silent as ever it was on that day” some things have change since then. • The child has grown taller than the poet and her husband. The strange looking tree has also grown and the house is covered with “green creeper” • This causes the poet to think about the passage of time and all that has happened since they first stopped at this particular spot.

11. The Bend in the Road • She thinks about “all that went on in those years” and about the people who have since passed away, their “absences” • She remembers how some of these people suffered long illnesses before they died. Their sickness seemed to wrap itself around their bodies: “we saw them wrapped and sealed by sickness” • These people looked so fragile when ill, and the space they occupied seemed hollow and insubstantial: “the airy space they took up”

12. The Bend in the Road • They were so weak that their sleep seemed too heavy a burden for them. Rather than revitalising them, sleep stole the energy of these fragile beings: “the piled weight of sleep/We knew they could not carry too long” • The poet suggests that all that happened over the twelve years and those who have passed away since then are somehow present in this particular place along the road. • She imagines these events and people to be “Piled high” here, “softly packed” together “like the air” or a single cloud floating in a “perfect sky”. The poet can sense their “presence” in this particular place.

13. THEME: Nature • The natural world features as a friendly and gentle presence in this poem. • The tree near the house seems to wait with the family as they wait for their child to feel better. Over the years the poet has noticed how this tree has grown taller just as her child has. • The image of the cloud floating in “a perfect sky” is similarly caring and peaceful. The poet imagines that the collected events of the past twelve years and all those who have departed are gathered together “like one cumulus cloud/ in a perfect sky”

14. THEME: Memory • The poem highlights how certain places and events remain with us and take on an importance over time. • The rather unremarkable place along the road where they stopped that day has always been remembered by the family as “the place” where their child was sick. Each time the poet passes it she thinks of all that has happened since that day and all those who have since died. • The poem also describes how the faces of those we know and love remain with us after they have passes away. Though they are physically absent from our lives they are “never long absent from thought”

15. LANGUAGE Atmosphere/Mood: • The atmosphere of the poem is very tranquil and peaceful. We know this because the road is described as “silent” and “nothing” moved. The description of the cloud in the “perfect sky” and the “green creeper” covering the house adds to this sleepy atmosphere. Metaphor and Simile: • The poet uses a simile when she likens the shape of the tree to a “cat’s tail”. • She also uses a simile to describe the way the events of the past and all those who have died are present in this particular place. They are “wrapped lightly, like one cumulus cloud/ In a perfect sky”.

16. Questions • Describe the place where the family stopped on the way to the lake. • How has the place been remembered by the family since that day? • What has changed and what has remained the same since they first stopped there? • What impression of the natural world does the poem offer?

17. To Niall Woods and Xenya … • The poet addresses her son and his Russian wife on the day of their wedding. The poem features many references to traditional stories, especially fairy tales: • There is a reference to a story in which a poor mother sends her eldest son off to seek his fortune and offers him a full loaf with her curse or half a loaf and her blessing. He takes the full loaf and receives his mother’s curse. Later, the youngest son sets out after him to assist him and he leaves home with half a loaf and his mother’s blessing. The tale ends with the youngest son marrying a beautiful princess. • The poet mentions the story of Sleeping Beauty.

18. To Niall Woods and Xenya … • She refers to a Russian fairy tale about an emperor whose apple trees bear golden apples. Every night one apple is stolen from the tree by the Firebird, a magical glowing bird. The emperor’s son Ivan begs to be allowed catch the bird and is finally given permission. The story ends with Ivan catching the bird and falling in love with a beautiful princess. • The “King of Ireland’s Son and the Enchanter’s Daughter” concerns an Irish folk tale about a Prince who meets an enchanter. The enchanter tells the prince that he must accept a challenge or else suffer great misfortune. Whilst performing the challenge the prince falls in love with the enchanter’s daughter. He successfully completes the tasks set and marries the daughter.

19. What is it about? • The poet associates the couple’s marriage with these stories. She suggests that marriage is the beginning of an adventure or an exciting journey together. • In keeping with these tales she says that a signal will appear in the sky to tell them when to set out on their journey: “When … you both see the same star/Pitching its tent on the point of the steeple – / That is the time”. • She also tells them they will have her support when they do get married: “With half a loaf and your mother’s blessing”

20. What is it about? • The poet tells the couple to be adventurous and not be afraid to journey away from what is familiar: “Leave behind the places that you knew”. • Anything they leave behind will be rediscovered, particularly in the stories she references. These are the tales they will encounter again, possibly when they have children and tell them bedtime stories. • The poet imagines that a character from the fairy tales assist them in their task, coming to them when they need him and telling the stories associated with their different traditions: “When the cat wakes up he will speak in Irish and Russian/ And every night he will tell you a different tale”

21. What is it about? • This cat is familiar with many tales but the poet says it won’t know of a story from the Bible that she feels is relevant to the couple. • The poet does not have time to tell them exactly what happens to Ruth, however, she does tell them that Ruth was brave, honest and willing to place her trust in strangers. This is another story with a “happily ever after” ending. • As such, the story has a lot in common with the other fairy tales mentioned in the poem, only the protagonist is female. • The poet is probably drawing a link between Ruth who travelled far from her home to find love and her son’s wife who has also found her home in a very different culture. It is perhaps the poet’s way of welcoming Xenya into the family and telling her that has the family’s love and support.

22. THEME: Love • There is a sense throughout the poem that love is something fantastical and magical. The poet uses the world of fairy tales to show this wonder and magic. • The different stories the poet mentions suggest a number of things about love. Each story involves a character journeying far from home and overcoming ordeals. Love is seen as a reward for their noble efforts. • Love is shown to come to those who adventure and persevere.

23. THEME: Love • The stories are also a celebration of the romantic notion that love is forever. Each story ends with a marriage and a promise that they couple “lived happily ever after” • The different stories also involve characters leaving their parents and embarking on their own independent lives. • In this way the poem is also a celebration of the poet’s love for her son and her hope that his new life will bring him joy.

24. THEME: Strong, assertive women • Many of Ni Chuilleanain’s poems feature strong, assertive women. In ‘Street’, for example, the poet describes the butcher’s daughter striding down the street with her bloodied knife dangling from her belt. • ‘To Niall Woods’ also celebrates strong women. The poet makes specific reference to the Book of Ruth, which describes a woman journeying far from home to begin a new life. • There is an implied comparison between Ruth and Xenya, a suggestion that she has been brave to travel far from her native country and put her faith and trust in the poet’s family.

25. LANGUAGE Imagery: • The poem contains a number of fantastical images that lend the poem a magical feel. • There is the image of the “star/ pitching its tent on the point of the steeple”. • There is also the image of the cat telling the couple different stories each night.

26. Questions • How does the poem give a sense that marriage is an adventure? • Why do you think the poet urges the couple to “Leave behind the places” that they knew? • What values does the poem celebrate?

27. The Magdalene Laundries • The Magdalene Laundries were a series of asylums that existed in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (as recently as 1996) for so-called ‘fallen women’. • Inmates were required to work in the laundries attached to the asylum for no pay. The asylums, administered by nuns, were initially focused on reforming prostitutes but gradually their remit expanded to include women and girls who were deemed sexually promiscuous, who became pregnant before marriage or who simply proved troublesome for their parents. These women were held in the asylums against their will. • Living conditions were harsh, often prison-like and though women were not legally imprisoned, leaving was not easy. Many women remained in the laundries for years, decades or even for their entire lives.

28. Background • This poem relates to a particular incident that took place in 1993. An order of Dublin nuns sold a portion of their land to a developer, who intended to build apartments on the site. His workmen found the remains of 155 women, all former Magdalene laundry inmates, all buried in unmarked graves on the convent grounds. • The women’s remains were eventually cremated and reburied in Glasnevin cemetery. Ni Chuilleanain read this poem at the reburial ceremony.

29. Translation • The poet describes Glasnevin cemetery on the day of the reburial. The gravediggers have been busy: • A shallow grave has been cut or cored into the earth. • The cremated remains have been placed in this score, which has been filled with soil. • The soil has been ‘frayed and ‘sifted’. It has been loosened by the gravediggers’ tools so it looks like a fine dust. • The gravediggers ‘even the score’, tamping down the soil to make the new grave level with the grass that surrounds it.

30. Translation • The identities of the reburied Magdalenes are unknown. Yet the poet assumes that they include women from every county in Ireland because women from all over Ireland served in these laundries. • The poet thinks of the Magdalenes’ years of confinement, imagining them at work in their laundry rooms: • She imagines the ‘stone drains’ around the edges of the room into which dirty water would disappear. • She imagines the steam that must have emanated from the laundry’s sinks and irons, picturing little clouds of steam shimmering through the room. • She pictures how steam must have ‘danced’ and ‘giggled’, we are reminded here of the sizzling sound made by steam rising which might resemble a giggle of snigger.

31. “The high relief of a glance … ” • In a complex turn of phrase, the poet refers to “the high relief of a glance”. Here Ni Chuilleanain is referring to a holy image, perhaps of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, that’s placed ‘high’ on the laundry wall. • This image is meant to provide the Magdalenes with “relief” as it gazes down on them as they work. Its “glance” is meant to offer them hope and the consolation of religious faith. But the image’s colours have been “bleached” away by the “white light” pouring through the laundry’s windows and its eyes have been erased or “blinded”, no doubt from the steam and chemicals rising from the sinks.

32. “The high relief of a glance … ” • This image is crucial because religion is supposed to act as a source of support, strength and consolation. But in the case of the Magdalenes it has made their lives hell; locking them up because they were deemed sexually immoral. • The “blinded” religious image powerfully suggests this. Christians are supposed to help those in need. But in this instance a Christian society was not only blindly indifferent to the Magdalene’s suffering but also viewed their imprisonment as a good state of affairs.

33. Returning to the soil • The Magdalenes’ remains are described as “ridges under the veil” of earth. A layer of topsoil has been placed over their freshly dug resting place. But the covering is not exactly level, leaving a “veil” of earth ridged, bumpy and uneven. • In a typically vivid and unusual image, Ni Chuilleanain describes the cremated remains spreading through the earth of the cemetery. She describes the remains of each woman “shifting” through the soil as they go “searching for their parents”. • We can imagine each set of remains moving like a worm of dust and ashes through Glasnevin, seeking to make contact with the remains of family also buried there.

34. Returning to the soil • This heartbreaking image highlights the fact that the Magadalenes were originally buried in unmarked graves but their reburial is also anonymous. They have all been cremated together and buried in a single collective resting place. • This is why the poet imagines their remains travelling through the earth in an effort to take root in their family’s burial plot. They would find their “names”, they would lie beneath the headstone with their names.

35. Working Conditions • The poet focuses again on the working conditions that existed in the laundries. She imagines water in its sinks draining away, leaving behind worn and dirty bars of soap that resemble “rotten teeth”. • She imagines how “every grasp seemed melted”, how the Magdalenes must have felt that their hands were melting from being immersed all day in boiling hot water. • She imagines one particular inmate suddenly protesting in the middle of a working day, her voice lough enough to heard over the laundry’s ever present background noise.

36. A Magdalene speaks out • One her protest has “begun” she will not be silenced “until” she feels her point has been made. • We can imagine her repeating again and again that she is not evil or fallen but an ordinary woman deserving of respect, from an institution purporting to be one of love and charity. • This repeated “note” fills not only the laundry room but the woman’s own mind, what the poet memorably describes as “every pocket of her skull”.

37. Helping the Magdalenes now The poet calls on her listeners to “assist them now”: • She wants us to remember their plight, their confinement and the terrible treatment they received and to retell their story. • By doing so we give a voice to these voiceless victims. • It will be “as if” that one particular Magdalene had spoke out all those years ago and we can somehow hear her protest even today. • If her protest is “sharp as an infant’s cry”, it will be impossible for the world to ignore the terrible injustice that she suffered.

38. Closing lines • The poem’s closing six lines switch powerfully to the first person, as if that one Magdalene was speaking to us directly, her voice reaching out beyond the grave. • According to Ni Chuilleanain, the Magdalene would speak above all about language, specifically how words were used to hurt her throughout her life. • The Magdalene here is probably referring to words like ‘fallen woman’, ‘whore’ and ‘Magdalene’ itself, words that branded her as something unworthy and less than human, which was exactly how she was treated. • These terms covered like a “baked crust” of dirt. These terms of abuse grew inside her like a “parasite”, they affected her life like an evil “spell”.

39. Closing lines • Yet if we retell their story, remember the great wrong done to these women, perhaps in death their good name might be restored – “washed clean of idiom”. • The poem concludes with a wonderfully strange image. The Magdalenes’ remains lie in “earth sifted to dust” but the Magdalene describes how her soul and the souls of her fellow victims, come rising from the grave as a great cloud of steam. • The image of the Magdalenes’ spirits rising from the grave as gusts of steam is an extraordinary one. For decades, Irish society condemned the Magdalenes to work with steam for day after day. The poet imagines that very steam returning to haunt us, issuing up in great gusts from the grave.

40. Closing lines • As the spirit rises into the air (“I rise and forget”) she can finally let go of the guilt, anger and shame that defined her existence. It’s as if the ceremonial reburial brings a measure of peace to her soul. • Or maybe this forgetting is a reminder that we can’t forget. Our society must try to understand how this terrible system was created and tolerated. We must seek justice and compensation for former inmates who are still alive and we must restore the good names of those who have already passed on. • The Magdalenes will be permitted to “forget” the injustices they suffered at the hands of the Irish state. But the people of Ireland never will. They must remain a part of our history, of the conversation Irish people have about their country and their society.

41. THEME: Irish History • ‘Translation’ reveals Ni Chuilleanain’s deep concern with Irish history’s victims, those who suffered so cruelly in the past. It’s a poem that powerfully reminds us of the great hardships inflicted on the Magdalenes by the Irish Church and State. • We are reminded of how the Magdalenes were robbed of their freedom, how they endured terrible working conditions and how they were forced to slave all day in a prison-like laundry, where the “hissing” of steam was ever-present. • We are reminded of the days they spent scrubbing with “rotten teeth” of soap, their hands in agony from constant immersion in boiling water. We are reminded of how they lost their identities, in some cases the names their families gave them.

42. THEME: Irish History • We are reminded of how these poor women were considered so unworthy they were buried without dignity, their bodies simply stashed away without ceremony. • Above all, however, we are reminded of how the Magdalenes were scarred by the words used against them. The words are described almost as weapons that ground down their minds and spirit: “the edges of words grinding against nature”. • They were branded as ‘unclean’, ‘fallen women’ or ‘prostitutes’. Such words covered them like dirt, grew inside them like parasites and controlled them like a “spell”.

43. THEME: Irish History • The Magdalene describes how her spirit is a “cloud” not only over the graveyard but also over her “time”. It darkens not only the landscape around Glasnevin but also the decades during which the laundries operated. • This cloud of shadowing steam serves as a powerful symbol of Ireland’s great shame with regard to the Magdalene institutes and that entire period in the nation’s history.

44. THEME: Strength of Women • Like many of Ni Chuilleanain’s poems, ‘Translation’, celebrates a strong and powerful woman. The poet imagines a single Magdalene who was brave enough to speak out against her confinement and abuse. • She imagines an inmate standing up in the middle of a normal working day and insisting over and over again that she is not fallen or evil, that she is neither a sinner nor a criminal. • We must remind ourselves, however, that this is what the poet imagines having happened, we don’t know if anyone inmate ever spoke out. We can only hope they did and continue to speak out for them.

45. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • The poet is struck by a prize-winning photograph in the morning paper; a dramatic image of a hare escaping from two greyhounds. She describes the dogs as “absurdly gross”, ridiculously oversized and bulky, emphasising how clumsy they seem in contrast to the compact and nimble hare. • The poet studies the hare’s facial expression closely. The look in its eye is one of “fear”, betraying the terror of the hunted animal. But its expression is also one of “speed” – focus, alertness and quick-thinking. The poet also detects a sense of “power” and of strength as the hare triumphs over the hounds. • This expression is one of “glad” power suggesting a feeling of joy. This reminds us of the thrill we often feel at moments of great crisis, when the adrenaline starts pumping through our bodies.

46. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • The photograph reminds the poet of another hare, one she glimpsed many years ago in the hills outside Cork city when her father was “dying in a hospital”. • She remembers how the hare sat absolutely motionless at t he centre of its path: “One hare absorbed, sitting still, / Right in the middle of the grassy track”. • According the poet, she had “fled up in to the hills” in order to escape the trauma of her father’s slow and painful death. The verb “fled” suggests a sudden and unplanned retreat. We get the impression that the poet left the hospital impulsively, incapable of handling her father’s final illness.

47. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • The photograph also brings to mind a second memory associated with her father. She recalls a story that took place in 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. • Her father found himself chased through the countryside by British forces. He found himself running the “high hedges” of a country road “running from a lorry-load of soldiers”. • The father faced terrible consequences if the soldiers apprehended him. Yet he described how he felt happiness and delight as he out-ran in his pursuers: “Such gladness, he said, cornering in the narrow road”. • These lines remind us once more that many people never feel more alive than when they’re facing death.

48. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • Like the hare, the father feels exhilarated and alive as he flees. Both the hare and her father experience a powerful sense of “gladness”, a sense of power, energy and joy in the act of running for their lives. • The poet also focuses in on similarities between her father’s tale and the hare in the photograph. Both “should never have been coursed”, the hare because hunting is a cruel and inhumane pastime, her father because he was an innocent bystander and not involved in the war. • Both the hare and the poet’s father are described as “clever” because of the mental sharpness and physical agility they display.

49. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • The poet fantasises that the hare will come back to taunt the dogs once more: “another day / She’ll fool the stupid dogs”. She imagines the hare will make good its escape while the hounds are still “labouring up” the hill in a doomed effort to pursue the hare. • This leads the poet to think about how her father escaped back in 1921. He managed to sneak into a farmhouse, unseen by the chasing soldiers “he risked an open kitchen door”. • Thankfully for him, the people in the house had no interest in co-operating with the British forces. Though they enter the house they find simply “six people in a country kitchen” as the family pretend the poet’s father is one of them. • He hopes his attempts to conceal his face will be enough to throw the soldiers off the track.

50. On Lacking The Killer Instinct • The family kindly let him stay overnight and he walked out next morning into a “blissful dawn”. • The poet considers the terrible risk her father took when he ran into the farmhouse: “should he have chanced that door?” For things could have worked out very differently. • The soldiers might not have given up so easily and could have burned down the “sheltering house”. His escape risked bringing doom not only to himself but also to the innocent household that “harboured” him.