Idir an Dá Fhearsaid|Róise Ní Bhaoill|Éabhlóid
Idir an Dá Fhearsaid is a powerful debut poetry collection by Róise Ní Bhaoill
by Áine Ní Ghlinn
Identity, belonging, emigration and loss are among the recurring themes in this powerful debut poetry collection from Róise Ní Bhaoill.
Already a recognised prose writer, Ní Bhaoill’s first collection of short stories, Imram agus Scéalta Eile won the An Post Irish Language Fiction Book of the Year in 2023. Idir an Dá Fhearsaid was shortlisted for this year’s Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin.
The title suggests a straddling of two worlds where we are caught in the space between ‘dhá fhearsaid’ (fearsaid being a ridge of sand in tidal waters). Some of the strongest poems here explore the loss of identity that comes with falling between two homes, two places, yet belonging nowhere. The poet takes us from Rann na Feirste to Belfast, Scotland and England, from the security of home to the wider world and sometimes to banishment and rejection.
Starting with the local area in Rann na Feirste, Casadh an Chloig draws us into the secure, rhythmic life of the local ‘gréasaí bróg’ or cobbler as he taps the soles of the shoes. We can hear the tap of the hammer in ‘Buillí beaga cinnte do chasúir’.
We breathe ‘beobholadh an tí sin’ — the living smell of the house, the smell of rubber, leather and glue while the shoemaker plies his trade. This is a man at home in his world; this is a man who knows who he is and where he belongs.
An Baile also celebrates identity and belonging. Ní Bhaoill treats us to a musical litany of place names, of sounds and people with snippets of local history and lore thrown in to bring the local world to life – from Cró na Folach where the Volunteers hid from the Black and Tans to Carraig na nDeor where a father mourned his son.
Ní Bhaoill treats us to a musical litany of place names, of sounds and people with snippets of local history and lore thrown in to bring the local world to life.
Nature is also celebrated in this rural world. My favourites include An Dreoilín (The Wren) where the poet makes a basket of her hands to carry a dead bird home, and An Traonach (The Corncrake) whose call (in spite of near extinction) is still resonating in the local area:
‘Ag baint croitheadh
As an aer.’
An Baile, An Dreoilín and An Traonach are just a few examples of the overall musicality of Ní Bhaoill’s poetry. These are poems to be listened to, to be read aloud.
Perhaps the most poignant of the Rann na Feirste poems are poems of emigration and loss of identity. In Dílleachta Áite, the child of a returned emigrant remains an outsider in school because of his Scottish accent, his ‘briathra gasta Ghlaschú.’
‘Idir Dhá dTír’ tells of an emigrant who works hard in England, cashes his cheque in the pub and sends money home. England, however, will never be his real home: ‘is é an baile an baile’.
Ní Bhaoill’s poetry takes us from rural Donegal into the urban world of Belfast
Home will always be home and he returns for every holiday to a place where people know his name, where he is not just another Paddy: ‘An áit arbh eol do dhaoine nach Paddy d’ainm.’
He is, however, ‘fear idir dhá thír’ , a man straddling two countries, belonging nowhere.
Ní Bhaoill’s poetry takes us from rural Donegal into the urban world of Belfast. Bliain Chorrach, Confadh Feola, An Bóthar and Domhnach ar Dhomhnach all recall the Troubles, while An Bóthar also celebrates the work and identity of the Falls Road community that founded so many cultural organisations:
‘… Lá,
Aisling Ghéar.
An Ceathru Póilí…’
This is a community of people who pull together and sometimes pull against one another but the main thing is that they are still pulling:
‘… i gcónaí
Ag tarraingt’.
Ní Bhaoill is comfortable with a wide range of themes and moods. Giobóg na Goice rages against those who rejected single mothers and incarcerated them in institutions. There’s rage here too against the state who handed responsibility for health and education over to the clergy. This rage is heightened by the recounting of the horrors in a simple lilting rhythm and rhyme. The woman is condemned, her head shaved and her name stolen for her own good.
‘Daoradh giobóg na goice
Agus bearradh folt a cinn,
Goideadh uaithi a hainm
Ar mhaithe léithe féin.’
There’s anger too in the repetition of the question Are you blind? An dall sibh…? Are you blind to the slavery of those women? The question is echoed again in the final verse: ‘An dall a bhí an tsúil?‘
Repetition is again used for effect to highlight the plight of refugees in Líonann is Tránn:
‘A mhaicín beag-ó’
‘A naíonán beag-ó’
‘A leanbh beag-ó’
This creates a lullaby effect as we are lulled from verse to verse; the unchanging rhythm adds to our sense of horror as the boat overturns and the child is drowned. There’s a stark realisation that we are still singing while a child dies.
Even with some challenging themes of rejection, loss, rape and suffering, this is not a difficult book to read, The layout and order of the poems work well, bringing a sense of completeness to the whole. I agree with Máirín Nic Eoin when she says in her introductory essay that in spite of some dark themes, this is not a pessimistic collection.
Róise Ní Bhaoill challenges us and gives us food for thought while keeping us on our toes as we flow between the sand ridges, as we move between the worlds she explores. As well as the magic and music of the poetry, Idir an Dá Fhearsaid is an exquisite publication; Kim Sharkey’s cover image of two ridges of sand with a calm sea between—and her artwork throughout—complement the richness of the text. This is a book you’ll want to handle and hold, a book you’ll want to own.
Áine Ní Ghlinn is a poet and children’s writer and was Ireland’s Laureate na nÓg, Children’s Literature Laureate 2020-2023.
She has 39 books published. These include poetry, young adult fiction, picture books and drama.
