Deargdhúil: Anatomy of Passion (NR)

synopsis

The life, work and sensual poetic imagination of Máire Mhac an tSaoi. She helped revolutionise Irish poetry in the twentieth century by drawing on a native tradition to express a passionate sensibility and taboo emotions. She was born in 1922, and her poetry explores intimate aspects of female experience in Ireland at a time when women's voices were on the margins of Irish literature and society. Set against a backdrop of a tumultuous century in Irish history in which she and her family were centrally involved, her story is told through a dramatic, and occasionally provocative treatment of her poems that highlights the tension between the public persona of a powerful public figure and the exploration of female sexuality at the heart of her poetry.