Video – Tuairisc na Mná

This piece was commissioned by Fingal County Council’s Arts Office, in association with The Irish Writers Centre.

Last year, myself and five other writers each created a piece in response to the events of 18th June 1921 when six Coast Guard stations on the North Dublin coast were simultaneously attacked, to secure a landing place for a shipment of arms which were being smuggled from the U.S. The coasts guards and their wives and children were sent out of the houses, before they were destroyed.

In the source materials I worked from, it was repeatedly asserted by Coast Guards and their families that the IRA men were courteous in their dealings. They helped the Coast Guards to remove their furniture and personal items, in one case moving a piano, which the family would not be compensated for by the British Admiralty. The IRA men then doused the station in parrafin and set it alight. It was a complex situation and I hoped to capture some of that in my poem.

In some cases local Irish women would have been married to the coast guard – an enviable set-up in a slate roof house with sturdy furniture. Following the destruction of the stations the families were all sent to live in England. I chose to write as an Irish wife, at the crux of it all.

If you’re interested, there are more details on the Fingal.ie here, agus i nGaeilge anseo.

Tuairisc na Mná 

Is muid inár suan
Tháinig cuairteoirí chugainn
Lenár dteach a dhó,
Is coinne againn leo.

Ghlac m’fhear leis go stuama
Is labhair leis an slua,
Naoi mbuachaillí óga
I mbun an ghnó.

Bhí a nglórtha séimh, múinte
Is iadsan dár ruaigeadh,
Ár dtroscán á thógáil 
Go tearmann an chlóis.

D’iompair siad ualach
Mo phianó le dúthracht,
B’íseal mo ghlór
Ag gabháil buíochais leo.

Bhris an buíon urrúnta 
An díon sclátaí le tuanna
Is steall siad an breosla
Ba gheal le mo shrón.

Scaoil siad trí bhuama
A phléasc i mbrúchtanna
A thacht gach seomra
le lasracha teo.

Is má bhraith mise gruama
An cumha ba chúis leis,
Mo chomhthírigh mo sheoladh 
ar deoraíocht go deo.

Thar muir sa teach nua
Seinnim go fóill
Is aithním a rian
ar nótaí an cheoil.