The future of Northern Irish poetry: Fragility, contingency, value and beauty

Abstract

This article explores the work of three contemporary Northern Irish poets, Leontia Flynn, Sinéad Morrissey and Alan Gillis, asking how this work relates to fragility as experienced in Northern Ireland. Is there, within this poetry, a fostering of hope with respect to Northern Ireland's fragile future? Does a new generation of poets look for continuity with the past or does it strike out on a new path? The first part of the article provides a brief introduction to the ‘first-generation peace poets’, and also gives an overview of the ways in which Northern Irish poetry has been criticized in recent decades. It then suggests that this literature might be read through the lens of the elegiac tradition, as well as by exploring the ‘post-theory’ approach of new aestheticism. The second part comprises a series of close readings, with particular emphasis on poems about Belfast, and other poems that deal with themes of loss.