Ireland is a nation of poets and scholars (and judges of good whiskey and bad women). In the Dark Ages it was Irish Jesuits who kept the light of human knowledge lit, and not even being conquered by the pasty English could keep the Irish down.
Many of the poems included in our anthology are from a transitional period in Irish history, when the language and culture was growing ever Anglocised. A great number of the poems by the poets included below were originally written in Irish (sometimes called "Gaelic" - because some English guy thought they were speaking French - it's the same as the Native Americans being called "Indians" because some lost Italian guy thought they had arrived in India).
Most of the poems in this tour are translations, and were translated either by the original author or another poet. The following is a list of poems written in Irish.
Jough Dempsey is a poet & critic and the webmaster of Poetry X, an online poetry resource for those looking for the minstral boy. In his spare time he enjoys slinging his wild harp behind himself.