Vision of a thriving arts scene

Cork writer and academic Daniel Corkery described the aisling poem, in his 1924 study The Hidden Ireland, as an “intimate expression of the hidden life of the people among whom it flourished”.

Kerry poets Aogán Ó Rathaille, and Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin, both of Gneeveguilla, were among the masters of the verse form which personified Ireland, and herafflictions of penal times, as a beautiful young woman, appearing to the poet in an aisling or vision.