A Ghost in the Throat has 'a strong sense of female tradition'

Doireann Ní Ghríofa reaches into the past to find an authentic female voice.

Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Photo: Bríd O'Donovan

THERE'S something other worldly about Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Exuding warmth and empathy, she speaks as she writes – fast and fluently, and there’s a natural lyricism there. She’s also quite disarmingly honest. Highly renowned in the literary world - she was recently elected to Aosdána, the prestigious affiliation of Creative Artists in Ireland. Such is the ease of her writing, I assumed she’d been a poet since birth, but not so.

At 17, determined to be a dentist, Doireann left her Gaelscoil in County Clare for University College Cork, where she took a year of Anatomy. But it was a dark, difficult time.