Book review: Greg Delanty’s translation will introduce Seán O’Ríordáin to a wider audience

One poet's mastery of the tongue brought to perfection by another

Poet Sean O'Riordáin

THE latest anthology by the Cork poet Greg Delanty, Apathy is Out/ Ní Ceadmhach Neamhshuim is a rendering into English of much of the poetry of Seán O’Ríordáin and it is also an ambitious attempt to tackle the lack of natural accord between Irish and English.

In Filí Faoi Sceimhle, the late Seán O’Tuama drew a direct line between Aogán O’Rathaille and O’Ríordáin saying the region had produced the two best poets of the Irish language since the seventeenth century and both had lived in terror filled times.