Clodagh Finn: Book of the year underlines the need to give women’s words a worthy place

'How much has changed. How little,' writes Doireann Ní Ghríofa in her award-winning 'A Ghost in the Throat'. That line sharpened a longing for the world to be sung into existence by a female voice

Doireann Ní Ghríofa, An Post Irish book of the year winner for 'A Ghost in the Throat'. She is part poet and part seer. Picture Clare Keogh

I long for the whipping wind on Kerry Head and, like so many others planning Christmas trips, I’m counting the days until we can travel outside our counties again (two more sleeps).

I want to stand on the headland with the ruins of St Dahalin’s church at my back and look north towards Clare where another female saint reputedly walked on water to gain entry to the monastery on Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary. St Senan, keeper of the all-male holy site, wasn’t having any of it, but then, neither was Saint Canaire.