Cathal Ó Searcaigh, born July 12, 1956, is a modern Irish language poet. His work has been widely translated, anthologised and studied. “His confident internationalism”, according to Theo Dorgan, has channelled “new modes, new possibilities, into the writing of Irish language poetry in our time”.
From 1975 onwards he has produced poetry, plays, and travelogues. His early poetry deals with place, tongue and tradition, with his late work showing a broader scope. His work includes homoerotic love poems. Jody Allen Randolph remarks “his breaking down of stereotypes and new deployment of gendered themes opened a new space in which to consider alternate sexualities within a contemporary Irish context.”
The critic John McDonagh argues that “Ó Searcaigh occupies many of the spaces that stand in opposition to the traditionally dominant markers of Irish identity”. In his anthology McDonagh goes on to say “Ó Searcaigh’s homoerotic poems are explicit, relishing in a sensuality that for many years rarely found explicit expression in Irish literature.”
WHEN MY NAME YOU SPOKE
Cathal O Searcaigh
When my name you spoke, my love,
in soft sighs of affection, it was not my name
any longer but the flowering sword lily
yellowing in the mouth of the breeze.
When to your heart you pressed me
wildly, I was no more, I became
a summer stream
welling up and breaking its banks.