The Midnight Court

"Gregory Schirmer provides a stimulating account of eleven key translations into English by Irish writers, including Frank O'Connor, Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney and Ciaran Carson." -Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, History Ireland

Many translations into English verse of Brian Merriman's celebrated eighteenth-century narrative poem Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court) have been made by Irish poets over the past two centuries.

All translators have tackled the problem of being Irish poets working in English and drawing upon the Irish-language tradition in various ways, as well as having to negotiate between Merriman's world and their own historical moments. This tension in translation is the major focus of The Midnight Court: Eleven Versions of Merriman.

According to Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, "Schirmer's book is of great value in keeping Merriman and his translators in view, and in recalling the reader to one of the masterpieces of Irish literary tradition."