Polishing The Evidence
Poems by CECILIA McGOVERN

In polishing the evidence, Cecilia McGovern returns in many poems to her roots, as a child involved in the seasonal grind of farm work in Mayo. This closeness to earth is a reminder of the struggle for survival of previous generations, a struggle never referred to directly by anybody, that results for her in an ambivalent relationship with the landscape, reflected in the lines “Close as I’ll ever be to saying/ “Go raibh maith agat a Mhaigh Eo”. (Dark Interiors). The reticence about the past includes and is partly a consequence of the loss of the Irish language, which only survives in random, mostly angry, expressions of feeling. (The Coothrements). This reticence is an obstacle that must be overcome in order to establish the poet’s entitlement to speak about the complexity of relationships, past and present.

Cecilia McGovern was born in County Mayo and has lived in Dublin all her adult life. Her poems have been published in The Sunday Tribune and in Poetry Ireland Review and her work features in anthologies of women’s writing. She has twice been a prize-winner in Poetry Now, Dun Laoghaire International Poetry Festival. In 2007, she obtained an MA in Creative Writing from the UCD School of English, Drama and Film.