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Ce Leis Tu? To Whom Do You Belong: Teeth Mothers, Muses And Longing In The Poetry Of Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill And John Montague, Jeanne Armstrong Ph.D.

Western Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper compares similarities between the poetry and perspectives of John Montague and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. Both poets were impacted by the Irish diaspora since Montague was born in Brooklyn then sent to live with an aunt in Garvaghey when he was four. Ni Dhomhnaill was born in Lancashire and sent at age five to an aunt in Ventry during the summer to learn Irish. Montague admits that he is partly Irish-American and Ni Dhomhnaill considers herself as an exile in her own country, “the little English girl not quite belonging to the Gaeltacht.” According to Ni Dhomhnaill, the diaspora …