ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the presence of dialect in Irish poetry written in English from the latter half of the 20th century to the present day. Drawing on a variety of theories, ranging from post-colonial poetics to translation theory and sociology, it highlights the relationship between standard English and Irish English, contextualizing it in the light of sociolinguistic theory. After examining the function of dialect in Seamus Heaney’s poetry and translations, it looks at the use of dialect in the poetry of Greg Delanty. The politics of dialect are raised via the Rhyming Weaver Poets, and a connection is established between their poetry and that written today in Ulster-Scots. The final section of the article examines David Wheatley’s most recent collection, The President of Planet Earth, arguing that both Heaney and Wheatley are preoccupied by the ecosystem of languages and dialects. In conclusion, the article refers to John Kerrigan’s volume on archipelagic English and suggests that dialect in poetry in contemporary Irish poetry re-archipelagizes the English language.
