ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the late poetic works of Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Derek Mahon, and Thomas McCarthy in relation to what Bruno Latour defines as “matters of concern.” It examines how ageing alters the standpoint with regards to the “world-ecology of power, capital and nature” (Moore) and how it makes aged Irish poets more involved in issues such as the destruction of the natural environment. It argues that with the awareness of the limit of their own lifespan, mature Irish male poets decide to devote the time still left to them to raise the problems that require urgent mediation and to present them from a broader and multifaceted perspective.
