Sweeney as a Girl

Belonging and removal, a sense of place and a yearning for one’s place in the scheme of things, these are among the core concerns and explorations of Irish fiction writer Jaki McCarrick in her accomplished debut collection of poems.

Jaki McCarrick''s debut poetry collection opens with the title poem which recasts the crazed king of Irish legend as a modern-day female struggling to cope with the distractions and pressures of our age.

London-born, and raised there and in Co. Louth, again and again McCarrick is drawn to the exploration of difference, of otherness, her keen eye seeing never just place alone, but glimpses of the longer narratives of connection and belonging.

Throughout, the various roles of daughter, writer, friend, lover and neighbour are interrogated, with more than once a voice delivering a surprising new perspective on what we thought we knew or take for granted.