From Gweedore to Skibbereen: Irish poems, ballads and pieces by Sheena Blackhall and Tom Hubbard, with Scots translations of poems by Theo Dorgan, Paula Meehan, Gillian Clarke and Gabriel Fitzmaurice: Published by Malfranteaux Concepts, Aberdeen: Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street, Aberdeen: Cover image by Sine NicThearlaich Cost: £6.00
© Sheena Blackhall and Tom Hubbard May 2019. In 1960, when I was 13, my father booked us by car ferry to Ireland. He had a carefully planned itinerary in mind, one that took in his favourite songs ( He was a gifted tenor). And so we saw the sun go down on Galway Bay, the mountains of Mourne, the Roses of Tralee, Dublin’s fair city. I kissed the Blarney Stone with some difficulty. Danny Boy would have been impressed. On another occasion I was invited with others to a dinner hosted by Sir Duncan Rice to honour Seamus Heaney, one of my favourite poets. After, I sent him a short poem describing him as a ‘Lead Wolf’ in the poetry pack. His reply was typical of his Irish humour: it arrived on a postcard: ‘What can a lead wolf say but woof woof!’ In 2003 I was to perform at the Burns International Conference at Magee Campus, University of Ulster in Londonderry. I came down with flu once there and spent all weekend in bed, having ruined the speaker’s paper which I was due to illustrate through song. In 2015 I treated myself to a weekend in Dublin, immersing myself in the rich culture of the city. This was a much more fruitful visit. Paula Meehan was my tutor at an Arvon Creative Writing week which I attended, and I greatly enjoyed her work and that of her husband Theo Dorgan . The Welsh poet Gillian Clarke’s poem ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ is another of my cherished poems: my thanks go to those three poets for graciously allowing me to owersett their work into Scots: I’ve included Irish songs taught to me by the North East traveller John Watt Stewart. Like my father, I delight to sing them. Finally, on a whim, I sent my DNA off to Cambridge for testing. On my mother’s side I am Ashkenazi Jew. I persuaded my father’s grandson in Canada to have his DNA tested. The result of my paternal DNA? 100% the same as the indigenous Irish population!
