Poem for Christmas: Cuireadh do Mhuire / An Invitation to Mary

Photo of Sruthán, Inis Mór (Inishmore), Aran Islands. © Photo by and with thanks to Bengt Ason Holm. Idea for this blog post prompted by the Naomh Eanna Trust.

• Thanks to Brian Nolan on December 31, 2015 at 12:00pm for this post
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Cuireadh do Mhuire was composed by Máirtín Ó Direáin 

(1910 – 1988), the great Irish language poet

 from the village of Sruthán, on Inis Mór 

(Inishmore), the largest of the Aran Islands, in Galway Bay.

Ó Direáin penned this beautiful and delicate verse at Christmas 1942, when the whole world was at war and his little piece of Ireland, perched on the edge of the vast Atlantic, was helpless to influence the world's powers in any way, save to offer hospitality to the displaced, of whom there were millions.

Today we see the terrible effects of war and devastation in the Middle East, with emigrants and asylum seekers in their hundreds of thousands risking their lives to reach safety and peace. This poem resonated with me today when I read it. I hope you like it.

Cuireadh do Mhuire

An eol duit, a Mhuire,

Cá rachair i mbliana

Ag iarraidh foscaidh

Dod leanbh Naofa,

Tráth bhfuil gach doras

Dúnta ina éadan

Ag fuath is uabhar

An chine daonna?

Deonaigh glacadh

Le cuireadh uaimse

Go hoileán mara

San iarthar chianda:

Beidh coinnle geala

I ngach fuinneoig lasta

Is tine mhóna

Ar theallach adhanta.

--------------------------

An Invitation to Mary

Do you know, O Mary,

Where you will go this year

To look for shelter

For your Holy Infant,

At a time when every door

Is shut in his face

By the hate and the pride

Of human kind?

Be pleased to accept

An invitation from me

To an island in the sea

Far away in the west:

There will be bright candles

Lighting in every window

And a turf fire