Elegies for a changing land: how Ireland’s poets are responding to the climate crisis/McBarf

The Conversation ^ | 11/5/26 | Jack Reid

[Eleutheria5]

Ireland has a unique relationship to climate change. The country has always relied on its pastoral landscapes for its national character, but the escalating climate crisis threatens this tradition because of rising temperatures and sea levels, and deforestation. Given Irish literature’s continued interest in nature, contemporary Irish poets are tackling these issues in their writing.

Poetry plays a special role in times of mass environmental decline. As a literary genre that relies on flexible, open-ended and even conflicting language to address complicated issues, poetry is especially well-suited to address the complex entanglement of local and global concerns, human and nonhuman lives, that gain increased prominence because of climate change.

Poems that explore environmental issues, often called ecopoems, can pack a lot of ideas into a single image. A short poem focused on a seemingly mundane subject can hide a wealth of meaning behind its simplicity.

In an age dominated by the algorithmic attention economy, poetry might be our best tool for incorporating activism into everyday life.

Heaney’s bogs The Nobel prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney knew this. Taking inspiration from ancient Irish nature writing, Heaney described the Irish landscape as “a system of reality beyond the visible realities”.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: climatechange; ireland; limericks; poets

[Eleutheria5]

Let's have some limericks, fake brogues and satirical verse.

[rktman]

McLaughing my butt off. There once was a man from Kilarney. They knew he was full of Mcblarney................

[Eleutheria5]

Man-Bear-Pig once visited me
Way out here by the green Irish sea
When he ripped off my head
I was drunk, so I said
He’s, an Englishman, so I’m not dead.

(I know, it sucks, but this is short notice; I’ll get better)

[BenLurkin]

The country has always relied on its pastoral landscapes for its national character, but the escalating climate crisis threatens this tradition because of rising temperatures and sea levels, and deforestation.

In Ireland? Where?

[quantim]

Can’t remember when “water seeks its own level” was taught in elementary school, 2nd or 3rd grade? Quite the trick for Ireland to have raising sea levels but our shorelines do not.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

---- "Let's have some limericks, fake brogues and satirical verse."

Jack Reid / (he/him) / PhD Candidate in Irish literature, University of Limerick

"Jack Reid is a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick. His work is primarily concerned with queer and feminist approaches to contemporary Irish literature. His current research analyses queer Irish poetry from an Environmental Humanities perspective, exploring the work of writers like Mary Dorcey, Seán Hewitt, and Colette Bryce. He is also a published poet.

Source: Jack Reid

There was a he/him from Climate-land,
Who scribbled elegies, oh so bland.
It's queer, should one ponder
Of what he/him is fonder,
A Limerick or some occasional gland.

[faithhopecharity]

what climate change they need is a very intelligent tornado that would clean out their Nazi infestation and leave all the good Irish people at peace

[libertylover]

The climate IS changing. But it has always been changing, and it always will be changing.

[wny]

When the muzzies run Ireland, ‘climate-change’ will be ignored.

[Eleutheria5]

The streets of Irish cities are changing radically, due to mass invasions. “Climate change,” if it’s even a real thing, should take a back seat to that.

[Eleutheria5]

Maybe a tsunami, blowing away all the rubber dingies.

[Eleutheria5]

He looks like Harry Potter with AIDS.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

[Eleutheria5]

OMG, did Harry Potter get a sex change operation before catching AIDS?

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

"My research will delve into the fascinating intersection of ecology, feminism, and queerness in contemporary Irish poetry—an area I’m deeply passionate about."

Source: Jack Reid’s Post

[Eleutheria5]

Bloody poufta, so ‘e is.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "Bloody poufta, so ‘e is."

Jack might be Jill,
This Limerick shill,
Who intersects the queers.
Pronouns spill,
As fits the bill,
As intersex appears.

[Albion Wilde]

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