SOURCE: "Q. and A. with Eavan Boland," in Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring, 1991, pp. 10-11.

In the following interview, Boland discusses the place of female poets in Irish literature.

[Means Wright and Hannan:] A first-rate Irish woman poet would appear to receive less recognition in Ireland than even a third-rate male poet. Do you find this to be true?

[Boland:] I was on a panel in Boston recently at a festival of Irish poetry, and exactly that point was with me. In the audience there were a number of male poets, but I knew of five or six wonderful Irish women poets that nobody in that audience would have heard of. And the breaking-through point for them is more at risk, I think, than for the male poet. My problem is, and certainly my ethical worry is that the woman poet doesn't even get considered: she's under...