Bearla: Meehan

Attend to your books girls, or mark my words, you’ll end up in the sewing factory.

Working in the sewing factory is looked down upon and is seen as a threat by the teacher.

Those words ‘end up’ robbed the labour of its dignity.

While Meehan doesn’t disagree with the sentiment, she resents the teacher’s snobbery of the people who work in the sewing factory and do real work.

Allowing also that the teacher was right.

Meehan acknowledges the importance of education while also criticising her teacher.

I saw them…trussed like chickens on a conveyor belt.

Meehan recognises the reality and cruelty of factory work and likens the workers to a gruesome image. 

Getting sewn up the way my granny sewed the sage and onion stuffing into the birds.

Grotesque visual imagery.

Words could pluck you, leave you naked, your lovely shiny feathers all gone.

Metaphor for the importance of words and what they can do.

Don’t be talking to strange men on the way.

Meehan’s mother warns about gender roles and the danger of men.

I’d dash from the ghosts on the stairs where the bulb had blown

Poverty in Meehan’s home.

Even in rain I was happy.

Meehan finds comfort in nature.

like little night skies themselves.

Simile showing Meehan’s childlike wonder and seeing the beauty in small things.

Jump every crack in the pavement.

Meehan as a child was not concerned about the obvious signs of social disadvantage.

A pram loaded with pails of winkles before her.

It was the women’s responsibility to look after family and finance.

I envied each soul in the hot interior.

Sensory imagery of men in comfort versus women working.

I’d bear the newspaper twists / proudly home, like torches

Simile giving a sense of mythical adventure to this story.

Tell yer Ma I picked them fresh this morning.

Colloquial language adds realism to the poem and story.

While Zeus and Hera battle it out

Comparisons to Greek mythology amplify the significance of arguments between parents for young Meehan.

I’m net, umpire and court.

Young Meehan is forced into the role of mediator between her parents at a very young age, forcing her to mature early.

it’s better than brooding and silence and the particular hell of the unsaid.

Even at Meehan’s young age, she knows the arguments are better than the silence between her parents. This shows that at this point in her life she is already familiar with these tensions between her parents.

She’ll see his fancyman and raise him the Cosmo Snooker Hall.

Gambling metaphor showing how the family are constantly wagering their family stability through these arguments.

It was money the lack of it day after day, at the root of bitter words.

Financial stress can poison any family relationships and lead to this constant tension.

A weariness come suddenly over her, she threw the lot in the fire.

Meehan’s mother’s act of rebellion and desperation, rejecting the system of poverty keeping her family miserable.

The flames were blue and pink and green, a marvellous sight, an alchemical scene.

The ordinary paper money — the money at the root of Meehan’s family’s issues — becomes something magical in the flames.

Trapped exotic birds

Comparing the money in the flames to this suggests that the family has been caged by their economic circumstances.

It’s not enough

This refers to the money, but on another level, it refers to Meehan’s mother’s relationship or their family’s ability to cope.

the piebald horse in next door’s garden

Meehan immediately establishes a working-class setting.

rake the ash from the grate

onomatopoeia, internal rhyme establishing Meehan’s father’s everyday mundane routine.

the first frost whitened the slates of the estate

internal rhyme, seasons metaphor referring to aging.

he was older than I had reckoned, his hair completely silver

Meehan doesn’t know her father very well, imagery of an old man.

What’s he at?

Colloquial language grounding the poem in reality, Meehan’s father is established as a mystery to her.

They came then: birds

The first section of the quote adds a moment of suspense to the climactic moment, and the line break after the last word adds more emphasis.

“Dubber Cross” “the North Road” “O’Reilly’s chimney”

Place names grounding the poem in reality provide contrast with the other mystical elements.

they came

Repetition adds to the sense of “pandemonium” in the climactic moment.

he was suddenly radiant, a perfect vision of St Francis

A divine, angelic image of Meehan’s father emerges when he makes a connection with the birds.

made whole, made young again

Meehan’s father’s transformation after the connection is made with the birds contrasts with earlier depictions of him in Meehan’s eyes.

in a Finglas garden

the final use of a place name brings the mystical climax back to earth, establishing the importance of finding everyday beauty.

the scourging and the falling, and the falling again

harsh consonance, repetition of assonant “all” sound enhancing emotional impact and memorability

they fit me to a myth of a man crucified

bitter contempt for the Catholic church, dramatic irony, tone

like sparks from a bonfire that blaze a moment, then wink out

Prayers are futile

“tucked up safe and dreaming” “tucked up in little scandals”

repetition criticising the community’s treatment of the young mother

Death is just another harvest scripted to the seasons’ play

The statue’s apathy but also peace and acceptance of death in a world revering nature as religion.

Molten mother of us all, hear me and have pity

The statue turns to the sun rather than God to help her.

seeds of ice would cut you to the quick

harsh winter imagery

maculate and tousled in a honeyed bed

sexual imagery showing the statue’s desire for human feeling

a cacophony of bone imploring sky for judgement

death imagery calling for judgement day (AKA end of the world) and adding to dark atmosphere

It can be lovely here at times. Springtime, early summer

Noting beauty of spring/early summer

the grace of a midsummer wedding

beauty of midsummer

when the earth herself calls out for coupling

the “earth” as a spiritual icon encourages sexual activity as opposed to condemning it like in Christianity.

even an autumn burial can work its own pageantry

noting the beauty of autumn

on a night like this I remember the child

despite the beauty the seasons bring, some nights and some kinds of weather remind the statue of the tragedy of Ann Lovett.

I didn’t lift a finger to help her

Anaphora before and after this line, the statue feels helpless to the situation

Great tree from the far northern forest

Apostrophe, Meehan is appealing to nature rather than God in this prayer

Grant us the clarity of ice

Peaceful tone and metaphor at the beginning of the prayer

The scream, the siren, the knock on the door

Describing the grief felt by those who lost loved ones to drug use, indicating a grim, realistic tone.

The needle in its track, the knife in the back

Onomatopoeia/cacophony showing the cruelty of drug addiction and criminal activity

That spellbound them in alleyways

Sympathetic/empathetic tones, slight elements of the supernatural mentioned.

That promised them everything, that delivered nothing

Anger, frustration at the cycle of drug abuse influenced by the area, personification and metonymy of the streets.

The streets that we brought them home to

Guilt: this home only damaged them, but it was home.

Let their names be the wind

Comforting, reassuring the parents of these unfortunate dead addicts

Let their names be the holiest prayers

Spirituality in nature, anaphora with the two lines previous.

Here at the heart of the city

Heart symbolises community.