In the third episode of Past/Present/Pride, Dr Paul D’Alton hears from Mary Dorcey, poet and fiction writer, about learning to read, coming out, her relationship with her mother, and her experience of an oppressive 1970s Ireland. Mary Dorcey has been publishing poetry since her first collection Kindling in 1982. Her poetry has appeared on the Junior Certificate curriculum in Ireland, the O Level curriculum in the UK, and in the BBC anthology A Hundred Favourite Poems of Childhood, and in 1990 she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Dorcey’s work explores the deep complications and joys of love and relationships. Her poems have been recognised for their touching descriptions of homosexual love and her frank and honest exploration of the relationship between mother and daughter. She is a member of Aosdána and now lives in Wicklow.
