Catherine Phil MacCarthy
Catherine Phil MacCarthy is a native of Crecora, Co Limerick and has lived in Sandymount, Dublin, since 1987. She has published six collections of poetry and a novel, most recently Emblemas (USP, Brazil, 2024), a selection in Portuguese and English from six collections. She was awarded a residency at Varuna, the National Writers House (NSW) Australia, in 2022 and read at the Blue Mountains Writers Festival. Last September, she took part in readings in Washington DC, Villanova, and Princeton, supported by Culture Ireland. She participated in the XIX Symposium of Irish Studies in South America 2024, hosted by the University of São Paulo, Brazil (Link to Emblemas page).
Publications
 Emblemas/Emblems |
 Daughters of the House |
 The Invisible Threshold |
 Suntrap (2007) |
 the blue globe (1998) |
 How High The Moon |
 One Room An Everywhere (2003) |
 This Hour of the Tide |
For more details on these publications, click the cover thumbnails.
VACANT POSSESSION
We fell in love with an old wreck
nestled against the hillside,
sunlight glinting off high windows,
a fanlight above the door.
We were taken by
a shelter belt of Scots pine,
red berries on whitethorn
lavender slates glistening after rain.
Stables in a crescent
round a cobbled yard. All the work
to be done for our first home—
my space for workshops; his, for a garden;
a wood-burning stove.
Nothing fazed us. Not mould
staining bedroom walls.
Bird droppings on the floor.
I can’t accept your deposit.
The old housekeeper has nowhere to go.
Wind dropped from our sails.
We looked at each–other,
our dream on hold,
the cheque, litter in my palm.
We could see wispy clouds
afloat in that azure sky.
Across a bright field,
cows suckling calves.
Ourselves, curled by the log fire
on a stone floor.
(Link to Issue 49 of The Stinging Fly publication)