A Shankill Mantel

Neil Young

Each back-to-back had one as its shrine

and matriarch as guardian who sheened

its photo-gallery as if to neglect

just one day’s dust would be a betrayal. She was

the keeper of myths the wars leaked out

down every narrowed lane; she was

the one who tuned or hardened hearts

to extremities; the insulator to gluts of grief.

A brother’s, father’s and uncle’s coats

still hung beneath the stairwell. Though they

could never return to shoulder them

normality draped from those old pegs

as surely as if the Good Lord had ordained it so.

All outside might change to reds and blues

of a louder lens, but this world

had the certainty of date-stamped monochrome.

Each day as the kitchen clock struck seven

she’d kneel to scrape the grate

and spruce the uniforms and smiles

that kept un-ageing kind expression

in the aspic of their last going-away.

Hushed talk and jokes could be overheard from the hall;

mementoes – buttons, badges, stubs

of dance-hall tickets – she kept in a childhood biscuit tin.

At supper-time, as coals glowed low,

she’d smarten the picture-frames as if

to brush the hairs off dead men’s suits

and parade-wear epaulettes.

They would be there to greet her

again after breakfast; she would be there

in her apron, with tinder, wax and cloth.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 124:

Edited by Eavan Boland

Poetry Ireland Review 124 contains new poems from Paula Meehan, Ciarán O'Rourke, Lizzy Nichols, Mark Ward, Gabriel Rosenstock, Özgecan Kesici, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and many other compelling voices. Also included is Eilean Ni Chuilleanáin's remembrance of her Cork childhood, excerpted from The Vibrant House: Irish Writing and Domestic Space, a book of essays reviewed in issue 124 by Caitríona O'Reilly. Other books considered in this issue include collections from Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Mark Granier, Tara Bergin, The Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets, and the Collected Poems of the late Dennis O'Driscoll, and there's also a short interview with Thomas Kinsella along with an essay on Kinsella as poet and civil servant. Another Kinsella is this issue’s Featured Poet, Alice Kinsella, and all artwork for the issue is supplied by artists associated with the Olivier Cornet Gallery on Great Denmark Street, around the corner from Poetry Ireland.

Available now to purchase online or in all good bookstores.