The Mother House was the winner of the 2020 Irish Times Poetry Now Award

'They are sites where history and the individual brush against each other, force fields of action and radiant understanding, one of the most distinctive and rewarding bodies of work in contemporary poetry.' Aingeal Clare, The Guardian

'The Mother House, yet another perfect book from this poet of sunlight and cloisters. This collection is a joy to read, and a reminder, yet again, that the poets are sent to amaze us, to bring us all nearer to the light.' Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books

Poems in The Mother House range from the broad, surprising narrative swerve of ‘She Was at the Haymaking’ and the mysterious wound in ‘A Journey’ to the exact detail of ‘the vessels tugging at their tether’ and the lighthouse keeper ‘watching the great revolving spokes / hitting the piled castles of spray’. Stories of historical figures (including the author’s relations) are filtered through tellings.