Motherhood

When contemporary Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa discovers the extraordinary work of eighteenth-century poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, she becomes captivated by the woman’s life and the grief that inspired her most famous poem. After discovering her husband’s murdered body, Eibhlín drank his blood and composed a devastating lament that would survive for centuries. Determined to recover the details of a life that history has largely erased, Ní Ghríofa embarks on a literary investigation that becomes deeply intertwined with her own experiences of pregnancy, motherhood, and domestic life. Moving between past and present, A Ghost in the Throat blends memoir, literary criticism, and historical research to explore female creativity, the silencing of women’s voices, and the intimate connections that can form between women separated by centuries. It is a lyrical meditation on grief, desire, motherhood, and the transformative power of discovering another woman’s story.

A new mother known as Soldier loves her baby son, Sailor, with a fierce intensity—but motherhood has transformed her life in ways she could never have anticipated. Exhausted by sleepless nights, endless childcare, and the relentless demands of caring for a young child, she struggles to recognise the woman she used to be. While her husband continues to work late and pursue his career, Soldier finds herself increasingly isolated, questioning the unequal division of parenting and the disappearance of her own ambitions. Told as an intimate address to her son, Soldier Sailor captures the contradictions of early motherhood: tenderness and resentment, overwhelming love and desperate frustration, joy and despair. When an encounter with someone from her former life offers a glimpse of the person she once was, Soldier begins to wonder whether she can reclaim part of herself without abandoning the child she adores. With sharp humour and unflinching honesty, Claire Kilroy explores the invisible labour of motherhood and the struggle to preserve one’s identity while caring for another person.