S6E13: Julie Breathnach-Banwait - Irish Poetry From Tasmania
In this episode of Irish Stew, hosts John Lee and Martin Nutty welcome Julie Breathnach-Banwait, a poet and child psychologist. Julie shares her unique journey from her Connemara home (Ceantar an nOlieán) off the west coast of Ireland to the island of Tasmania off the south coast of Australia.
Julie discusses her deep connection to the Irish language, her published works, her latest poetry collection, Split Bones (Cnámha Scoilte ), and her experiences living in Tasmania. She reads a poignant bilingual poem exploring themes of emergence and transformation. The episode delves into Julie's nuanced prose poetry, her creative process, and how writing in Irish helps her reconnect with her roots while living far from her birthplace.
Julie Links
Split Bones (Cnámha Scoilte )
- Publisher: Bobtail Books
- Amazon USA
- Amazon UK
00:00 - Introduction
03:36 - View From a Tasmanian Window
07:37 - Connemara: Ceantar na nOileán Origins
11:03 - The Otherness of Being an Irish Speaker
16:01 - Leaving Ireland
20:37 - From Perth to Tasmania
23:27 - Tasmanian Impressions
25:56 - Cnámha Scoilte / Split Bones
28:10 - Towards Irish Language Poetry
33:05 - Language of Thought
35:24 - Writing Commitment and Focus
38:18 - Reading: Beochan - Awakening
41:56 - Choosing Prose Poetry
44:58 - Which Language Leads?
46:20 - Translation Challenges
49:58 - Irish in an Unusual Landscape
53:48 - Deaf Town and Galway
55:50 - Seamus Plug
58:08 - John and Martin Recap
58:58 - Credits
Julie Breathnach-Banwait
Poet
Julie Breathnach-Banwait is an Irish-language poet from Ceantar na nOileán in Connemara, County Galway. She has published several collections and now lives with her family in Australia, where she publishes in both Irish and English.
Breathnach-Banwait was raised in an Irish-speaking community and first encountered English at school. She later studied at the University of Wales and is now a psychologist. After two decades in Australia, she returned to Irish as a medium of expression and also served as editor of the Journal of the Australian Irish Heritage Association.
She has stated that, as a psychologist, bilingualism and social constructionism seemed linked, reflecting on how "assumptions of our reality are shaped and moulded by shared understandings, and the impact of culture and language on these constructs”. She has said that she writes in Irish to remind herself of who she is and to balance herself between two linguistic worlds.
She has published in Tinteán (Australia), An Gael (New York City), and Comhar (Ireland).
She is associated with Bobtail Books, an Australian publishing house devoted to bilingual publishing.
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