“A Ghost in the Throat” by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
Reviewed by Steven G. Kellman At age 11, Doireann NĂ GhrĂofa was smitten with “Caoineadh Airt UĂ Laoghaire,” an Irish dirge that Oxford Professor Peter Levi pronounced the “greatest poem written in these islands in the whole eighteenth century.” At 34, NĂ GhrĂofa sets out to translate the work into English and reconstruct the dramatic life of its author, …