The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Ní Ghríofa, Doireann. A Ghost in the Throat. Biblioasis, 2020.

Dioreann Ní Ghríofa’s first-person narrative, A Ghost in the Throat, follows the life of Dioreann Ní Ghriofa as she raises her children and researches the life of the eighteen-century poet Eihblín Dubh. At the outset of the narrative, Doireann moves to a new rental flat with her three children and husband. On the drive to the new house in Kilcrea, she remembers that Kilcrea is also the name of the graveyard in Eibhlín Dubhs poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. She had read the poem as a child and later a teenager but decided to return to the text. In between changing nappies and cleaning the apartment, Doireann reads the Caoineadh while breast pumping milk to donate the milk bank. She reads several translations of the poem but is disappointed that the renditions do not capture the intimacy she feels when reading Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire in Gaelic. After finishing her own translation of the poem, Doireann resolves to learn more about the author Eibhlín Dubh.

She conducts her research of the Irish poet by inspecting historical documents and letters. While the majority of documentation is written by men, Doirean willfully omits the male gaze and focuses solely on the accounts written by women. Eibhlín Dubh grew up at Derrynane house and was raised by her mother Máire who ran a small smuggling operation to support the family. During Eibhlín’s childhood the English Penal Laws subjugated Irish Catholics by prohibiting them from education, land ownership, and voting. The clandestine smuggling allowed the family to circumvent the Penal Laws and prosper on the coast. When Eibhlïn was fourteen, her mother arranged her marriage to a much older man, Mr. Connor. However, he perished shortly after their union and Eibhlín returned to Derrynane. Eibhlín’s sister married shortly thereafter, and the poet moved to be closer to her twin. She met her husband Art O’Leary in town and the couple eloped in 1767, much to the chagrin of Eibhlín’s family. When he was murdered years later, her brother refused to support her because Art’s murder tarnished the family name.

As Doirean conducts her research, she sacrifices her personal needs to the needs of Eibhlín. The narrator becomes thin and haggard from her sleep deprivation but her commitment to giving the poet space in the history of the Irish gentry prohibits her from stepping back from the research. When Doireann visits Derrynane, she is dismayed to find that Máire’s objects were removed from the house. The museum preserved the artifacts of Daniel O’Connell while eradicating any trace of the female family members. When Eibhlín’s name ceases to appear in her brothers’ letters, Doireanne decided to follow the histories of Eibhlín’s sons to find further traces of the poet. Her research continues to provide limited information. When Doireann and her family purchase a home for the first time, the narrator imagines having another child. She is crushed when her husband tells her that is going to undergo a vasectomy. Doireann is forced to confront the sacrifices she has made to have children and research Eibhlín Dubh. The past years of her life were dedicated to the needs of others. Toward the close of the novel, Doireann visits the cemetery in Kilcrea and says goodbye to Eibhlín.