'This is an examination of the native Irish poetic tradition's response to the increasingly aggressive English colonialism from the 16th to the 18th centuries. There are two phases in this response: the first dominated by the hereditary, professional bards intent on defending Gaelic culture, and the second of their non-professional, non-bardic successors who continued to resist English domination. Using modern ... Read morefeminist, post-colonial and even queer theory, McKibben argues for a sophisticated and nuanced reading of this poetry which evoked images of emasculation, penetration and dissolution to challenge colonial conquest and domination, portraying the threatened Gaelic civilisation in terms of Irish masculinity under threat.' Books Ireland December 2010 'McKibben derives her scholarly and often elegant approach to our early modern Gaelic poetry from academic gender studies. - Many aislings and political poems such as Aodhagan O Rathaile's were popular in their day, and it's hard to see how they couldn't still be, if the poems are allowed to speak for themselves, with translations and McKibben's succinct historical context. - As a general rather than an academic reader, I found chapter 4, which interprets Caoineadh Art O Laoghaire a pleasure to read - having so enjoyed this chapter, I returned to McKibben's interpretation of O Rahaille's Gile ne Gile with its text and Seamus Heaney's slightly loose but poetically true translation.' Caitriona MacKernan Books Ireland March 2011 Show Less