A ‘forgotten’ Irish poet delivers poems of true poise

Poetry: What Just Happened

Sara Berkeley came to national attention in the late 1980s, but has since slipped out of the limelight

By Sara Berkeley Tolchin

Gallery Press, €11.95

I know only two Irish poets who emerged into public consciousness while in their late teens with their core poetic voice fully formed. The first was Michael Hartnett, whose early poems can still live alongside – and throw light on – his great later work.

The other poet, Sara Berkeley, was a Dublin schoolgirl in 1986 when her vivid poems attracted national attention, due to the ...