Northern Irish poetry in the twenty-first century

Applying the phrase 'No Country for Old Men' to Northern Irish poetry is a highly suggestive critical enterprise. It presents a number of contexts in which to reconsider one of the most widely theorised corners of the Irish literary terrain. This essay focuses on the generational rather than gender implications of the phrase. This being said, female voices figure prominently in the discussion that follows. Their inclusion is indicative of the fundamental importance of women's writing to the poetic DNA of the contemporary North.