Synopsis
Ireland Is Changing Mother is Rita Ann Higgins at her edgy best: provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinks, jittery grief and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of the lives of the Irish dispossessed, before as well as since the demise of the Celtic tiger. This was her first new collection after her 2005 retrospective, Throw in the Vowels.
Rita Ann Higgins’ retrospective Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation, was published in March 2026. This updates her two previous Bloodaxe retrospectives Sunny Side Plucked (1996) and Throw in the Vowels (2005), including substantial selections from the earlier collections included in those books with the addition of poems from her later Bloodaxe collections Ireland Is Changing Mother (2011) and Tongulish (2016).
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 in Galway, where she still lives. She left school at 14, and was in her late 20s when she started writing poetry. She has since published many books of poetry and prose, including Sunny Side Plucked (Poetry Book Society Recommendation) (1996), An Awful Racket (2001), Throw in the Vowels: New & Selected Poems (2005), Ireland Is Changing Mother (2011) and Tongulish (2016) from Bloodaxe; Hurting God: Prose & Poems (2010), Our Killer City: isms, chisms, chasms and schisms: essays and poems (2018) and Pathogens Love a Patsy: Pandemic & Other Poems (2020) from Salmon; and The Long Weekend (Gill, 2024), poems read on RTÉ 1's Brendan O'Connor Show. Drawing on all of these as well as on later work, her retrospective, Jiving with Wasps: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2026), is a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her appearances on the Brendan O'Connor Show during and since the pandemic earned her even wider popularity in Ireland – reading her poems to audiences of over 400,000 on the weekend shows – with O'Connor calling her 'the people's poet'.
Her plays include Face Licker Come Home (1991), God of the Hatch Man (1992), Colie Lally Doesn’t Live in a Bucket (1993), Down All the Roundabouts (1999), The Plastic Bag (2008), The Empty Frame (2008) and The Colossal Longing of Julie Connors (2014). Her many awards include a Peadar O’Donnell Award in 1989, the Living Poets Society Award in 2021, and several Arts Council bursaries. She has held prison workshops in Ireland and the UK, and is a member of Aosdána. She is an Ireland Reads Ambassador, serving in 2025 and 2026.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Search results for Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 12523931-n
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00093352263
Seller Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: Rarewaves.com USA, London, LONDO, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: New. Ireland Is Changing Mother is Rita Ann Higgins at her edgy best: provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinks, jittery grief and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of the lives of the Irish dispossessed, before as well as since the demise of the Celtic tiger. This was her first new collection after her retrospective, Throw in the Vowels, and was followed by Tongulish. Seller Inventory # LU-9781852249052
Buy New
£ 10.66
Free Shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: 5 available
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: PBShop.store US, Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # FV-9781852249052
Seller Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: As New. Unread book in perfect condition. Seller Inventory # 12523931
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother (Paperback)
Published by
Bloodaxe Books Ltd, Tyne and Wear, 2011
ISBN 10: 1852249056
ISBN 13: 9781852249052
New
Paperback
Seller: Grand Eagle Retail, Bensenville, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Ireland Is Changing Mother is the latest collection from Rita Ann Higgins: provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinx, jittery grief and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of the lives of the Irish dispossessed, before as well as since the demise of the Celtic tiger. 'It shouldn't be unusual to hear a smart, sassy, unabashed, female working-class voice in Irish writing. But it is. Higgins's achievement doesn't depend on that rarity value, but it is certainly amplified by it. Higgins is, quite consciously, an artistic outsider. a unique fusion of wry, deadpan humour on the one side and absolute sincerity on the other. She doesn't congratulate herself for her sympathy with those who are (in this case literally) outside the world of art. She simply sees and writes. Her humour and playfulness keep sentimentality and self-righteousness resolutely at bay. She has made what is still the most direct and powerful statement of the class divide in Irish society. The boom years had no great effect on Higgins's voice, on her point of view or on her style. She had a manic linguistic energy long before the hysteria of the Tiger era quickened the pulse of the culture as a whole: Higgins could be regarded, in one of her guises, as Ireland's first rapper. Her political satire hasn't lost its edge, but it no longer reads as a cry in the wilderness. Now the bubble's burst, we re left with our real treasures, and Rita Ann Higgins is one of them.' -Fintan O'Toole, writing in The Irish Times on Ireland Is Changing Mother. Ireland Is Changing Mother is Rita Ann Higgins at her edgy best: provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinx, jittery grief and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of the Irish dispossessed. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781852249052
Seller Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: Rarewaves USA, OSWEGO, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: New. Ireland Is Changing Mother is Rita Ann Higgins at her edgy best: provocative and heart-warming poems of high jinks, jittery grief and telling social comment by a gutsy, anarchic chronicler of the lives of the Irish dispossessed, before as well as since the demise of the Celtic tiger. This was her first new collection after her retrospective, Throw in the Vowels, and was followed by Tongulish. Seller Inventory # LU-9781852249052
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 55605126-20
Buy Used
£ 8.26
£ 5 shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: PBShop.store UK, Fairford, GLOS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # FV-9781852249052
Buy New
£ 10.22
£ 3.29 shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: 10 available
Stock Image
Ireland Is Changing Mother
Seller: Majestic Books, Hounslow, United Kingdom
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. pp. 72. Seller Inventory # 3324948
Buy New
£ 11.90
£ 6.50 shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: 3 available