Poetry A Wee Bit 'o Irish Poetry Return to St. Patrick's Day Page Irish poetry and literature are so often lumped with British literature that it's hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. This is an unfair and inaccurate lumping, however.
Irish poetry is the oldest literature in the vernacular in Western Europe.
Though Gaelic has seemed as though it might be dying during periods in the past, Irish poets were composing verse long ago, long before the birth of Christ. Even Ireland's patron saint, Patrick, wrote poetry. The first Irish poems were written by Amergin, brother to Ir, Evir and Eremon, the princes who colonized Ireland hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. Though it's impossible to know today whether or not the verses attributed to Amergin were truly written by him, Irish tradition calls him their first poet. Certainly, his words, even in translation, speak over centuries and across miles of the Irish spirit.