HALF MACE, CARNA, Connemara, County Galway situated in the wild west of Ireland lies well beyond the pale of Trinity College, Dublin far to the east. Numerous small fields divided by loose rock walls are the main features of this hilly and treeless terrain. How stark a contrast is the Gaeltacht (Irish Land) compared to the neat, flat, and uniform English panorama that Trinity’s College Green presents.

Queen Elizabeth I founded Trinity College in 1592. She had fond hopes “of civilizing the Irish barbarian” and of discouraging Irish culture and Catholicism. Her university’s best efforts failed on me. To maintain my independent identity, on weekends and holidays I would hasten back to our house down by the sea in the village of Half Mace. Professor Brendan Kennelly from Trinity’s English Department knew better than England’s ginger queen. He used to laugh at me upon my return to class, repeating Breatnac, Breatnac, my surname in Irish, and then commenting in English, “you can’t take the bog out of the boy!”