An Interview with Dareina Ní Chinnéide

Dareina Ní Chinnéide was always meant to be a poet. Every word she speaks sounds like music: rhythmic and moving. There’s a sharpness to her too. She’s witty and confident, and I found myself fully immersed and focused on her every word. With her bright blue glasses and her pink floral scarf on, she gladly answered each of my questions in her soft Irish brogue, usually adding at least one wheezy laugh when reminiscing on the inspiring life she’s lived. 

Dariena began writing at a young age because of her father. He was a poet himself, and she has fond memories of seeing him at the kitchen table, translating a play. She knew that writing would be a solitary endeavor, as it had been for her father, but it was a beautiful sort of solitude. She wrote her first poem at the age of 12 and kept a diary filled with quotes from books and films. School essays were “the place for [her] imagination,” and she considered herself lucky to have had English teachers who encouraged her. She recalls first considering herself a writer at age 17 while “walking around Dublin, going into used bookstores, and buying French poetry to translate.”

Having visited her home of West Kerry, Ireland, I knew that her poems inspired by the mystical, natural beauty of Ireland were spot on, and I was not shocked when she told me that she finds inspiration for writing looking out her window. Growing up at the foot of a mountain, she nostalgically recalls standing at the window in her childhood home and “looking out at the horizon. . . Icarus-like.” She emphasizes how important reading was for her growth as a writer as well. When reading Alice in Wonderland, she remembers with a laugh, “finally [getting] to the part about the Jabberwocky, and everything just made sense!” Dariena also loves song and dance, and draws on the rhythm and motion of both when writing. 

When asked why she enjoys writing, Dariena said with a happy sigh, “Writing keeps me alive.” It’s something she feels passionate about and has woven into her daily practice. She elaborated, “It is an extension of myself, allowing me to understand the world around me. It just brings me great joy.” 

Because writing is as vital as breathing to her, Dariena does not back down from the challenges that life as a writer poses. She describes herself as “having a forked tongue” because she can speak and write in both English and Irish. This made some people turn up their noses, believing she was turning her back on her native tongue. However, Dariena sees her abilities as inclusive because she is able to translate her own words herself and share them with more readers. Especially when she first began writing, Dariena also faced challenges as both a single mother and a poet (however, she doesn't like to think of herself as a single mother, but an independent parent). She worked as a translator for years so that she could write and take care of her son. People frowned upon her for bringing her son to her master’s classes and poetry readings. Dariena looks back on these memories with positivity, saying, “My son deserves an award for attending so many of my readings with me!”

The advice that she lives by to trust her gut and to trust herself with words, and that sentiment is reflected in the easygoing confidence she has when speaking. She knew what felt right in her gut when writing, and she learned to believe that feeling. She allowed her editors to do their job, but she also learned to stand her ground when it came to Irish dialect. Sometimes that dialect is not written correctly in terms of grammar, but she could trust the dialect in such situations and fight in that corner when discussing grammar with editors. If Dariena could go back and give her younger self advice she would say, “Don’t be afraid of critics. They exist, so don’t get disheartened by a sentence written by someone with a narrow mind.” Because she knows that critics can be negative and because she was given support during her writing process (by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, a prominent female Irish poet whom Dariena referred to as “a rockstar of Irish poets”), she mentors young writers so she can give that support back to those who need it. She said, “Writing is a delicate process. . . I encourage and offer support.”

Dariena has 11 published works in both English and Irish, and has just released Cinnlínte: Breaking Verse, an album combining Dareina’s poetry with both Steve Cooney and Rónán Ó Snodaigh’s music. All can be purchased on her website: https://dairenanichinneide.com. 

December 2022