Mercy by Róisín Kelly John Irons Politics are never far away:

Politics are never far away: modern man’s severance from the earth

The collection’s title points to the underlying philosophy expressed in these poems: that earthly joy is

is grounded in her own life

magical worlds these poems inhabit

its traditions

Mercy by Róisín Kelly John Irons Politics are never far away:Ireland. Night. A grotto to the Virgin Mary illuminates a deserted road. Overhead, the soundless roar of the Milky Ways glittering traffic reminds us of a past that runs parallel to our own uncertain times. Olives ripen in a Portuguese valley. The sound of gunfire approaches a Paris caf. Irish women revolutionaries march towards their future. Tigers prowl through County Leitrim's rural townlands, whose old names emerge like neon signposts from the