understanding the splitting and doubling involved in the constitution
and performance of identities which can be problematized in relation
to Muldoonís other poems.
In interview with John Haffenden (1981) Muldoon argues:
One of the ways in which we are most ourselves is that we imagine ourselves to
be going somewhere else. Itís important to most societies to have the notion of
something out there to which we belong, that our home is somewhere else [Ö]
thereís another dimension, something around us and beyond us, which is our
inheritance.^21Muldoon ëthinks otherwiseí to an ëelsewhereí that is unheimlich yet
heimlich or ëour inheritanceí.^22 This comment does not completely
escape from the concepts of identity or community in the way
characterized by postmodern dissolution of identity. Rather, it looks to
the alterity that renders ëour homeí ësomewhere elseí and the ability to
not always occupy the same space, to not always be contained within
a knowable place or by a position of knowing. As he undermines
delimited notions of identity, Muldoonís poetry does not entirely do
away with identity; instead, the poetry takes a critical stance or dis-
position with regard to the positioning of identities.
In relation to this deterritorializing move on the part of Muldoon
as he describes always being elsewhere and beyond ëour inheritanceí,
it is worth remembering the mixed heritage and evolutionary aspects
of cultures and races. Prehistorically, Ireland was inhabited by
mesolithic settlers and neolithic farmers. The neolithic settlers
originated from the Middle East. They sailed in coracles to Ireland
from Spain, Portugal and Brittany. The existence of artwork in Ireland
similar to that in Brittany and the Iberian peninsula supports the
observation that these people in Ireland belonged to a group of sea-
borne immigrants.^23 Considering the subsequent history of Viking
invasion and British colonialism it seems strange that anyone may call
himself a true Irishman except in retaliation against British
21 John Haffenden, Viewpoints: Poets in Conversation (London: Faber, 1981),
p.141.
22 Cf. Richard Kearney, Post-nationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, Philosophy
(London: Routledge, 1997), pp.99–100.
23 John OíBeirne Ranelagh, ëPrehistory and Legendsí, A Short History of Ireland
(Cambridge: University Press, 1983, 2nd edn., 1994). pp.4ñ5.