Hares and Hags: Becoming Animal in Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s Dún na mBan trí Thine

Abstract

Dún na mBan trí Thine (The Women’s Fort is on Fire) has much to say about Ní Dhuibhne as an Irish female writer and, indeed, as an Irish-language writer. Marking Ní Dhuibhne’s debut as a playwright on 10 November 1994 at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin, Dún na mBan trí Thine makes extensive use of ‘The Old Woman as Hare’ legend, a tale of a woman who transforms herself into a hare to challenge social boundaries and traditional hierarchies. In the fairy legend, becoming-hare is central to the protagonist’s freedom; in Ní Dhuibhne’s work, the otherworldly connections and associations with women’s creativity ensure that becoming-hare is concerned with the power of perceiving differently, of tearing perception from its human home. The literary critic is discouraged from over-coding the hare as a signifier of some ultimate meaning. Rather, the process of ‘becoming-hare’ encourages us to see the animal as a possible opening for a new style of perception, one which leaves itself open to what is not itself. Ní Dhuibhne’s narrative is not about the expression of meaning but rather about the production of new senses, new perceptions, and new worlds.