Focail na mBan: Women's Words

Focail na mBan gathers Irish-language words connected with women’s bodies, including terms for vaginas, vulvas, clitorises and periods. The collection brings together formal, colloquial and playful expressions, showing how bodily language can draw on humour, landscape and everyday speech. Its scope also includes terminology associated with sexuality and reproductive experience, rather than treating anatomy in isolation.

The words are accompanied by visual responses from 29 artists, with contributions ranging across painting, photography, drawing, collage, sculpture and illustration. Essays by Annemarie Ní Churreáin and Tadhg Mac Eoghain consider language, bodies, queerness and reclamation, while poetry by Dairena Ní Chinnéide adds another literary dimension. Magan presents the book as an opening contribution, encouraging further recording of Irish words and women’s lore before they disappear from living memory.