'Michael Hartnett we must place in a class alone. That his work in Irish has undoubtedly enormously enriched his muse in English is undisputed, so is his eminent status as a poet
                                         — Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Poetry Ireland Review

A Farewell to English, published first in 1975, culminated in the author's declaration that he would write in Irish only from then on.
For ten years he kept that promise.

This enlarged edition, which appeared in 1978 and gathered previously uncollected poems, contains some of Hartnett's finest work ('The Retreat of Ita Cagney', 'Death of an Irishwoman') and suggests why he was one of Ireland's most gifted and trusted poets.