Born in England, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill grew up in the Irish-speaking areas of West Kerry and Tipperary. As one of the few female Irish poets who write exclusively in Irish, she has been a major influence in revitalizing the Irish language in modern poetry.
In 1991, she received the prestigious American Ireland Fund Literary Award. Her poetry skillfully blends traditional Irish folklore with the cosmopolitan culture of contemporary Ireland. Ní Dhomhnaill has published four collections of poems in Irish: An Dealg Droighin (1981), Féar Suaithinseach (1984), Feis (1991), and Cead Aighnis (1998), each of which has won the Seán Ó Ríordáin Award. Four bilingual editions of her work also have been published, with English translations by poets such as Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon.