Eavan Boland was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1944. Since her father was a diplomat, she spent much of her youth in London, England. This Irish poet is deeply concerned with the identity of the Irish people and their relationship to England. She also takes a feminist view of history, and explores the nature of women in Irish culture. One of her main goals is to give a voice to women and mothers, who have been largely ignored in past Irish literature. Her published collections include In Her Own Image (1980), Night Feed (1982), Outside History (1990), and In a Time of Violence (1994). In 1994, Boland won the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.