Emer O'Toole is Associate Professor of Irish Performance Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. She is author of Girls Will Be Girls (Orion: 2015), a funny introduction to academic theories of gender, and Contemporary Irish Theatre and Social Change (Routledge: 2023), an exploration of the relationship between activism and aesthetics on the Irish stage. Her academic work has appeared in journals including Sexualities; Contemporary Theatre Review; LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory; Éire-Ireland; and Target. Emer has contributed commentary, art criticism, life-writing, and fiction to a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Independent, Paper Visual Art, Winter Pages, RTÉ, Mirror Lamp Press, and Somesuch Stories. Her work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Korean.

Swan is in mourning for the death of her dear husband, The Earl of Derravaragh (or Iarla Ó hEalaí, as he had lately designated himself). Choosing a swan song for him is complicated by the fact that Swan hates all the Celtic twilight nonsense to which her Earl was so devoted. In truth, he wanted to be professionally keened by a flock of Aran Island seagulls, but Swan is hoping this fact will not be widely circulated, at least until after the memorial service. With no husband to guide her – indeed, no longer under anyone’s benevolent protection – Swan guards the majestic corner of Lake Derravaragh that passion (or conquest) has assured her family for almost 300 years. (The ducks want it, you see.) Alone, Swan sifts through the feathered fictions of her family and dares to wonder what may have been if the Earl of Derravaragh had not let his heart grow old. This is the second performance lecture in a series entitled She-Beast. She-Swan follows her predecessor She-Wolf into Irish colonial history, and, together, they offer the voices of the wild creatures who irrationally demand that the past be different.