Northern Windows/Southern Stars is a valuable, accessible and thought-provoking gathering of essays by the distinguished Irish poet and Professor Emeritus, Gerald Dawe. Re-tracing the issues and questions of poetry and politics in the Ireland of the 1980s and 1990s, the collection provides energetic and unexpected views of one poet’s critical readings, including the work of several overlooked poets of the time. While offering fascinating insights into the early processes of reimagining the canon of Irish poetry, Northern Windows/Southern Stars is full of thoughtful and telling reports from a very different Ireland at the point of significant transition by the turn of the millennium.