Faoi Chabáistí is Ríonacha (Of Cabbages and Queens),
Cló Iar-Chonnachta 2001
Winner of Duais Aitheantais Ghradam Litríochta Chló Iar-Chonnachta 1999 in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta. It has been translated into Romanian (published by Ars Longa) and Bulgarian (published by Orpheus).
Celia de Fréine's work resonates with expectation…There is exceptional imagery, enigmatic composure, gender-based humour, and linguistic assuredness.
The Black Mountain Review
Celia de Fréine is a remarkable writer in her own write…but also as a bilingual author, managing to find le mot juste and just the word in two languages.
breaking the skin, volume two: new irish poetry
As for the world of de Fréine's poems, it is unmistakeable once you are in it. It is like
surrealism without any intrusive special effects which might have taken it out of the everyday of experience...
Comparative Criticism, Cambridge University Press
Celia de Fréine's latest poems let ordinary plots of perception surrender to fable or,
abbreviated, to the parable of the moment…And most of these poems have stunning closures that, 
with well-planned oxymora, waylay the reader's expectations, just as a poem ought.
New Hibernia Review
She is a strong and often witty storyteller who is particularly interested in listening for
hidden tales to surface from below the merely anecdotal. These tales derive their power from mythic details, whether it is an allusion to the Celtic tradition…or dreams of the circus…
The New Irish Poets
Fiacha Fola (Blood Debts),
Cló Iar-Chonnachta 2004
Winner of Gradam Litríochta Chló Iar-Chonnachta 2004 in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Fiacha Fola is an extraordinary sequence of poems written through the eyes of a woman affected by the Hepatitis C scandal…There's no weak link here. Every poem provides another chapter, another essential link in the chain of events. The stark simplicity of language heightens the powerful range of emotions…In this incredibly powerful collection, Celia de Fréine has given us an absolute page-turner. Fiacha Fola is the best collection of poetry I have read this year.
The Irish Times
Tenderness, love and friendship run as a weave beneath the pain. More than anything else, De Fréine's narrator sings in a voice as eloquent as the psalms.
The Examiner
Máire Mhac an tSaoi, in her introduction to the book, announces that the poems collected here tell the story of a woman who had a tree fall on her…And the metaphor proves apt. In a heartfelt, beautifully crafted sequence of poems, de Fréine conveys exactly what that means…
Books Ireland
De Fréine's characteristics as shown in this collection are a social cogency, a capacity to express the private and personal so as to render it compellingly universal.
Poetry Ireland Review
Scarecrows at Newtownards
Scotus Press 2005
The first collection of poetry in English from this Patrick Kavanagh Award Winner.
Celia de Fréine is one of those strangely rare creatures of contemporary Irish poetry, a poet in both the official languages….It may be that this creative traffic between languages is responsible for the colloquial ease and flexible syntax that are so welcome in De Fréine's work, and perhaps it is responsible also for peppering her fables of contemporary life with odd but compelling medieval allusions. Either way, the more surreal the mixture, the better it works.
The Irish Times
De Fréine's evocative meditations seize the reader with a strange and unique mixture of sensuality and pain. Here too is the true poet's gift to surprise. Poem after poem captures its moment, its insight deftly, visually, forcefully… The death of poetry, I heard someone say. Not with books like this around. More like the death of criticism if poetry like this is not widely praised and recognized.
Rory Brennan, Books Ireland
It may be that this creative traffic between languages is responsible for the colloquial ease and flexible syntax that are so welcome in De Freine's work, and perhaps it is responsible also for peppering her fables of contemporary life with odd but compelling medieval allusion s. Either way, the more surreal the mixture, the better it works….This is an enjoyable and angular successor to 'Fiacha Fola'.
Selina Guinness, Irish Times