Lá i 1947

Publication Instance Details #10

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes

Details

Human Rights Issues	War Genocide HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear)
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War Genocide: Holocaust
Irish Context	Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of the poem describes a day in 1947, when he receives a copy of National Geographic from his uncle. Reading the magazine under his bedcovers, he imagines himself in fantastical worlds of murder and intrigue, as reflected in the pages of the magazine. However, the speaker reflects that it was reading the National Geographic that raised his awareness of death, destruction and war: he mentions the aftermath of World War II in Japan, the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the reality of the Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps. The speaker of the poem reflects on his childhood innocence at the time, and his ignorance of the Cold War that was about to start, when the age of 'an dá iolar' - the 'two eagles' was about to dawn. Contrast between Irish childhood in post-neutral Ireland and the realities of the wider world.