After Doomsday

Publication Instance Details #1151

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear) HR & Environment Health
Irish Context	Other
Languages	English
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	This is the deliberate breaking of a rose. Leave us alone. The blood is sick with thinking, Neither bird nor bone is innocent any longer, And a white rose against a brick wall in Dromcondra Is simply a shattering thing. Eugene Watters, The Weekend of Dermot and Grace
Notes	Long lyric sequence, published as a book. The poem, written before Chernobyl, references an imaginary post-nuclear Irish wasteland in which the speaker and his wife are the only remaining survivors. The poem references Irish government documents, announcements, and the radio is prevalent as their last link with civilization. The speaker and his wife go through a journey of dealing with the nuclear catastrophe in the sequence, ending with their probable deaths at the end of poem. There are mythological references to the coming of Christ, with the 'Second Coming' here the disturbing and unsettling birth of a nuclear wasteland in which the speaker now lives.