Turasóirí

Publication Instance Details #1913

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear) Terrorism/War on Terror
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Global War on Terrorism War: Iraq War and Insurgency
Irish Context	Colonization and Colonial Legacy (Ireland) Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This is a satirical poem in which the narrator of the poem speaks in the voice of a tour guide, portraying a journey around Iraq for tourists to implicate the US, UK, and notably the Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army, in the destruction of the ancient cities of Iraq. The ancient nature of Iraqi civilization, culture, and history are frequently mentioned, with the speaker of the poem juxtaposing this antiquity with their destruction or their overtaking by military installations during the War on Terror. Many Iraqi place names are mentioned: Nineveh, Sennacherib, Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra, Baghdad, and so forth, which creates a sense of the range of devastation caused by the War in Iraq. The tourists in the poem are also travelling with the American Air Force, highlighting the real point of the poem in criticizing the intervention in Iraq by Coalition forces.