Impireacht na Gréine

Publication Instance Details #127

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem describes the legacy of colonization on Shanghai. The title is significant, 'Empire of the Sun' likely referring to the Empire of Japan, into which Shanghai was subsumed in the 1940s. There is also a mention of the East India Company, a British joint-stock company founded in 1600, which explored and successfully employed Shanghai as a trading post in the 1800s, after the First Opium War with China. The East India Co. is described as barbaric in the poem - however their practices are now long gone. Of further significant is the reference to the bones of the dead buried under Lugha Airport in the final verse: this may refer to Japan's forced relocation of Shaghai burial grounds as a result of the Sino-Japanese War - 10,000 graves were forcibly moved.