Blues

Publication Instance Details #147

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	Racism/anti-Semitism/Sectarianism HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies State Violence
Irish Context	Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	'do John Jordan' Samhain 1967
Notes	This poem deals with racism and discrimination against people of colour. The racism of Irish people is mentioned in this poem, in which the poet berates those who use the 'n' word as having both insulted the person of colour and also having insulted themselves, him, and humanity as a whole. John Jordan, to whom this poem is dedicated, was an Irish poet and short-story writer, 1930-1988. The speaker of the poem also mentions some racist and colonial events during history which led to the deaths of people of colour: the Detroit race riots (1943) and the Sharpeville massacre of protestors by police (S. Africa). The Hola massacre (1959) at a British colonial camp in Kenya is also mentioned, during which 11 detainees were clubbed to death by camp leaders.