Praha

Publication Instance Details #184

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 & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies State Violence
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War
Irish Context	Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of the poem describes some of the events of the last century as they relate to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The poem hints at state oppression and colonization of both the Nazi and Communist regimes, with the physical reminders of both mentioned in the poem, such as the Nazi bullet holes and the Communist statutes. The speaker also mentions 'Hibernian Street' in Prague, where a Franciscan monastery which was established by Irish monks in the 17th Century. As the statues of Lenin and Marx are packed up and sent back to Russia, the speaker appears to note the Americanization of the new, post-Communist era in the final verse of the poem. There are references to Christian icons such as the twelve apostles in the poem.