(Réamhrá) ‘I ngan fhios dúinn pléascann buama’ 

Publication Instance Details #202

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)
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War
Irish Context	WW II (Ireland)
Languages	Irish
Genre	Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem is the introduction to the lyric sequence, 'Seabhac ag Guairdeall', in which the poet describes aspects of his childhood, viewed through the lens of Irish neutrality during World War II. In this introduction, the speaker of the poem describes the influence of the war on his childhood, and its influence on people in general in Ireland, despite Irish neutrality. Hiroshima is 'in our hearts', and Dresden is our 'hometown': Hiroshima suffered the atomic bomb; Dresden was bombarded and destroyed in one of the worst bombing attacks of the war. These events affect the 'us' of the poem - likely the Irish people as a whole - despite the official policy of Irish neutrality, mentioned here as an 'anáil cheilteach neodrach' = 'a secrective, neutral breath'. This is an interesting play on words - 'ceilteach' can refer to 'Celtic' as well as 'secretive'. There is a reference to 'Limbo' in this poem as well, a Catholic afterlife to which those who die with original sin without baptism are relegated. This likely refers to the state of Ireland during World War II.