Burning Furze

Publication Instance Details #568

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	War State Violence
Irish Context	Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Béiteáil
Original Author	Liam Ó Muirthile
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem could refer to any number of events during the Gulf War and/or the Basra 1991 uprising. The Basra uprising occurred in the wake of the Gulf War, in which Saddam Hussein violently put down a rebellion formed mainly of his demoralized Gulf War troops. Otherwise, the poem could also refer to the 'Highway of Death': this refers to a road between Kuwait and Basra on which retreating units of the Iraqi army as well as Iraqi civilians were attacked and destroyed by American aircraft and ground forces during the United Nations Coalition offensive in the Gulf War. The speaker of the poem is reminded of these events due to his burning of furze (gorse) plants to clear way for farm growing. The burning limbs of the plants reminds him of the charred bodies on the road to Basra.