Cogadh

Publication Instance Details #572

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
War / Genocide Referenced	War: First World War
Irish Context	Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of the poem reflects upon the death, hopelessness, and folly of war. Based on the original publication date, the poem was written before World War II, and thus likely retrospectively refers to the events of World War I. The speaker of the poem directly addresses France and Germany in the poem, castigating them for their bloodlust and eternal conflict, and reminding them of the glories of previous conflicts and wars, such as Caesar's Roman armies, all of whom lie unremembered in the clay. The speaker also refers to Irish mythological / historical figures who caused, or died in conflicts, such as Meadhbh, Cúchulainn, Brian Boru and Lifeachar. Regardless of the suffering and conflict of the past, the speaker acknowledges that the war machine will be prepared once again, and that the women will weep once more. Only death itself will benefit from this war.