An braim

Publication Instance Details #699

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear)
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	Samhain 1979
Notes	Poem describes an idyllic scene in a countryside area - piper (playing Scottish songs), houses, fields, cows. Folk reference to 'Eden' - indicates the peacefulness of the area. The scene changes suddenly when the poet imagines a thunderstorm or a nuclear fallout approaching and destroying the area. The speaker's mind is fixated on the thought that humanity and the world itself is just a quirk of reality, an afterthought of God. An existential poem. Paratext given indicates that the poem could refer to a nuclear 'near-miss' incident of 9 November 1979, in which computer errors at the North American Aerospace Defence Command led to an alarm and preparation for a non-existent imminent Soviet nuclear attack.