Beairtle (XXXVIII)

Publication Instance Details #942

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	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies War HR Activism/Humanitarian Work
Irish Context	HR-related International Involvement (Ireland) Other
Languages	Irish
Genre	Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	Part of the 'Beairtle' extended sequence of poems, the speaker of the poem, describing events in Beairtle's life, makes reference here to Irish peacekeeping in the Congo in the 1960s. The poem also contains references to Lumumba, first leader of post-colonial Congo, the native tribes of the country, the United Nations, and Nelson Mandela. An Irish traditional song, 'Tá na Páipéir Dhá Shaighneáil' is referenced in the first 2 lines of poem. The 'Biorán Suain', the sleeping-pin of Irish fairies, is also noted as being part of the tribe's war armaments. The speaker of the poem describes Beairtle's attempts to keep the peace in the Congo, to little effect. He ends up in the hospital after an attack by some Luba tribespeople. This might be in reference to the Niemba ambush of 1960