Red Trial

Publication Instance Details #1113

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	Death Penalty/Unlawful Detention/Incarceration
Irish Context	Other The Troubles/Sectarian Tensions (Ireland)
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print
Paratext Text	An explanatory note accompanies each poem in the anthology 'Human Rights Have No Borders'. The explanatory note to 'Red Trial' reads as follows: The original subject of this piece was to register my acute sense of shock on discovering that one of the prisoners in my poetry session at Long Kesh was undergoing four life-sentences but was in fact innocent. Ten years of his life cannot be returned to him, and he is one of many, even though their release may come soon. I send it also on behalf of Róisín McAliskey, who was detained uncharged while her child was born under penal circumstances no less unjust than Anne Devlin's in 1803. Like her, she will bear the scars always. For those on death row, mostly blacks and some women, under federal law in several American states, where execution is a Damoclean sword. I hoped the chemical mix of the poem might hold a lot of ambivalent moral questions and responses in its solution.
Notes	The poet's explanatory note indicates that this poem was initially written as a response to a miscarriage of justice in Northern Ireland, although it has international resonances. There is an explicit reference to false imprisonment 'a long detention on mere suspicion' and to the right to a fair trial. State abuse of power is alluded to in the poem.