Further to today’s lesson where I mentioned about the current news story relating to the Good Friday Peace Agreement, here’s a few links to news articles relating to the secret IRA letters. Have a read to help you gain further understanding of The Troubles and the Republicans/Unionists.
Man accused of 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing walks free
Ex-First Minister denies knowledge of IRA fugitive
David Cameron orders suspects review
Miss O
The poem Belfast Confetti was written by Ciaran Carson and published in 1990. Carson lived through the Troubles – a period of frequent Protestant-Catholic violence in Belfast from the late 1960s to 1998. A feature of the Troubles was the planting of homemade bombs, particularly by the IRA (Irish Republican Army). These were filled with nuts, bolts and nail, which would become lethal spray when exploded. The following website gives you key information about this conflict:
The poem describes the explosion of a homemade bomb in Belfast, and the British Army riot squad moving in. The poem explores the reality of battle – being trapped, fear and confusion and violence. We are thrown in to the action with the opening word ‘Suddenly..’ similar to Hughes’ Bayonet Charge. Stanza 2 describes the poet/narrator trying to escape the area but being prevented from doing so – the idea of the mythological ‘labyrinth’ is a key image. Every time he tries to escape, his attempts are thwarted by security forces and confusion. The language changes from past to present tense between the first and second stanza to show the narrator’s inability to escape.
The punctuation metaphor is central to the poem. In fact the title itself is multi-layered. Belfast confetti refers to the wage metal fragments from Belfast’s shipyards, already in sever decline by 1990. The ironic use of ‘confetti’ could suggest the uncomfortable marriage of the Protestant and Catholic residents. The phrase refers to the bomb’s shrapnel which Carson pictures as punctuation. The confusion of the blast is mirrored by the narrator’s unfitted sentence in his head ‘stuttering’ almost like machine gun fire.
The poem has irregular line lengths, incomplete sentences, ellipsis and enjambment all giving a fragmented feel to the narrative, as if the narrator’s state of mind is unstable. Long lines alternate with shorter ones to suggest the poet keeps reaching a dead end – ‘colons.’ The use of lists too (the bomb’s contents, the streets, the military paraphernalia) add to the sense of chaos and confusion.
This poem was last named in the Higher June 2011 paper. The poem can be compared to The Charge of the Light Brigade and Bayonet Charge for the theme reality of battles. It could also be compared to The Right Word and The Yellow Palm in relation to divided society. We will look at this poem in today’s lesson.
Miss O
miss, the dog ate my homework 