The short life of Sidney Keyes (1922–1943) is in itself a striking metaphor for the cruelty and futility of war. He was killed in action before his twenty-first birthday in Tunisia. His book The Cruel Solstice (1944) can be read on Faded Page (tinyurl.com/4282dd4u). Keyes was an unusual poet, […]
Culture
“Let the axe strike at the root”
Engels said about Shelley: “Byron and Shelley are read almost exclusively by the lower classes; no ‘respectable’ man is likely to have the latter’s work on his table without coming into the most terrible disrepute.” Born shortly after the French Revolution, Shelley was heir to a substantial estate and […]
Georg Weerth | A young revolutionary in nineteenth century England
Weerth, the German proletariat’s first and most important poet, the son of Rhineland parents, was born in Detmold, where his father was church superintendent. In 1843, when I was in Manchester, Weerth came to Bradford as an agent for his German firm, and we spent many a pleasant Sunday together. […]
POETRY: Crossroads
CrossroadsIreland during the Civil War, 1922–23by Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh (1874–1957)Translated from the Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock How mysterious, this road ahead, Behind me, a road of desolation. Roads to the left and the right of me— Whither now, Lord of Creation? My feet can hardly carry me, Empty hands, my […]
Marlene Dietrich: An outspoken enemy of her Nazi homeland
Marlene Dietrich, who died thirty years ago on 6 May 1992, must be remembered not only for her importance as a role model for emancipation but also for her outspoken and active stand against her Nazi homeland. Born in Berlin on 27 December 1901, she became one of the most […]
James Connolly Festival 2022
The James Connolly Festival is an annual, week-long series of events in radical arts, culture, and politics. It is a community-centred celebration of music, film, discussion and debate that brings together the ideas and thoughts of progressive and radical thinkers and organisations from around Ireland and beyond. Since the festival’s […]
Hobo Musician
Being There (a found poem from The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck) We’ll be ever’where —Wherever they’s a fightso hungry people can eat,we’ll be there. Wherever they’s a copbeatin’ up a guy,we’ll be there. We’ll be in the way kids laughwhen they’re hungryan’ they know supper’s ready.An’ when our folks […]
Coming of age during the Iranian Revolution
Based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name, the film Persepolis follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The film moves from her early childhood in secular 1970s Iran, where Marji’s deepest desire is to be the next […]
Irish Rebels in Latin America
Tomás Mac Síomóin, From One Bright Island Flown: Irish Rebels, Exiles, and Martyrs in Latin America (Nuascéalta, 2022; €9.10 / £7.30). Available on line. The defeat of the Gaelic Irish, supported by Spanish forces, at the Battle of Kinsale in 1602 was the final blow in the English conquest of […]
More haikus by Gabriel Rosenstock
Iraq: A bilingual photo-haiku portfolio Gabriel responds to images from Iraq by the acclaimed photographer Maxime Crozet. Iraq . . . all that has gone all that remains an Iaráic . . . a bhfuil imithe is a bhfuil fágtha ··············································································································· a mirage? former palace of Saddam Hussein in Babylon ciméara? seanphálás Saddam Hussein […]
In defence of hospitality
We have become accustomed in recent years to manipulative language, such as the absurd euphemisms intended to inflate the prestige of really quite ordinary people and things but especially to disguise more unpleasant ones, such as “law enforcement” (police) and “correctional facility” (prison). Some of this kind of thing has […]
When artists take the side of the people
The title of Robert Ballagh’s painting The Thirtieth of January makes clear its connection to Goya’s The Third of May. But of course the visual language is also compelling. While in Goya’s picture the outline of Madrid sets the location of the executions in 1808, in Ballagh’s it is the […]
Haiku and tankas
An Croí Ró-Naofa san India A bilingual tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables), in response to a mural in Chennai. The tanka is the oldest form of verse still being cultivated today, stretching back 1,300 years to its beginnings in Japan. an Croí Ró-Naofa ar lasadh i ngach cistin fadó in Éirinn ar […]
Liam O’Flaherty and the Irish Free State
Liam O’Flaherty is one of the foremost Irish fiction-writers of the twentieth century. Like none other, he commented in his work on the early years of the Irish state following its incomplete independence from 1921. Betrayal of the ideals of 1916, betrayal of the ideals of the War of Independence, is the […]
An independent entertainer
It’s worth recalling that one of the highlights of the James Connolly Festival of 2016 was the music performed by Bad Sea, which closed the festival with an incredible performance from the lead singer, Ciara Thompson, who lifted the roof with her magical voice. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, or CMAT, the moniker she has adopted, […]
Greed – A found poem
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think […]