The Children of the Nation: An Anthology
of Working People’s Poetry from Contemporary Ireland
On
Saturday, 23rd November at 3 p.m. in Connolly Books, Dublin, Fr.
Peter McVerry will launch a unique anthology of poetry in both Irish and
English by Irish working-class writers from the thirty-two counties of Ireland.
There are sixty-seven contributors, women and men, of all generations,
including both emerging and established writers. The common focus is on themes
which reflect the texture and preoccupations of working-class life in
contemporary Ireland.
The
anthology is edited by Jenny Farrell and published by Culture Matters, a
website and publishing co-operative which takes a progressive and socialist
approach to the arts and culture generally. It has been generously supported by
the Irish Trade Union movement.
The ‘children of the nation’ were promised equal treatment in the
Proclamation of the Irish Republic of 1916. However, the lived realities of the
working class, the unemployed, the precariously employed, the homeless, and
other groups have rarely appeared in mainstream published poetry in Ireland and
Britain.
This is the first anthology to be published in Ireland which
focuses on poetry written by and about working people and their experiences,
cares and concerns.
As
Brian Campfield, past President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, writes
in his Foreword:
The
anthology is inclusive and egalitarian, and values authenticity, relevance and
communicativeness as well as literary skill and inventiveness. It is
grounded in individual effort, but has transformed these individual endeavours
into a collective expression of the lives, aspirations, concerns and hopes
of that class in our society which constantly has to struggle to get
its voice heard and valued.
The
poems are about life at the margins of society. The themes include class, the
treatment of women, work and worklessness, poverty, violence, racism and many
other social and political issues. They express suffering, exploitation and
abuse, but also hope, solidarity and internationalism.
One of
the central themes is homelessness – homelessness in the sense that
people are alienated from this society, and forced into emigration;
homelessness in the sense of not being able to afford a home, and being at the
mercy of private landlords; but also homelessness in its starkest, most inhuman
form of being out on the streets with nowhere to go. As one poet in the
anthology concludes:
The/
rich get richer and the/ poor grow more/ poor, and most of us have/ nowhere to/
live. For there ain't no home/ in Dublin.
It is
therefore fitting that Fr. Peter McVerry will launch this pioneering
anthology. There will also be
brief addresses from the Irish Trade Union Movement and from Culture Matters,
as well as poetry readings by some of the contributors.
The Children of the Nation: An Anthology of Working
People’s Poetry from Contemporary Ireland. ISBN 978-1-912710-25-6
Price: €10/ £9 plus p. and p.
Available from the Culture Matters website,
culturematters.org.uk.
Tempted though I am to select many pieces for special mention here (some contributions are truly remarkable), I’ll keep shtum and let readers decide for themselves. But I will say that this book is beautifully produced and features works of fiction, memoir, history, ballad and performance poetry, essay and of course some nostalgia. And the real beauty is in the fact that this motley crew of writers come from every walk of life and every age group, from 8 to 80, with the ‘young poets’ section assuring the safety of poetry as an art form in the future. There are pieces here by experienced award-winners, too; they know who they are.
