KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
Latest editorial
Pulling the Ladder Up
by Christopher Norris
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip
NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain
Shabana Mahmood, that’s my name,
Grew up here, second gen;
Mum, Dad did well, but all the same
They landed way back when.
It’s folk like them I hold to blame
For coming now, not then.
I tell them: “Tough luck, it’s a shame,
But off you go again!”.
I’ve got my stake in Starmer’s game,
Developed quite a yen
For striking out each parent’s claim
With my resentful pen.
Think what your little girl became –
Not one more broody hen,
But scourge-in-chief marked out for fame
Amongst his hatchet-men!
I’ve fixed it so’s to skew your aim
And see that “citizen”
Stays one proud item Dad can’t frame:
Get lost, you alien!
Chris Norris is a Swansea-based poet, philosopher and singer with Cor Cochion Caerdydd
Similar stories
ANDY CROFT welcomes the publication of an anthology of recent poems published by the Morning Star, and hopes it becomes an annual event
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
The Labour Party proposal to scrap benefits for those unable to work will be debated in Parliament next Tuesday, and threatens the most vulnerable in our society. ALAN MORRISON presents some responses in poetry