AGAINST
ROME
This satirical and sometimes highly comic verse novel tells the story of Hannibal Colqhoun, born in Ireland, who like its author comes to political consciousness in 1930s Britain, against the background of the rise of fascism on the continent. The poem leaves him setting out to make his way in London, having decided to take a stand against political reaction, thereby like his Carthaginian namesake bringing ‘elephants against Rome’. In following Hannibal's development the reader gains original insights into a wide variety of topics and many a good chuckle.
C. Desmond Greaves’s work as a Labour historian includes biographies of James Connolly and Liam Mellows, studies of Sean O’Casey and Wolfe Tone, and the official history of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, Ireland’s largest trade union. It was Greaves who thought of the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to destabilise Stormont Unionist rule in Northern Ireland, which was implemented by the I960s Civil Rights movement there. For forty years, 1948-88, he edited the Irish Democrat, the radical monthly journal of the Connolly Association, London, which today still continues his work and ideas. Previous volumes of his poetry are Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, I983, and By the Clock ’Tis Day (with Alan Morton), I946.
Contents
Foreword:
Anthony Cronin
Introduction:
Anthony Coughlan
|
BOOK ONE A
Choosing a name B
The excursion C
Emer D
Miser Jim E
MacParland F
The pebbles G
The mountain H
Uncle Tom I
Schooldays J
Methuselah goes K
Poem L
Visit to the West M
Economic man N
Return to the East O
Leaving school P Poem |
BOOK
TWO A
Hunt the don B
Questions C
Philosophical discussion D
The spiritualists E
The don's dinner F
Money from the city G
Zoroastrian Dawn. H
Attercliffe editor I
The Clutterbrooks J
The mad party K The blackshirts
|
BOOK
THREE A
Fenchester Ferret B
Journey to Wales C
Dr Black D
Trial in the Rhondda E
Dr Black on mental illness F
Career choices G
The Egyptian H
The party meeting I The Branton Codex
|
BOOK
FOUR A
Sphinxy riddles B
Patti Sonnenschein C
The Einstein meeting D
The prostitutes E
Journey home F
Uncle Tom’s will G MacParland’s story H
Poem I London calling
|
ISBN 0-9518777-8-X An epic poem. Paperback, 147 pages.
Direct
Postal Sale (incl p & p) €5.00 - Shop Price at discretion of seller.