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The Children of the Nation:\u00a0<\/b>203pps., \u00a39 plus \u00a33 p. and p. or\u00a0\u20ac10 plus\u00a0\u20ac5 p. and p.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 ISBN:\u00a0978-1-912710-25-6<\/strong><\/p>\n This is 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\u00a0preoccupations of working-class life in contemporary Ireland. It has been generously supported by the Irish Trade Union movement.<\/p>\n The \u2018children of the nation\u2019 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.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n The anthology is inclusive and egalitarian, and values authenticity, relevance and communicativeness as well as literary skill and inventiveness.\u00a0It is grounded in individual effort, but has transformed these individual\u00a0endeavours into a collective expression of the lives, aspirations, concerns and\u00a0hopes of that class in our society which constantly has to struggle to get its\u00a0voice heard and valued.<\/i><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n For orders from Britain, use this button, \u00a39 plus \u00a33 p. and p.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n