Belfast ConfettiCiaran Carson

Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, in 1948. He graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast, and worked for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland until 1998. He is an accomplished musician as well as a poet and novelist.

Carson was a young man in Belfast when the Troubles began in 1969. ‘The Troubles’ refers to almost 30 years of

violence between the nationalists (mainly Roman Catholic) who wanted

independence from the UK and the unionists (mainly Protestants) who

believed in strengthening the political ties between Northern Ireland and Britain. Armed paramilitary groups,

including the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), made Belfast a terrifying place to live between 1969 and 1997 and much of the violence took place around the Protestant

Shankill Road and Catholic Falls Road areas. The British government claimed that its forces were in Northern Ireland

to keep law and order, but Irish republicans objected strongly to the

presence of the British soldiers.

This poem's set in Northern Ireland during 'The Troubles' , a period when there were lots of

terrorist incidents between Catholic nationalists and

Protestant unionists. The narrator is caught

up in a bomb incident in Belfast. He describes his attempt to get to safety away from the bomb. Every time he tries to

escape, his attempts are thwarted by security forces and confusion.

The poem is written in the first person, giving a dramatic description of what it felt like to be caught up in the violent riots in Belfast in the

1970s. In the aftermath of an IRA bomb, there is chaos and the ‘riot squad’ moves in. In his

confusion and terror the poet cannot find his way through the maze of Belfast streets that he

usually knows so well. He is stopped and interrogated by British soldiers, but is unable to

communicate with them to answer their straightforward questions. Nothing makes sense

to him anymore.

You should compare this poem with other poems about the same themes: reality of battles: 'The Charge of the

Light Brigade', 'Bayonet Charge'; divided society: 'The Right Word', 'The

Yellow Palm'.

Belfast Confetti

 

Suddenly as the riot squad moved in it was raining exclamation

marks,

Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And

the explosion

Itself – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire …

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept

stuttering,

All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and

colons.

 

I know this labyrinth so well – Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa Street –

Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street.

Dead end again.

A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie-

talkies. What is

My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?

A fusillade of question-marks.

Suddenly as the riot squad moved in it was raining exclamation

marks,

Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And

the explosion

Itself – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire …

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept

stuttering,

All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and

colons.

‘Belfast confetti’ is a euphemism for miscellaneous objects that were thrown during street riots: ‘nuts, bolts, nails, car keys’, even tin cans. Sometimes they were added to IRA bombs to cause more injury. It is ironic that nuts and

bolts, which usually hold things together, should be used in conflict to hurt and alienate others. Also confetti (small pieces of coloured paper) is usually thrown over a new bride and groom to celebrate a happy union but here small

pieces of metal are hurled to break up relationships and create discord.

Punctuation is the way we make sense of language. It tells us when to pause, stop

and start again. Too little punctuation causes confusion and too much results in

short chaotic, panicky sentences. The speaker in the poem is caught up in a

violent bout of street fighting and cannot ‘complete a sentence in his head’. Carson skilfully weaves most types of punctuation

mark into the poem.

Just as he feels out of control, so the

sentences are erratic. His language stops and

starts, whether because of ‘a burst of rapid

fire…’ or because he repeatedly loses his way

and has to turn back: ‘Dead end again.’

Regular use of enjambment

effectively throws emphasis on single

words like ‘explosion’ (l. 4) and ‘stuttering’ (l. 8) and the natural

breakat the end of line 16, where he seems to break mid question,

stresses his confused state when inhuman

masked figures impede his progress. Carson contrasts the short jerky sentences

with lists, whichgive a feeling of

panic.

Carson plays visual tricks:● ‘Fount’ is another word for ‘fountain’ which suggests that words are being cut short as the

‘confetti’ sprays through the air. There is no time for talking, for reasoning.

● ‘An asterisk’ on the map (*) looks as though there has been an explosion on paper.

● ‘A burst of rapid fire’ is followed by … (an ellipsis), a punctuation mark when there has been something missed out or there’s more

to follow.

I know this labyrinth so well – Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa Street –

Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street.

Dead end again.

A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie-

talkies. What is

My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?

A fusillade of question-marks.

Carson chooses two stanzas of equal length. The first is in the past tense, describing the violence and its effect when caught up in the conflict. The second stanza shifts suddenly

into the present tense. It is as though the narrator is suddenly back inside the experience, reliving the fear of no longer recognising his home town and being questioned by

hostile looking soldiers. The British soldiers in their riot gear seem

particularlymenacing when he

comes face to face with them. With their

armoured vehicle, barbed-wire fences and

face-shields, theydo not even seem

human.

The questions on line 17 at the end of the poem are in list form, not only

to suggest confusion, but they also inform us of

the standard impersonal questions the soldiers

ask. The disturbed individual, lost in his own

city, seems unable to answer. Do you think the

questions also suggest that there are no easy answers to preventing the violence in Belfast?

The whole poem seems to be an extended metaphor for the way

that violent conflict destroys language. Language is a system

of communicating ideas, thoughts and feelings with other people. Take away language and

conflict cannot be resolved.

● ‘Raining exclamation marks’ from the first stanza suggests the sudden shouts and cries of alarm caused by the attack.● ‘An asterisk on the map’ (*) also in the first stanza looks as though there has been an explosion on paper.● All the alleyways and side streets are ‘blocked with stops’ in the same way that full stops halt the reader.● ‘Fusillade’ usually means that a weapon is firing one shot after another: ‘A fusillade of question marks’ has the effect of one question being fired after another as the narrator struggles to answer in his uncertainty and fear.● ‘Stuttering’ is also used metaphorically to give the sound of ‘the burst of rapid fire’ as well as the implication that the narrator cannot get his words out coherently.