NUMBED by the carnage in Gaza, North Belfast artist and Gaeilgeoir Pól Mag Uidhir asked himself what good would it do for his one voice to be raised against the Western-sanctioned slaughter.
But in answering his own question with a scathing condemnation of Israel in verse and images, the university prof has proven that even one protest voice can make a difference.
His publication, 'An Phalaistín Ar Ceal - Erasing Palestine', is a no-holds-barred indictment of the Israeli war on Gaza which has claimed over 41,000 lives, the majority women and children.
"I asked myself what use are mere words and images against bombs and bullets which have claimed so many lives," said Pól Mag Uidhir (in Irish), "but then I thought that the very intensity of the onslaught is aimed in part at disempowering those of us who are looking on. In that case, it becomes imperative to speak out. And who knows? When you look at situations like the fall of apartheid, perhaps it was millions of mini-acts of resistance which liberated people the people of South Africa."
Over 24 jarring pages, 'An Phalaistín ar Ceal' blasts the Israeli government and its Western apologists and armourers. It opens with 'Ghosts in the Soil' which contains the stanza:
Nuair a scríobh mé seo, bhí.../Nuair a léifidh tú seo, beidh.../cad é?/Beidh daichead míle anam/Caoga?/Dhá chéad, cluintear?/Faoi chré na cille/Balbh/Cill tíre, tír ina reilig, tírchill.
When I wrote this/There was.../When you read this/There will be.../What?/Forty thousand souls/Fifty?/Two hundred, we hear?/Under earth/And not/All so silent?In an arid solitude/Of graves/Their restless, unresting place.
The former cartoonist, playwright and film-maker also felt it important that his silence not be misinterpreted. "Wouldn't it be terrible if our silence was taken as approving the version of the war being broadcast by the BBC? After all, we didn't accept what they were saying when they were talking about us in the past so why accept it now when they are talking about Gaza?"
Pól Mag Uidhir exhibited his cartoons and drawings at Féile an Phobail last year and at Seachtain na Gaeilge in February of this year in An Chultúrlann — which included images devoted to Gaza. "I have looked at going down the animation route which would be one way to amplify the message in An Phailistín Ar Ceal - certainly I think the work is best when the images are viewed with the spoken word. But that's slow work - it can take a month to do one image — and we're not quite there yet."
You can purchase 'An Phalaistín Ar Ceal - Erasing Palestine' from An Ceathrú Póilí bookshop in An Chultúrlann or via their online shop. All proceeds from the publication will go towards the Aclaí Community Gym in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank which was co-founded by Andersonstown Gaeilgeoir Áinle Ó Cairealláin.
