AN EPIC poem, written by a man who spent many years living in Galway, about the killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar in 1988 has been published in a new edition.
GiB – A Modest Exposure. An Epic Poem by Jack Mitchell, has been published by Nuascéalta Teoranta. It features an introduction by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams; a preface by Derry literary critic Séamus Deane, and an afterword by Galway Alliance Against War PRO Niall Farrell, a brother of Mairéad Farrell.
The poem is based on the killing of an unarmed trio of IRA volunteers - Mairéad Farrell, Dan McCann, and Seán Savage - by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988. In 1995 the European Court of Human Rights judged the case and found the British Government to be guilty of “unlawful killing”.
The event inspired Jack Mitchell, a literary critic, teacher, translator, writer, and political activist, born in Glasgow, to write the poem. It mixes satire with political analysis and draws on Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal in this context.
Mr Mitchell lectured in the Humboldt University, Berlin, in the German Democratic Republic and retired to Galway where he died in 1997.
GiB is available in paperback for €5.99 and from Amazon as an e-book for €2.99