Belfast Confetti
Introduction
Belfast is often described as a divided city with a recent history of violence. Ciaran Carson’s “Belfast Confetti” describes the menacing confusion when the “riot squad” try to disperse a demonstration but the scene “suddenly” becomes dangerously violent. Based on his experiences growing up on the Falls Road in West Belfast, Carson depicts his struggle to reach the safety of his home during a fierce conflict defined by religious identities.
The Title
Belfast confetti is a slang term used describe the improvised explosives used by rioters to attack the security forces. These crude bombs were constructed in the abandoned kitchens and blind alleyways of Belfast. Small pieces of metal were added to the devices so, when they exploded, the shrapnel caused even more devastation.
This massive burst of small missiles is euphemistically compared to the delicate confetti thrown at, for example, wedding ceremonies. The sardonic irony is quite shocking, but typical of Northern Irish humour.
The chaos of confetti becomes an effective description of the speaker’s confusion when he tries to evade the rioters and army.
The Riot
There are a number of simple signifiers in the poem that identify the riot. For example, the list of “nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys” refers to the improvised weapons being thrown by the residents at the “riot squad”. There is the loud “explosion” of the bomb itself and then the army return a “burst of rapid fire” in retaliation, escalating the danger of the confrontation.
In the second verse, it seems the British army has created a defence perimeter to contain the violence. It is lined by the mesh-covered Saracens, which were army-green armoured vans instantly recognisable on the streets of Belfast, and the soldiers wearing the plastic “Makrolon face-shield” to protect their heads from the crude missiles thrown by the rioters.
The two sides of the conflict are divided appropriately by this verse break.
The Conceit
A literary conceit is the imaginative and unusual comparison between two very different ideas. Carson’s “Belfast Confetti” compares the frenzied brutality of a riot to ordinary punctuation and this extended metaphor forms the basis of the entire poem.
For example, the first metaphor compares the shrapnel of “nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys” to “exclamation marks”. Visually, the comparison is very effective because they are both similar in shape and size. The poet’s use of the list and the hyperbolic “raining” suggests the “fusillade” is inescapable.
The “explosion” is compared to an “asterisk on the map”. Asterisks are often used to edit swear words which suggests the bomb is vulgar. However, the shape of the asterisk is also appropriate because of the way an explosion moves out from its centre. The “burst of rapid fire” is depicted by the ellipsis with each point representing another bullet.
At the end of the first verse, “the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and / Colons” which are metaphors for the army vans and police lines he cannot get past in the same way these punctuation marks conclude a sentence or clause.
Finally, there is the threatening “fusillade of question-marks” when the speaker tries to get through the army checkpoint. He feels like the questions are bullets.
Stuttering
People often resort to violence when the communication between two opposing factions breaks down. The “broken type”, which are the letters and punctuation of printers, is being compared to the “nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys” thrown at the army. Language and the ability to communicate is clearly “broken” in the first verse.
The speaker was “trying to complete a sentence in [his] head” but is also unable to communicate because of the violent confusion. His movement is described through the linguistic metaphor “stuttering”.
This contrasts with the aggressive fluency of the British army and their walkie-talkies. The poem finishes with a triple of questions: “What is / My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?”
The speaker is silent.
Street Names
Carson grew up in the Falls Road area of West Belfast and knew “this labyrinth so well”. It is a disorientating maze of narrow streets and terraced houses for anyone unfamiliar with the place, but the poet knows it intimately and is able to list their names: “Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street”.
However, during the riot, the streets are transformed into something more threatening and confusing because he cannot “escape” this labyrinthine trap.
These streets were named after important battles of the Crimean War. For example, the ferocious Battle of Balaclava was fought between Britain and Russia in 1854. Raglan was the commander of the British troops during this significant and famous victory. Inkerman was the location of the next battle that took place as the British forces moved closer to the strategic city of Sevastopol.
The bombardment of the Russian port of Odessa was another decisive triumph against the Russians for the British and their allies.
When the speaker moves through these streets, the allusions to the battles become a metaphor for the cavalry charges and sieges he must win if he is to “escape” the violent riot. Ominously, as a young Catholic in Republican Belfast, he is probably on the losing side rather than a redcoat of the victorious British army.
Structure
The poem consists of two stanzas and is written in free verse. The lines are long and, with the use of enjambment, seem to “stumble and fall into the next”. The speaker’s confusion is also conveyed through the uneasy rhythm created by the shrapnel of broken syntax, such as the use minor sentences, a quick succession of interrogatives and lists punctuated by commas and dashes.
“Belfast Confetti” begins in the past tense, but the second stanza shifts into the present and places the reader uncomfortably at the scene being interrogated by the soldier.
BBC Teach
Comprehension Questions
- What is “Belfast Confetti”?
- Suggest why the “riot squad” are closing into the streets.
- What is the purpose of adding “nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys” to an improvised explosive device?
- What does the hyperbolic “raining” suggest about the quantity of explosives and shrapnel in the air?
- What other dangers does the speaker face when he races through the streets?
- Why is the speaker unable to “escape” this “labyrinth”?
- Suggest who stops the speaker at the end of the poem.
- What is the central conceit of the poem? Select at least three comparisons and explain why they are effective.
- Is there any significance in the street names mentioned by the speaker?
- What message is the poet trying to convey?
- How does the structure of the poem support that meaning.
