The REAL reason behind China’s “Zero Covid” policy 22:40 Dec 07 0 comments August Socialist Voice is Out Now! 10:23 Aug 21 0 comments Vol 2 Issue 21 of New LookLeft magazine in shops now! 23:56 May 28 0 comments Media Condemn Presidential Insult but Not Austerity 00:22 Feb 02 0 comments It's a Wonderful Life 12:31 Dec 24 1 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony Waiting for SIPO Anthony
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Nigel Farage Has Found His ?Donor in Chief? to Fund His Push to Be PM ? And It Is Not Elon Musk Tue Dec 10, 2024 13:00 | Richard Eldred
British Writers, Artists and Other Cultural Producers are Complicit in Israeli and Palestinian Death... Tue Dec 10, 2024 11:00 | Anonymous Academic
Suspend All COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Due to Horrific and Unprecedented Side Effects, Say Leading Docto... Tue Dec 10, 2024 09:00 | Richard Eldred
The Crown Prosecution Service Needs to Explain Why so Many People Only Tangentially Connected to the... Tue Dec 10, 2024 07:00 | David Shipley
News Round-Up Tue Dec 10, 2024 01:01 | Richard Eldred
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionVoltaire, International Newsletter N?111 Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:25 | en Attempted coup d'?tat in South Korea Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:17 | en What is changing in the Middle East , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 03, 2024 07:08 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter N?110 Fri Nov 29, 2024 15:01 | en Verbal ceasefire in Lebanon Fri Nov 29, 2024 14:52 | en |
Poems of Bloody Sunday: Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Deane
derry |
arts and media |
opinion/analysis
Saturday July 03, 2010 10:17 by John O'Leary in the grave
.... and Seamus Heaney's effort Thomas Kinsella's Butcher's Dozen was written after the publication of the British Government's Widgery Tribunal Report in 1972. Here he is reading the poem and talking about it. The text of the poem is available here: And, to round off, a well-crafted effort by Seamus Heaney, which indicates how Heaney became a favoured poet of the self-satisfied southern middle class, who ran scared from the north in the 1970s. The Heaney poem comes with explanatory context. Deane's poem does not seem to be otherwise available online. ". . . You're mother's been killed by the Armee-e, Doo da, doo da" (voice singing). Static . . . "Return fire . . . Aim pistol lower regions . . Roger, Wilco. Out." . . . Static . . . (sound of shot) . . "Yoo-hoo! Well done! Keep it up." . . . more static . . . "I said shoot for lower regions . . . the balls" . . . "Over" . . . http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/mad.htm Readers can judge whether Kinsella and Deane or Heaney's contribution will stand the test of time.....
Thomas Kinsell reads his Butcher's Dozen poem on Bloody Sunday Thomas Kinsell reads his Butcher's Dozen poem on Bloody Sunday 3.4 Mb Kinsell talks about his Butcher's Dozen poem - from Bowman Sunday, RTE Radio One, 20 June 2010 Kinsell talks about his Butcher's Dozen poem - from Bowman Sunday, RTE Radio One, 20 June 2010 1.24 Mb |
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 3 2 1A video interpretation of Seamus Heaney's poem The Road to Derry. Produced for an interactive tourist guide for Derry City Council
Caption: Video Id: xLMlY56sahI Type: Youtube Video
Heaney
In its 15 June 2001 edition the Derry Journal published the attached article revealing that Seamus Heaney had written a poem at the request of Luke Kelly of the Dubliners in 1972. Heaney told the Derry Journal this in a letter in 1997.
The poem was written in 1972 on the day of the funerals of the Bloody Sunday victims. Heaney released half the poem in 1997 on the 25th anniversary of the massacres and, perhaps more significantly, three years after the IRA ceasefire. I wonder what is in the other half. Perhaps now, after the Saville Report has been released, Heaney might consider releasing the remainder for posterity.
The pages are from the Derry Journal's special edition on Bloody Sunday - it can be read in full here:
http://issuu.com/derryjournal/docs/savillereport/28?mod...e=a_p
Also attached, a page on Bloody Sunday in popular culture.
Half of Heaney's contemporary poem on Bloody Sunday - released 25 years later - click on the image to read it
Derry Journal's 15 June 2010 page on Bloody Sunday in popular culture - click on the image to read it
Page on which Derry Journal reported Heaney's half poem - click image to read it
During the hunger strikes and the blanket protests, there was criticism of Heaney for not supporting the protesters, some of whom were from his own area. Heaney claims Sinn Fein put pressure on him, which they deny.
In an interview in the book ‘Stepping Stones – Interviews with Seamus Heaney’ by Dennis O’Driscoll, he says that that on the night when Francis Hughes's body was returned from the jail to his family, he was staying in Oxford University in rooms that belonged to a British Cabinet Minister in Margaret Thatcher's government.
In some ways, Heaney has always been an acceptable face of Irish culture for a British audience. His night between the sheets in Keith Joseph's well appointed rooms at Oxford, while Francis Hughes (who he still describes as a "hit man") was lying dead in his parent's front room is, he admits himself, emblematic.