NEC members attending the INTOs Equal Pay for EqualWork rally on 27 October. Fron.t row: Mr. Luke McGinley,Mr. Tom Burke (President), Mr. Brian Mangan,Ms. Ita Sweeney. Middle row: Mr; Michael Finn,Ms. Sheelagh Coyle, Mr. Joe Cashin, Mr. Billy Sheehan.Back row: Padraig S 6 Conaill Uasal and Ms. Mciire Clarke.

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AVisit to Seamus HeaneyCountryby Teresa McManus, Dublin North

The first line in one of Seamus Heaney'spoems is Someday Iwill go to Aarhus.For a long time I knew that someday Iwould go to Heaney country. I havebeen an avid reader of Seam us Heaney'spoetry since 1966 when he firstpublished "Death of a Naturalist". Thequestion was how, and when to go.

The'problern was solved last yearwhen my husband pointed out an arti-cle in the Irish Times which concerned atour-operator in Magherafelt who is aprofessional guide with a thoroughknowledge, love and understanding ofHeaney's work. However itwas not untilAugust of this year (2016) that we finallygot to Magherafelt.

The guided tour by Eugene Kielt wassuperb but no surprise. A flatteringquote from an Irish Times article endswith the words: "One of the best guidedtours I have ever done" and from TheGuardian: "One ofthe top ten outdoor activities inIreland".

So many of Seam us's poems have come out ofthesmall area around Magherafelt, Castledawson andBe11aghy, the area where he was born and reared - familypoems relating to aunts, parents, grandparents; the verysad bereavement poems of his little bother Christopher,his niece Rachel and of his sister Ann; the poems of theTroubles, the tit-for-tat assassinations of Loyalist andRepublican groups: the lovely pen-pictures of ordinarypeople and of ordinary incidences - the blacksmith, thelocal barber, the butcher and most of all the small farmactivities in Death ofa Naturalist that many of us were sofamiliar with when we were growing up - churning,digging, picking potatoes.

We stood on the spot where Christopherwas killed andlistened to Mid-Term-Break recited by Seamus, westopped outside the building that was once the RUCbarracks in Castledawson from which the constable ofthepoem A Constable Calls comes. We saw a photo ofthestreetscape in Magherafelt, before and after the Bus

So many of Seamus's poems have come OUtof the small aLea around Maghe.cafelt.Castledawson and Bellaghy. the areawhe.ce he was born and reared

Station building was blown up by the IRAin 1987, andlistened to the poem Two Lorries that Seam us wroteabout this awful incident. This was the bus stop fromwhich Seamus caughtthe bus to Derrywhile attendingcollege there and where his mother met him on his return.

These are justthree examples of the very many placeswe stopped at where memorable things happened andpoems were born and we were dumbstruck.

We zig-zagged our way from Magheraflet to Bellaghy,where we visited Seamus's grave - a lovely last restingplace beside his family. We saw the hugely impressive,yetnot finished, multi-arts building which will be fittinglycalled "The Home Place" a beautiful memorial to Seamus.

We stayed two nights in Magerafelt in the superb guesthouse 'Laurel Villa' owned and run by Eugene and his wifeGeraldine.lt is a unique place - a shrine to poetry withpaintings, prints and posters of poets all overthe placeand hundreds of poetry books of all sorts, but especiallyof Seamus Heaney. There is a beautiful garden too, wherethe theme is continued, with poems in cellophane folderspinned on trees. Magical!

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