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:

BUTCHER'S DOZEN:
A LESSON FOR THE OCTAVE OF WIDGERY
by Thomas Kinsella
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/kinsella.htm

Also, here is Seamus Deane's poem [click poem to read it or download], taken from his collection, Gradual Wars (IUP, 1972).

Cover of Thomas Kinsella's 1972 Peppercanister Press edition

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.

Casualty
by Seamus Heaney
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/poem-guide.htm...82158

And finally, a British Army attempt to render the artistic meaning of events, as they happened:

From a tape recording of snatches of conversation on Army radio during the shooting in Derry.

". . . 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.....

Seamus Deane's poem on Bloody Sunday, After Derry, 30 January 1972