A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE TRIP TO THE SEAMUS HEANEY HOMEPLACE
Recently AS Level English Literature students from Coleraine Grammar School visited The Seamus Heaney Centre in Bellaghy to gain further insight into
the biographical and social context of Heaney’s writing and also his poetic style, both of which they have to analyse in the examination. Pupils
and teachers spent an enjoyable and beneficial morning, under the guidance of the very knowledgeable guides, viewing the impressive range of Heaney
photographs and memorabilia, while listening on audio wands to recordings of related poems, recited by the poet himself.
Pupils also enjoyed seeing the famous Heaney duffle coat and a replica of the pen his parents bought him the day before he left for St Columb’s College
in Derry. The displays entitled “The Anatomy of a Poem” and also a display of familiar, local dialect words which appear in Heaney’s poems such
as “thrawn”, “spraughle”, “throughother”, “farl” and “blathering” had cameras clicking. There was an opportunity for visitor to “try their hand”
at a bit of poetry writing themselves before those crucial visits to the coffee shop and gift shop. The pupils were also privileged to be the first
Alevel class to study a poem in the Heaney Library. Nevertheless, the most surprising aspect of the day was the pupil-led sing-along to Rod Stewart
and Abba on the way home in the bus!
