Tragedy of Heaney’s best loved work, by his brother
THE brother of Seamus Heaney has, for the first time, recalled the tragic moment he witnessed their youngest brother Christopher being hit by a car, which inspired Heaney’s famous poem Mid-Term Break.
The poem recounts Heaney’s memories of returning from school for his four-year-old brother’s funeral after he was knocked down by a car.
For those who studied Heaney, the powerful imagery of the snowdrops soothing the bedside and the four-foot box (‘A foot for every year’) tend to stay in the memory but this is certainly the case for dairy farmer Hugh Heaney, 76.
In an emotional recollection, he said: ‘Christopher was killed in ’53, the 25th of February 1953, a quarter to six in the evening.
‘I was with him, so I was. I was there, he started running across the road behind the bus. Just ran out, just ran out. There was two other brothers across the road, he ran across to them.
‘You don’t forget things like that. It was a long time ago, 65 years ago but you don’t forget it.’
Heaney’s surviving brothers Hugh, Charlie, Colm and Dan have opened up about their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his finest poems in a BBC2 documentary which will air on November 30.
Heaney’s wife Marie, and his three children
Michael, Christopher and Catherine, also talk about their family life and their memories of the great poet.
Marie recalls how they first met at a dinner in Queen’s University – where they both studied on a Tuesday night – where he loned her a book and told her he wanted it back by Thursday, she said: ‘I had to read quick!’
She said: ‘We met then on Thursday and although we’re both very cautious people I think we knew at that point that we would end up together – and we did for over 50 years.’ She went on: ‘He was very handsome, unusual looking, and he was a very charming man. So it wasn’t hard to fall for him.’
Their first date, a walk along the embankment in Belfast, inspired the poem Twice Shy, which was gifted to her by Heaney two days later.
She said: ‘I would have known a bad poem if I got it and I’m glad I wasn’t getting a bad poem, I was getting a wonderful poem.’