Art at a Crossroads: Heaney’s Response to the Troubles

Abstract

Northern Ireland has been called one of the most violent regions of this world. The Troubles as they are termed now was a period of heightened tensions and violence beginning in the late 1960s that ‘ended’ with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Seamus Heaney writing from that region has called out the intractable violence that has been a veritable feature of the region. In doing so, the poet recurrently overturns some symbols and metaphors of romantic poetry, most significantly of the nightingales and swallows. In his first poem itself he referenced digging through which he promised his readers that he will dig through his family history, the history of the turbulent region, and of troubles that flared during the 1970s and 80s. The paper then goes on to raise issues on the role of the artist in such a clime, and how to counter violence that seems endemic. He also calls for a middle ground that offers a place for conciliation and peace.