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" . . .

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

Thomas Kinsell reads his Butcher's Dozen poem on Bloody Sunday
Thomas Kinsell reads his Butcher's Dozen poem on Bloody Sunday 3.4 Mb

Kinsell talks about his Butcher's Dozen poem - from Bowman Sunday, RTE Radio One, 20 June 2010
Kinsell talks about his Butcher's Dozen poem - from Bowman Sunday, RTE Radio One, 20 June 2010 1.24 Mb