Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, in addition to being the most famed poet in the English language in the second half of the twentieth century, was also a playwright, translator, anthologist, and a greatly admired writer of critical prose. A breakthrough in his publishing life came in 1964 when Karl Miller, then editor of The New Statesman, published three of his poems, including ‘Digging’, the work that was eventually to occupy the prime position in his landmark collection, Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996. From 1967, one of the manifestations of these currents was the civil rights movement, which demanded equal treatment in employment, housing, and voting rights for Northern Ireland’s historically disadvantaged Catholic population. In 1968, Heaney wrote an uncollected satirical piece for radio, ‘Craig’s Dragoons’, which condemned police brutality towards marchers from this movement.