Last night on BBC Northern Ireland
Fergal Keane interviewed the poet Michael Longley, whose poems often feature on the Leaving Certificate course (next in 2009, and so we will be studying the works before long with our V form). Referring to his own experiences as a war correspondent, particularly in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, Keane said :
For me Longley’s poetry rescued the dead from the land of statistics. It was his voice that caught me first - generous and tolerant.
During the programme, several of the poems on our course were referred to, including '
Last Requests', in which the poet remembers the death of his father. He said that as he gets older 'I miss him more and more' and that his poems about him are a way of 'saying to him that I love and respect him'. Longley discussed the devastating experience of World War I on his father, who was 17 when he signed up, and 20 when he was made a captain. He was one of the few soldiers who fought through from 1914 to 1918 and survived, and Michael said this 'burnt him out'. One of 'the sadnesses of my life' was not talking to him properly before he died before the poet was 21.
Keane also asked questions about the Troubles in Belfast, and
Longley's experience of Mayo, both of which are reflected in the Leaving Cert selection.
He also discussed his fine poem 'Ceasefire', which 'caused quite a stir' when it was published as the IRA were declaring their 1994 cessation. He revealed for the first time that the face he was thinking of when writing about the King of Troy, Priam, visiting the tent of his son's killer (Achilles) was that of the late Gordon Wilson, whose acts and words of forgiveness following the murder of his daughter Marie in the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing 21 years ago struck so many (Wilson's words can be heard
here, on the Spirit of Enniskillen Trust website).
Part of the interview took place in Mayo, Longley's 'home from home', and featured the poem '
Carrigskeewaun'. The programme can be seen again using BBC's new
iplayer for the next six days (only available in UK)
Several of the links here are to the
Teachnet resource on Longley also with a link in our sidebar, recommended for all our V form to look at when studying the poet.
The most successful and powerful Junior Play production of Antigone by Sophocles last weekend is reviewed for us by Kathryn Crossey from Transition Year.
Well done to the cast (above, with director Evan Jameson) of The Apollo of Bellac, our entry to the one-act festival at St Andrew's College. Last night their acting, presentation and ensemble skills were praised by the judges (the awards are on Thursday evening). Their dress rehearsal was in front of 50 pupils in the BSR on Monday. We hope it might be possible to put it on again here after the Mock exams.
The latest edition of the excellent Library magazine, The Submarine, is out shortly, and can now be seen online here (wait a few moments while it loads) [added 07-Feb-08 - see instead the Issuu version on the post for this date here] . Featured are :-
The American 'Center for Public Integrity' has just launched its remarkable and very detailed database called The War Card, the first analysis of what they call "935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." The database is fully searchable. There's also a multi-media archive.
teaching the language of persuasion or argument for the Leaving Certificate. See also Steven Poole's Unspeak blog (linked in our sidebar), an extension of his book of the same name (subtitled 'Words are Weapons'), analysing "state-of-the-art rhetorical weaponry, from 
Tonight and tomorrow night in the BSR we have our Junior Play 2008, Antigone by Sophocles (cast here, and pictured above) directed by Mr Peter McCarthy. It should an impressive experience, since they're a talented group of actors.
Both performances start at 7, and will end by 8.15. For background, plot and more, see the Wikipedia entry here (the Anouilh version here).
Our 21st Poem of the Week is Seamus Heaney's 'A Sofa in the Forties.' The Nobel Laureate read this at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration last Sunday in the Mansion House. The poem (from his book The Spirit Level) is set during the war, as a family of Irish children play trains on the sofa at home. It juxtaposes their make-believe play with the terror and tragedy of the Jewish people as they are transported across Europe to their terrible fates.
We will keep an eye on that last offender, and hope that the Language Liberation League strikes again. The local pub obviously also needs some help.
The 20th Poem of the Week is Lewis Carroll's famous nonsense poem 'Jabberwocky' :-
Last night on BBC Northern Ireland Fergal Keane interviewed the poet Michael Longley, whose poems often feature on the Leaving Certificate course (next in 2009, and so we will be studying the works before long with our V form). Referring to his own experiences as a war correspondent, particularly in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, Keane said :
