Poetry by Louis MacNeice, Max Caulfield and Maurice Craig inspired by Belfast the city where all three were born.
Eithne Dunne recites three poems about the city of Belfast, beginning with one written by the poet, dramatist, broadcaster and critic Louis MacNeice (1907-1963).
In 'Belfast' written in 1931 the reader is given an insight into Louis MacNeice’s relationship with the city of his birth,
Down there at the end of the melancholy lough
Against the lurid sky over the stained water
Where hammers clang murderously on the girders
Like crucifixes the gantries stand.
His childhood in Northern Ireland is recalled in the poem ‘Carrickfergus’ (1938),
Thence to Smoky Carrick in County Antrim
Where the bottle-neck harbor collects the mud which jams
The little boats beneath the Norman castle,
The pier shining with lumps of crystal salt...
The journalist, broadcaster and writer Max Caulfield (1915-1997) saw Belfast as 'the black city', because of
What is between Protestant and Catholic, between British mongrel and mongrel Irishman, that is, narrow hatred and bigotry.
The love-hate relationship which architectural historian and poet Maurice Craig (1919-2011) had with his native city is expressed in his poem ‘Ballad to a Traditional Refrain’ (1974), which has echoes of a song from the Ulster folk tradition,
But the bricks they will bleed and the rain it will weep
And the damp Lagan fog lull the city to sleep;
For it's to hell with the future and live on the past:
May the Lord in His mercy be kind to Belfast.
‘Facets: Limbo Lands’ was broadcast on 28 March 1972.
The 'Facets Irish' series examined the literary heritage associated with different parts of Ireland. 'Limbo Lands' concentrated on the literature of Belfast and the north-east of Ireland. The RTÉ Guide previewed the programme on 24 March 1972.
