Trouble Trouble

I grew up reading Seamus Heaney - he was my granny's very favourite poem. He was and will remain in the top five for me as well, how could he not? He is from the same county in Northern Ireland that me and my family are from, Derry. I have always had an automatic connection with him due to that, and my whole family and I have always connected with the content of a lot of him poems. Many of my family members are farmers, and every single one of them had lived through and experienced first hand the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Troubles, long story short, were a period of conflict in mostly Northern Ireland between the Unionists, protenstant loyalists to the queen and the Catholic republicans who fought for a united Ireland. Not to get political or anything, but I am Roman Catholic, and a die hard Irish nationalist- I advocate for a united Ireland completely.

I grew up hearing about these Troubles and have experienced the prejudices that still exist today. So Seamus Heaney's work really hits home for me.

"Punishment" has long been a poem that I have loved, the imagery is solid and the story behind the poem is actually super interesting. If you have never heard about the "bog bodies" that were found you can read all about them here:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/09/bog-bodies/bog-bodies-text

Heaney wrote this particular poem about Windeby, a young boy found in Germany - who originally, at the time Heaney wrote the poem, was thought to be an asulteress young woman. Here's what he/she looks like:



Cool, huh? So, the reason Windeby was thought to be an adultress was because as you can see in the picture all the hair had been shaved off. However, in recent developments to the investigations, archeologists believe that the hair was scraped off by excavating trowels... oops! But the poem isn't just about Windeby - he uses the bog body to reflect on the experiences he had during the troubles. Women were tarred and feathered by the IRA - a very extreme terrorist organization in Northern Ireland that has always gone to some extremes to fight for a united  Ireland. These boys were bad news, what they stood for was good but how they went about their fight was completely wrong. But on the other hand, Heaney is also calling out the British Army as well as the IRA, because they were just as bad back to the Irish (Bloody Sunday...) - they tortured the Irish in Belfast. Neither side was more just than the other, and neither had any right to do anything they ever did, and Heaney uses "Punishment" to talk about being between the two terrible groups.

I absolutely love this poem !
Cat