On this day, April 10, 1998, the Agreement was signed, bringing a start to peace in Northern Ireland. We look back on the achievements of the past twenty years with the help of famed Irish poet Seamus Heaney.
Northern Ireland is today celebrating 20 years of peace and two decades since the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement on April 10, 1998. As we reflect on the trials and tribulations but the ultimate success of the last 20 years of maintained peace in Northern Ireland, the words of Irish poet Seamus Heaney come to mind.
Perhaps more so than any other Irish poet, the Nobel Laureate for Literature, who passed away in 2013 aged 74, left us with the words with which we can speak about this troubled time in Ireland’s history and how it was overcome.
Read more: Reflecting on 20 Years of Peace on the 20th anniversary of the Agreement
“The Cure at Troy” is Heaney’s retelling of Sophocles’ “Philoctetes,” the story of how Odysseus tricked Achilles’ son into joining the Greek forces at Troy towards the end of the Trojan War. A favorite of massive Heaney fan Joe Biden, it was originally penned as a tribute to Nelson Mandela in 1991 and an indictment of apartheid South Africa.
Especially today, however, we can see the influence of the Troubles running through Heaney’s words in “The Cure of Troy,” in particular as he speaks of hope, of hope through history and the hope that a massive change can take place. For the Agreement was truly that “once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave” that changed Northern Ireland. It was the “great sea-change on the far side of revenge.”
Read more: Seamus Heaney poem named as Ireland's favorite
The full words of “The Cure at Troy” can be seen below:
When Hope and History Rhyme by Seamus HeaneyToday marks the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. We reflect on the historic moment in Irish history with the help of the nations most beloved poet Séamus Heaney. Read more here: https://irsh.us/2JzSLL1 Audio: Long Road Ahead by Kevin Macleod Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://irsh.us/2Hnv0Fz) / Source: https://irsh.us/2uX7nRw / Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Posted by IrishCentral.com on Tuesday, 10 April 2018
The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes - Seamus Heaney
Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
What are your memories of the day the Agreement was signed? Let us know in the comments section below.
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