Aoife Magill

A walk through the locations touched by The Belfast Creative Writing Group.

In 1962, a new lecturer in English Literature arrived at Queen’s.  A London born poet and critic, his name was Philip Hobsbaum.  Whilst he would move on to Glasgow only 4 short years later in 1966, he would leave behind him in Belfast a mark of influence on some of the most celebrated poets associated with the university and the city. In the form of what has come to be known as The Belfast Group.  The group would meet, in one form or another, in different locations across the city over a period of nine years.

In the Special Collections section of the McClay library can be found a gift from Philip Hobsbaum.  A collection encompassing 67 works by 29 different authors.  Poems, short stories and even plays. Most notably from Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Hobsbaum himself, and Hannah, his wife.  These works are the original typescripts from the authors and are available for staff, students and members of the public to view.

In 1963, the Hobsbaum’s began hosting meetings here at number 4 Fitzwilliam Street, their home.  Writers became part of the group by personal invitation from Hobsbaum himself.  The format was that each week a ‘featured’ writer would present their work to Hobsbaum and he would select from this the works to be presented to the group.  This is what the first half of each evening would entail, alongside a critique of the work.  After an interim of coffee, the second half presented an open floor for other writers to share.

During the later years of the group, Ciaran Carson joined as a writer.  Carson would later go on to found and become the director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at the university.  Although his poetry would be published much later, after the dissolution of the group even. It offers an interesting testament to the lasting impact of the group. Hobsbaum left Belfast due to the rising violence in the city and the breakup of his marriage. Carson’s poetry reflects a Belfast in conflict, the very reason Hobsbaum left the group behind.

Although the original house was demolished in 2002, this location is where Seamus and Marie Heaney lived during their time in Belfast.  When Hobsbaum departed for Glasgow in 1966, Seamus Heaney took over organising the group, and they would meet here.

Similarly to the Heaney’s home on Ashley Avenue, the old Four In Hand pub is no more, but hosted the Belfast Group at one point in its history.  During the period in which Heaney presided over the group, the format of the meetings remained the same.  But the interim’s refreshments of coffee and biscuits were replaced in favour of pints.

Blackberry picking, one of Heaney’s most famous poems from Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966, was dedicated to Hobsbaum.
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking.

Squeeze the buzzer on the steel mesh gate like a trigger, but
It’s someone else who has you in their sights. Click. It opens. Like electronic
Russian roulette, since you never know for sure who’d who, or what
You’re walking into. I, for instance, could be anybody. Though I’m told
Taig’s written on my face. See me, would I trust appearances?

Whilst best known as a critic, Hobsbaum wrote his own poetry too.
We once lodged in that street.
The roofs
Beetled over the kerb,
Glooming the narrow sidewalk. There
Kids kicked listlessly at stones
Between parked cars
And dogs went on their business round the steps
Where slatterns rasped.
It never offered much. Even the sun
Died on the upper windows.
But at the end,
Like a stone curtain shutting off
Another world, this wall.
Beyond, green tops of trees
Hinted at summer - almost we glimpsed
Gables, pinnacles, domes,
Even could guess at lawns
Sloping to tinkling streams,
Striplings at tennis, lithe girls sipping drinks ...

The importance of the group is debated, with Michael Longley claiming he ‘never altered even one semi-colon as a result of Group discussion.’
However, the group sheets show that a number of his poems were indeed revised, among them, Elegy for Fats Waller.
Lighting up, lest all our hearts should break,
His fiftieth cigarette of the day,
Happy with so many notes at his beck
And call, he sits there taking it away,
The maker of immaculate slapstick.

Hobsbaum, Heaney and The Belfast Group.

10 ECHOES

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The Lanyon

The McClay Library

4 Fitzwilliam Street

The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry

16 Ashley Avenue

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