Seamus Heaney: The Celtic Tiger is attacking the Harp, and other deep meaningfuls

On the radio talking about the M3 through the Hill of Tara controversy yesterday, Seamus Heaney wastes no time in conjuring his word magic:

He added: “The Tiger is now lashing its tail and smashing its way through the harp — the strings of the harp are being lashed by the tail of the tiger.”

Mr Heaney, who is a fixture of the national secondary school curriculum, said that Tara represented “an ideal of the spirit” that was fundamental to what Ireland meant. “Tara means something equivalent to what Delphi means to the Greeks, or maybe Stonehenge to an English person, or Nara in Japan, which is one of the most famous sites in the world,” he said.

He’s right, god dammit. Cancel all road projects and require all cars to be fuelled by poetry by 2010.

More: TimesOnline.co.uk: Seamus Heaney laments loss of Ireland’s ancient spirit to onward march of the Celtic Tiger
Loads more linkage at this TaraWatch post.

Digg this article