Re-route A6 from countryside so associated with Seamus Heaney

Nothing new in this strategy though there is a great deal which is unique about Bellaghy thanks to Lough Beg, a wetland whose beauty and supreme importance to wildlife is recognized internationally and, of course, the man himself.

In England, the town of Stratford-upon-Avon has been developed into a world-class destination by carefully preserving homes and places linked with William Shakespeare; set in a peaceful valley amidst undulating pastures his birthplace annually attracts 5.5 million tourists. Imagine the difference just one per cent of this number of visitors would make to the economy of Bellaghy, Castledawson and Toome. Imagine also, the international outrage that would follow an announcement to build a motorway was through Shakespeare’s home place! This is what supporters of the A6 ‘Red Variant’ route are willing to see done to Mossbawn, the Heaney family homestead where the poet was born.

Aughrim Hill, Lagans Road, The Creagh, The Sluggan, The Strand at Lough Beg and numerous other local place-names are world famous now thanks to Seamus Heaney’s poems such as ‘Mid-term Break’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’. If ever these historic places are set upon by 32,000 vehicles/day, 24/7 (current official estimate) because of the Government’s preferred ‘Red Variant’ route, they will all be forever transformed into places with no special appeal.

Another Heaney home lost, another own goal for tourism. Will we ever learn? Will we not even listen to the great man himself? Contrary to statements widely reported in the media Seamus Heaney called these plans ‘a desecration’, ‘an ecological wound’ to a ‘precious corner of our planet’.

He called Lady Moyola, the patron of a local conservation group, the ‘guardian of the wetlands’. And he regarded families that were “taking thought and taking care” of the wetlands at Lough Beg for future generations, deserving of high praise. He said, “In doing so, they make themselves examples at local level of what has to happen globally – they are helping the earth’s immunity system to contend with dangers it now faces everywhere.”

Standing outside Homeplace last week I was not opposing a wonderful, new tourist attraction, nor improvement to the A6. It is the ‘Red Variant’ that I am opposed to, not the road; I was ‘routing’ for Seamus.

A wiser, more sustainable solution must exist. One that does not cause serious and irreversible harm to one of Europe’s great wetlands, and desecrate the landscape Heaney pined for.

Chris Murphy, Killough, Co Down