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Sat 08 Aug 2008The non-sectarian singer of the Ulster song tradition
CULTURE SHOCK:IN THE OPENING essay of his collection, The Government of the Tongue, Seamus Heaney recalls an evening in Belfast that must be Bloody Friday.
That day, in July 1972, was one of the worst of the Troubles. The IRA set off 20 car bombs and incendiary devices in an hour, killing nine people and injuring 130. Heaney and Davy Hammond, who died this week, were making their way to the BBC studios to record a tape of songs and poems for a mutual friend in the US. With the air full of sirens, Hammond's guitar was rendered puny by the "implacable disconsolate wailing of the ambulances".
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