Bog Bodies

Seamus Heaney was fascinated by archaeology and bog bodies, so who would have imagined that an Iron Age bog body would be found in Bellaghy in 2023?

Bog Bodies is an exciting new educational and creative writing programme, inspired by Seamus Heaney’s ‘Tollund Man’ and the discovery of the bog body close to his home turf.

Learning Outcomes:

• Through a tour of the exhibition, students will be able to contextualise the people and places in Heaney’s poetry.
• Students will assess how Heaney brings the past, present, personal and universal into his poetry through a study of ‘The Tollund Man’.
• Students will write a poem inspired by information on the 2023 Bellaghy bog body find, now known as Ballymacombs More Woman.

This programme includes the screening of a unique video, only available at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace, covering:

• The significance of Seamus Heaney’s Bog Body Poetry and how it has been received critically. (Interview with poet Dr. James Costello O’Reilly, Queen’s University, Belfast).
• What osteoarchaeology can tell us about Ballymacombs More Woman and other Irish and European bog bodies. (Interview with Professor Eileen Murphy, Queen’s University Belfast).
• How bog bodies give us an understanding of the Iron Age in Ireland (Interview with Niamh Baker, Curator of Archaeology at National Museums NI).
• How the police interacted with the Bellaghy bog body find (Interview with Detective Inspector Nikki Deehan, PSNI).