“the tick of two clocks”
“the tick of two clocks” is a project based on a trip to Northern Ireland in July 2021.
The images are influenced by the work of the Irish poet, playwright and translator Seamus Heaney who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Heaney ‘used his work to reflect on the Troubles’ – the term used the describe the conflict between Protestants and Catholics – from 1960s and until the Good Friday Agreement brought a start to peace in Northern Ireland in 1998.
It was also words from “The Cure at Troy”, Heaney’s retelling of Sophocles’ “Philoctetes” that US President, Bill Clinton used to reflected on the signing of the Good Friday Agreement:
History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
We spent a few days in Belfast before traveling around the coast to the harbour at Balintoy – close to the Giant’s Causeway
It’s difficult not to be conscious of the two communities – under two different flags – side by side, like the tick of two clocks. Even the small village of Balintoy has two different identities – the other identity being the fictional town of Lordsport, the Isle of Pyke, in the hugely successful TV series Game of Thrones.
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All images © W N BISHOP
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