Group Sheet Dates

The following provides additional information about likely dates for individual Group sheets, arranged by author.

Lynette M. Croskery

• The original Group sheet in the Hobsbaum Collection at Queen’s dates Lynette M. Croskery’s “The Dress” as 12 April 1966 (likely the date the poem was completed). If Philip Hobsbaum left Belfast for Glasgow in March 1966, as he recalls in his essay “The Belfast Group: A Recollection,” then it is unclear how this Group sheet made its way into the Hobsbaum Collection (173).

Norman Dugdale

• The Group sheet that begins with “Seated King and Queen” was read at the workshop on 13 December 1971, according to a letter from Michael Allen to Stephen Enniss.

Seamus Heaney

• The copy of Group sheet that begins with “Boy Driving His Father to Confession” that is in the Michael Longley papers in MARBL includes the handwritten note “April 27, 1965.”.
• The Group sheet that begins with “Digging” can be dated to Spring 1964, according to Hobsbaum (175).
• The copies of the Group sheet that begins with “Servant Boy” in the James Simmons papers and the Ciaran Carson papers in MARBL both include a handwritten note “Monday, November 8th”. Given the date and the day of the week, we believe these poems were presented in 1971.

Philip Hobsbaum

• There is a single Hobsbaum Group sheet that we have assigned to the second period: the one that starts with “Dead End.” This might seem unusual since it would have been presented after he had left for Glasgow. Yet in a letter to Stephen Enniss, Hobsbaum write the following, “‘Dead End’ was the latest and was one that was read out and discussed when I was a resident in Glasgow after Belfast, on one of the occasions that I went back as a visitor.” (Philip Hobsbaum, letter to the author, 14 December 1998).

Michael Longley

• The Group sheet that begins with “No Continuing City” is dated 22 November 1964. However, this is likely the date the final poem, “The Hebrides,” was completed rather than the date the sheet was prepared or presented. The copy of this worksheet in the Michael Longley papers in MARBL includes substantial deletions to the text.
• The Group sheet that begins with “To the Poets” is undated. However the final poem on the sheet, “Caravan” is dated 29 December 1970.
• The Group sheet that begins with “Altera Cithera” is dated 31 January in the Frank Ormsby papers in MARBL. We suspect that the year was 1972, given the day of the week in which the workshop was normally held.

Bernard McLaverty

• The Group sheet with Bernard McLaverty’s short story “Jim Scroggy” does not appear in the Hobsbaum Collection at Queen’s. However, since Hobsbaum recalls that this “early story” was presented during his chairing of the Group, we have assigned it to the first period of the Group.

Trevor McMahon

• According to a note in the Ciaran Carson papers in MARBL, the single Group sheet from McMahon was read on 22 November. Given the days of the week that the workshop met, we suspect that it was presented in 1971.

Paul Muldoon

• While the Group sheet that begins with “Stillborn” is undated, the final poem on the sheet, “Leaving the Island” is dated 1969.
• According to a note in the Ciaran Carson papers in MARBL, the Muldoon Group sheet that begins with “Blowing Eggs” was read on 25 October. We believe that it was workshopped in 1971.

Works Cited

Allen, Michael. Letter to Stephen Enniss. N.d.

Hobsbaum, Philip. Letter to Stephen Enniss. 14 December 1998.

---. “The Belfast Group: A Recollection.” Éire-Ireland 32.2-3 (Summer/Fall 1997): 173-182.