Banagher Buddha

"My Lord Buddha of Banagher, the way Is opener for your being in it"

The text from the Seamus Heaney poem Buddha at Banagher used for the painting is:

“the journey man tailor who was my antecedent;

Up on a table, cross legged……………

My Lord Buddha of Banagher, the way

Is opener for your being in it.”

The Buddha’s pose in the painting is that of the teaching Buddha and the right hand position approximates to the tailor having pulled a thread to its full length prior to the next stitch. Colin Walsh of Crescent Capital and the then Chairman of Northern Ireland’s CBI consented to be the model. The parish of Banagher just outside Dungiven on the West Sperrins is likely to have been homeland to Heaney ancestors. On a visit to Banagher old church which contains the burial tomb of St Muiredeach O’Heaney, the poet has said that his great grandfather was reputed to be a journey man tailor in that parish. The poem is one of many where Heaney continues his fascination with work and its “keeping goingness”

Buddha at Banagher is in the Spirit Level and Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996

Home