Blacksmith who inspired Heaney poem recalls schoolboy poet
There were many heavy hearts in Seamus Heaney’s spiritual home today but none heavier than Barney Devlin’s.
The 95-year-old former blacksmith was the inspiration for the poem, The Forge, penned in 1969 and has welcomed hundreds of fans from across the globe into his modest bungalow a few miles outside Bellaghy in rural Co Derry, to hear tales of how the quiet schoolboy with an inquisitive nature and keen eye for detail became Ireland’s best-loved poet.
