In 1969, Michael Longley published his first significant collection of poems, No Continuing City, which featured work written during that decade. One poem was directed to Seamus Heaney. Longley and Heaney had met in Belfast, at a dinner in Philip Hobsbaum’s flat, as part of his desire to bring artists together in conversation. When Longley married Edna Broderick, a fellow poet and critic, Heaney was in attendance.
Heaney admired Longley’s work, and valued their friendship. When the Longleys quibbled with how Heaney depicted the artistic scene in Belfast in an essay, he responded with an effusively apologetic letter, postscripted: “I think until now I have enjoyed the luxuries of friendship without being aware of the full responsibilities.”
