I live in a one room flat in a place called Donnybrook in
the city of Dublin. I have one window which looks out on a
rather shabby back garden. I have been here now for about
sixteen years. I am about a thirty minute walk from the city
centre and maby twenty minutes from Sandymount strand
which was made famous by James Joyce in Ulysses.
Seamus Heany's house is also looking onto this beach. I had
the pleasure of being in his little work room as he talked
about his poetry while we watched the tide go out.
This general area of Dublin still retains much of the architecture
of Joyce's time. The poet Thomas Kinsella's house is on the banks
of the canal a few minutes from me and Patrick Kananagh used
to live in a bedsitter on Raglan Road just up the road.
I walk these streets every day.