Going back to your old primary school can be an unsettling experience, as everything looks so diminutive and different until all the faces and memories come flooding back.

The original St Mary’s primary in Glasdrumman, Co Down, a small, rectangular building with grey stone walls which dates back to 1855, was once the centre of my universe, and, though home to a boxing club these days, I could practically hear the sound of the multiplication tables being recited as I looked through the windows earlier this month.

My mother taught the younger classes with gentle encouragement while, on the other side of a wooden partition, my father, as the principal, tended to be the voice of authority who steered older pupils towards an understanding of the outside world.

It was there that I first heard of Seamus Heaney, as we learned about his debut collection of poetry, Death of a Naturalist, after it was published to widespread acclaim 60 years ago this year, although his influence went well beyond a literary context.

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