Online petition launched in opposition to new dual carriageway which will dissect Heaney country

‘Save The Seamus Heaney Landscape’ is a new online petition calling for an alternative route for the new A6.

Part of the road will pass through Anahorish and Mossbawn - the Heaney family home up until 1953.

The late Bellaghy born poet had raised concerns about damage to the environment in an interview back in 2007.

And there’s renewed criticism that it will damage those places that came to life in Heaney’s poetry.

The petition’s organiser believes it will ‘utterly annihilate’ the pastoral features and recurring placenames of Heaney's writing.

The Randalstown to Castledawson project will see eight miles of dual carriageway road constructed at a cost of around £100m.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 visitors a year are expected to view a Heaney exhibition in Dublin.

Original manuscripts and unpublished poems are to be housed in a new cultural centre on College Green.

The literary gems have been donated by the Heaney family.

It’s anticipated that the National Library of Ireland exhibition will open in early 2018.