IV

The final section brings us back to the present day. Heaney observes the people stop work for lunch. They are exhausted from their hard work and eat happily ‘thankfully breaking their timeless fasts’ as if they are eating after a period of fasting (something Catholics do during Lent, building up to Easter).

This idea of religion is linked with ‘faithless ground’ where they stretch out, scattering crumbs after their lunch.

There is some indication that religion may have had some influence on the famine of 1845, so much so that the people starved, but this is only hinted at.