 The ghosts range from victims of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, to figures from Heaney's childhood in Castledawson, to writers and poets who have greatly influenced Heaney's own poetics.The victims of sectarian violence include such figures as the shopkeeper William Strathearn (Section VII), Heaney's cousin Colum McCartney, whose murder was previously the subject of the poem "The Strand at Lough Beg" (Section VIII), and the hunger-striker and Heaney family acquaintance Francis Hughes (Section IX).Among those ghosts from his past are the traveller Simon Sweeney (Section I), his teacher at the Anahorish School, Master Murphy (Section V), and two separate unnamed priests (Section IV and XI).