Louis MacNEICE was born in 1907 in Belfast although his parents were originally from Connemara, in the West of Ireland. Family moved to Carrickfergus due to the appointment of his father as rector for the anglican church. Trains were a fixture of the Antrim landscape of Louis MacNeice's childhood, and here is one of his earlier poems: TRAINS IN THE DISTANCE Trains came threading quietly through my dozing childhood Gentle murmurs nosing through a summer quietude... And so we hardly noticed when that metal murmur came. But it brought us assurance and comfort all the same, And in the early night they soothed us to sleep, And the chain of the rolling wheels bound us in deep. -- Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)