The speaker of "Mid-Term Break" is a high school student whose brother was murdered by an automobile. The poem is autobiographical, based on a true event in Seamus Heaney's life. Heaney wrote this poem while working as an au pair in France. His employer would let him off for one week every two months so that he could return to Ireland. Heaney has said that when he first read this poem in a French class, his classmates didn't understand it and thought he was writing about some kind of holiday. Heaney later translated it into English. Here is the opening of the poem: "In Mid-Term Break," the speaker tells us, "I am going to rest my eyes." As well they might, considering that they have been opened by seeing their brother killed before them. This murder takes place at night on a lonely road outside of a small town in Ireland. It is here, according to the speaker, that they leave their native land and travel to a new one. One can assume from this description that Europe is their destination. However, since they are still in Ireland during these mid-terms, one can also assume that they are staying with relatives or in a hotel.