On October 15, 1995, Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” He accepted the award on December 7, 1995 in Stockholm, Sweden. Read his Nobel lecture here.
Heaney became the fourth Irish writer to receive the coveted Nobel Prize, following William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett.
Born in the village of Bellaghy, County Derry in 1939, Heaney’s family was engaged in farming and selling cattle. He was a pupil at the acclaimed St. Columb's Secondary School in Derry, attended by other literary figures including Brian Friel and Seamus Deane and by musicians Phil Coulter and Paul Brady. He studied at Queen’s University in Belfast and lectured there after graduating.
In describing his work, the Nobel Committee wrote, “Seamus Heaney’s poetry is often down-to-earth. For Heaney, poetry was like the earth—something that must be plowed and turned. Often, he paints the gray and damp Irish landscape; peat moss has a special place in his poetry. The poems often are connected with daily experiences, but they also derive motifs from history, all the way back to prehistoric times. Heaney’s profound interest in the Celtic and the pre-Christian as well as in Catholic literary tradition has found expression in a number of essays and translations.”
Heaney had strong connections to Boston as well. He taught at Harvard University, and participating in many local academic events and readings. In 2002, he traveled to the mill city of Lawrence, MA to pay honor to native son Robert Frost, whose poetry Heaney admired.
When he died in 2013, Heaney chose to be buried in Bellaghy in County Derry, where he was born and raised. It was the town he loved so well.
In 2016, the Seamus Heaney HomePlace opened as a place for residents and visitors to connect with the poet’s legacy. Located between Heaney’s two childhood homes at Mossbawn and The Wood, and only a few hundred yards from St Mary’s Church, Bellaghy, which he is buried, HomePlace is at the heart of the area that inspired so much of Seamus Heaney’s brilliant life and career.
For information about visiting, go to discovernorthernireland.com/ and ireland.com/en-us/.
Heaney became the fourth Irish writer to receive the coveted Nobel Prize, following William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett.
Born in the village of Bellaghy, County Derry in 1939, Heaney’s family was engaged in farming and selling cattle. He was a pupil at the acclaimed St. Columb's Secondary School in Derry, attended by other literary figures including Brian Friel and Seamus Deane and by musicians Phil Coulter and Paul Brady. He studied at Queen’s University in Belfast and lectured there after graduating.
In describing his work, the Nobel Committee wrote, “Seamus Heaney’s poetry is often down-to-earth. For Heaney, poetry was like the earth—something that must be plowed and turned. Often, he paints the gray and damp Irish landscape; peat moss has a special place in his poetry. The poems often are connected with daily experiences, but they also derive motifs from history, all the way back to prehistoric times. Heaney’s profound interest in the Celtic and the pre-Christian as well as in Catholic literary tradition has found expression in a number of essays and translations.”
Heaney had strong connections to Boston as well. He taught at Harvard University, and participating in many local academic events and readings. In 2002, he traveled to the mill city of Lawrence, MA to pay honor to native son Robert Frost, whose poetry Heaney admired.
When he died in 2013, Heaney chose to be buried in Bellaghy in County Derry, where he was born and raised. It was the town he loved so well.
In 2016, the Seamus Heaney HomePlace opened as a place for residents and visitors to connect with the poet’s legacy. Located between Heaney’s two childhood homes at Mossbawn and The Wood, and only a few hundred yards from St Mary’s Church, Bellaghy, which he is buried, HomePlace is at the heart of the area that inspired so much of Seamus Heaney’s brilliant life and career.
For information about visiting, go to discovernorthernireland.com/ and ireland.com/en-us/.
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