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75-512: Although Field Day has never put forth a formal mission statement, their intention was to create a space, a 'fifth province,' that transcended the crippling oppositions of Irish politics. The term 'fifth province' — Ireland now consists of four provinces, but the Irish term cúige signifies 'a fifth portion' and there were five historic provinces – was coined by the editors of an Irish Journal, The Crane Bag , to name an imaginary cultural space from which

150-440: A clearly-stated political agenda and focuses on politics not personalities". It was founded, and edited for a number of years by Vincent Browne . In November 2008, it was relaunched under new editor Michael Smith , a former investor in the magazine. The magazine prints ten issues per year and maintains an online presence. Village is avowedly left-wing , with a stated aim to challenge "the endemically complacent and others by

225-456: A local linen mill . Heaney remarked on the inner tension between the rural Gaelic past exemplified by his father and the industrialized Ulster exemplified by his mother. Heaney attended Anahorish Primary School, and won a scholarship to St Columb's College , a Roman Catholic boarding school in Derry when he was twelve years old. While studying at St Columb's, Heaney's younger brother Christopher

300-587: A minor breach. In 2012 Village claimed that if the Director of Public Prosecutions did not pursue named bankers and allegedly corrupt individuals for corruption and other named offences it would initiate private prosecutions itself, but did not do so. It claimed that it was to pursue an initiative with Jonathan Sugarman, a former liquidity manager, against Unicredit Bank for breaches of regulations, but could not as his career had collapsed and he could not pursue his commitment. In 2014 Village exclusively published

375-551: A native of Ardboe , County Tyrone, while at St Joseph's in 1962; they married in August 1965 and would go on to have three children. A school teacher and writer, Devlin published Over Nine Waves (1994), a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends. Heaney's first book, Eleven Poems, was published in November 1965 for the Queen's University Festival. In 1966 their first son, Michael,

450-481: A new discourse of unity might emerge. In addition to being an enormous popular and critical success, Field Day's first production created just such a space. After the production of Translations , Seamus Heaney , Ireland's most prominent poet, recognised the importance of what they had accomplished and urged Brian Friel to continue with the project: "this was what theatre was supposed to do" (cited in Richtarik, 65). That

525-479: A result, more successfully confronted than it had been hitherto" (Ireland's Field Day viii). The first set of three pamphlets were written by directors of the Field Day Company – Tom Paulin, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. The pamphlets were largely responsible for entering Field Day into the political debate whose calcified terms the project had originally wanted to explode. With Tom Paulin's Riot Act (1984)

600-462: A sense of the depth and range of the contribution of Seamus Heaney to our contemporary world, but what those of us who have had the privilege of his friendship and presence will miss is the extraordinary depth and warmth of his personality...Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus' poems. Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him for all

675-542: A set of three lectures were delivered by Dr Bryan McMahon, Dr. Conor Kenny of Médecins sans Frontières , and by Seamus Deane himself. In 2022, lectures were delivered by Angus Mitchell and by Brendan O'Leary. Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney MRIA (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet , playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature . Among his best-known works

750-550: A short illness. After a fall outside a restaurant in Dublin, he entered a hospital for a medical procedure but died at 7:30 the following morning before it took place. His funeral was held in Donnybrook , Dublin, on the morning of 2 September 2013, and he was buried in the evening at St. Mary's Church, Bellaghy his home village, in the same graveyard as his parents, younger brother, and other family members. His son Michael revealed at

825-427: A substantial portion of his literary archive at Emory University as a memorial to the work of William M. Chace , the university's recently retired president. The Emory papers represented the largest repository of Heaney's work (1964–2003). He donated these to help build their large existing archive of material from Irish writers including Yeats, Paul Muldoon , Ciaran Carson , Michael Longley and other members of

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900-500: A symptom and a cause of the current situation. (Ireland's Field Day vii) Field Day became an artistic response to the violence, history and politics which divided Northern Ireland into a series of seemingly irresolvable dichotomies; Orange/Green, Unionist/Nationalist and Protestant/Catholic are only the most prominent. Every year saw a new production open in Derry and begin a tour of venues large and small throughout both Northern Ireland and

975-465: Is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats ", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland , have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably

1050-468: Is a book of shades and memories, of things whispered, of journeys into the underworld, of elegies and translations, of echoes and silences." In October 2010, the collection was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize . Heaney was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer in 2011, though the newspaper later published a correction acknowledging that "several individuals who would not claim to be British" had been featured, of which Heaney

1125-567: The 2004 EU Enlargement . He read the poem at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union , arranged by the Irish EU presidency . In August 2006 Heaney had a stroke. Although he recovered and joked, "Blessed are the pacemakers" when fitted with a heart monitor, he cancelled all public engagements for several months. He was in County Donegal at the time of the 75th birthday of Anne Friel, wife of playwright Brian Friel . He read

1200-482: The Belfast Group . In 2003, when asked if there was any figure in popular culture who aroused interest in poetry and lyrics, Heaney praised American rap artist Eminem from Detroit, saying, "He has created a sense of what is possible. He has sent a voltage around a generation. He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy." Heaney wrote the poem " Beacons at Bealtaine " to mark

1275-642: The Health Service Executive and general practitioners . There was a photo of the cover of the leaked document, and it alleged the handwriting visible was Varadkar's. It claimed the leaks may be a breach of the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018, the Official Secrets Act 1963, and the Dáil members' Code of Conduct 2002. The hashtags #LeoGate and #LeoTheLeak began trending in the wake of

1350-571: The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 for "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past". He was on holiday in Greece with his wife when the news broke. Neither journalists nor his own children could reach him until he arrived at Dublin Airport two days later, although an Irish television camera traced him to Kalamata . Asked how he felt to have his name added to

1425-680: The University College Dublin (UCD) Law Society, in recognition of his remarkable role as a literary figure. Faber and Faber published Dennis O'Driscoll 's book Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney in 2008; this has been described as the nearest thing to an autobiography of Heaney. In 2009, Heaney was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. He recorded a spoken word album, over 12 hours long , of himself reading his poetry collections to commemorate his 70th birthday, which occurred on 13 April 2009. He spoke at

1500-633: The West Belfast Festival in July 2010 in celebration of his mentor, the poet and novelist Michael McLaverty , who had helped Heaney to first publish his poetry. In September 2010 Faber published Human Chain , Heaney's twelfth collection. Human Chain was awarded the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection, one of the major poetry prizes Heaney had never previously won, despite having been twice shortlisted. The book, published 44 years after

1575-575: The Whitbread Book of the Year Award ; he repeated the success in 1999 with Beowulf: A New Verse Translation . Heaney was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1996 and was admitted in 1997. In the same year, Heaney was elected Saoi of Aosdána . In 1998, Heaney was elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. In 2000 Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate and delivered

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1650-691: The Dark . Heaney taught as a visiting professor in English at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970–1971 academic year. In 1972, he left his lectureship in Belfast, moved to Wicklow in the Republic of Ireland, and began writing on a full-time basis. That year, he published his third collection, Wintering Out . In 1975, Heaney's next volume, North , was published. A pamphlet of prose poems entitled Stations

1725-580: The Fordham commencement ceremony on 23 May 1982, Heaney delivered his address as a 46-stanza poem entitled "Verses for a Fordham Commencement." Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Heaney stressed that he was Irish and not British. Following the success of the Field Day Theatre Company 's production of Brian Friel 's Translations , the founders Brian Friel and Stephen Rea decided to make

1800-560: The Irish Nobel pantheon of W. B. Yeats , George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett , Heaney responded: "It's like being a little foothill at the bottom of a mountain range. You hope you just live up to it. It's extraordinary." He and his wife Marie were immediately taken from the airport to Áras an Uachtaráin for champagne with President Mary Robinson . He would refer to the prize discreetly as "the N thing" in personal exchanges with others. Heaney's 1996 collection The Spirit Level won

1875-514: The Pennsylvania college to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. He was scheduled to return to Dickinson again to receive the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Award—for a major literary figure—at the time of his death in 2013. Irish poet Paul Muldoon was named recipient of the award that year, partly in recognition of the close connection between the two poets. Heaney was awarded

1950-476: The Republic. While Field Day's artistic venture continued to fulfil its original mandate of bringing "professional theatre to people who might otherwise never see it" (Richtarik 11), in September 1983 they launched a project whose target audience was primarily the academic community. The Field Day Theatre Company began publishing a series of pamphlets "in which the nature of the Irish problem could be explored and, as

2025-674: The United States from 1981 to 2006. He was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997, and their Poet in Residence from 1988 to 2006. From 1989 to 1994, he was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford . In 1996 he was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 1998 was bestowed the title Saoi of Aosdána . He received numerous prestigious awards. Heaney is buried at St. Mary's Church, Bellaghy , Northern Ireland. The headstone bears

2100-441: The United States. He also continued to give public readings. These events were so well attended and keenly anticipated that those who queued for tickets with such enthusiasm were sometimes dubbed "Heaneyboppers", suggesting an almost teenybopper fan base. In 1990 The Cure at Troy , a play based on Sophocles 's Philoctetes , was published. The next year, he published another volume of poetry, Seeing Things (1991). Heaney

2175-470: The acute promotion of equality, sustainability and accountability." Journalists who have contributed include Sara Burke, Frank Connolly , John Waters , Justine McCarthy , Gemma O'Doherty , Mary Regan , Naomi Wolf , Conor Brady , Maev-Ann Wren and Harry Browne. Other contributors include Niall Crowley, Constantin Gurdgiev , Germaine Greer , Enda Kenny , Conor Lenihan , and John Gormley . The magazine

2250-528: The best-known poet in the world". Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between Castledawson and Toomebridge , Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount , Dublin, from 1976 until his death. He lived part-time in

2325-622: The boxes of notes and drafts and, accompanied by his son Michael, delivered them to the National Library. In June 2012 Heaney accepted the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award and gave a speech in honour of the award. Heaney was compiling a collection of his work in anticipation of Selected Poems 1988–2013 at the time of his death. The selection includes poems and writings from Seeing Things , The Spirit Level ,

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2400-461: The categories of unionist and nationalist, and the space between them, created by the production of Translations, was closing fast. For some, Seamus Deane had become the de facto spokesman, and Field Day became increasingly associated with republican politics and post-colonial theory. By this time Field Day was no longer a novel experiment; it was part of the establishment: "That Field Day was attacked for being nationalist and for being anti-nationalist

2475-402: The club. My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging. The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat,

2550-594: The commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania . In 2002, Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University and delivered a public lecture on "The Guttural Muse". In 2003 the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was opened at Queen's University Belfast . It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, along with a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations. That same year, Heaney decided to lodge

2625-628: The company a permanent group. Heaney joined the company's expanded Board of Directors in 1981. In autumn 1984, his mother, Margaret, died. Heaney became a tenured faculty member at Harvard, as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory (formerly visiting professor) 1985–1997, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet in Residence at Harvard 1998–2006. In 1986, Heaney received a Litt.D. from Bates College . His father, Patrick, died in October

2700-476: The company was established in Derry , Northern Ireland's "second city," is significant. Although Friel knew the city well (he had lived there until 1967), Derry, being close to the border, was a hot-spot in the north-south tensions during " The Troubles ". Furthermore, its western location and its relationship to Belfast , Northern Ireland's east coast capital, underline a second historically older division in Ireland –

2775-582: The company's first publication was Field Day Review 1 , an annual journal primarily concerned with Irish literary and political culture, but in an international context. To critical acclaim, Field Day Review has published essays and interviews by numerous eminent academics, including Benedict Anderson, Giovanni Arrighi, Maud Ellmann, Tariq Ali, Terry Eagleton, Pascale Casanova, Alan Ahearne, Kevin Whelan, David Lloyd, Brendan O'Leary, Luke Gibbons, Joe Cleary, Claire Connnolly and Catherine Gallagher. Field Day Review 10

2850-425: The conviction that it is, above all, a colonial crisis" (Eagleton 6). In this essay Deane calls for a re-engagement with the concept of nationalism, and positions Field Day in a squarely antithetical position to those he refers to as revisionist historians and critics, whose chief aim is "to demolish the nationalist mythology" (6). The categories of revisionist and anti-revisionist were all too easily superimposed onto

2925-502: The curatorial process of the exhibition. Though the exhibit's original vision to celebrate Heaney's life and work remains at the forefront, there is a small section commemorating his death and its influence. In September 2015 it was announced that Heaney's family would posthumously publish his translation of Book VI of The Aeneid in 2016. Seamus Heaney died in the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin on 30 August 2013, aged 74, following

3000-448: The curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it. from "Digging", Death of a Naturalist (1966) Heaney studied English Language and Literature at Queen's University Belfast starting in 1957. While there, he found a copy of Ted Hughes 's Lupercal, which spurred him to write poetry. "Suddenly,

3075-400: The division between critic and artist began to crumble, the politics of the pamphlets were finding their way into the plays (Richtarik 242). In the 1990 introduction to Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature — a collection of three Field Day Pamphlets by Terry Eagleton , Fredric Jameson and Edward Said — Deane writes: "Field Day's analysis of the (Northern Irish) situation derives from

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3150-517: The division between the cosmopolitan east and the rural, romantic west. What began with a desire to develop a local Northern Irish theatre and make it available to a popular audience, quickly grew into a much larger cultural and political project. Even before the company's opening performance, four prominent Northern Irish writers were invited to join the project — Seamus Deane , David Hammond , Seamus Heaney , and Tom Paulin ; they would eventually become Field Day's board of directors. ( Thomas Kilroy ,

3225-462: The epitaph "Walk on air against your better judgement", from his poem "The Gravel Walks". Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple, He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four-foot box, a foot for every year. from "Mid-Term break", Death of a Naturalist (1966) Heaney was born on 13 April 1939 at the family farmhouse called Mossbawn, between Castledawson and Toomebridge ; he

3300-509: The first three in length. Starting in early 2017, Field Day started to commission articles for every issue of Village Magazine , a leftist current affairs publication issued in Dublin. The Field Day Podcast appeared in January 2018. The annual Seamus Deane Lecture was inaugurated in 2015 with a lecture by Deane himself. The 2016 lecture was delivered by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, and in 2017-18

3375-660: The funeral mass that his father texted his final words, " Noli timere " (Latin: "Be not afraid"), to his wife, Marie, minutes before he died. His funeral was broadcast live the following day on RTÉ television and radio and was streamed internationally at RTÉ's website. RTÉ Radio 1 Extra transmitted a continuous broadcast, from 8 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the day of the funeral, of his Collected Poems album, recorded by Heaney in 2009. His poetry collections sold out rapidly in Irish bookshops immediately following his death. Many tributes were paid to Heaney. President Michael D. Higgins said: ...we in Ireland will once again get

3450-631: The goal was not just to reach or represent an audience, but to create an audience. History, and Field Day's post-colonial sensibilities, determined that the construction of Irishness would often be worked out against notions of Britishness. In a pointed and humorous verse epistle, " An Open Letter ," Heaney responds to his inclusion in The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry : The Field Day directors recognised that in order for Ireland to claim "Its proper name" Irish literature would need its own comprehensive anthology . In 1991 Field Day Published

3525-417: The magazine or its editor, and that as of November 2019 there was no sign the action was being advanced in the courts. In August 2019, far-right activist and former contributor to the magazine Gemma O'Doherty initiated legal action against Village . In October 2020, Village published an article alleging that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar had leaked confidential documents, including a draft contract between

3600-455: The matter of contemporary poetry was the material of my own life," he said. He graduated in 1961 with a First Class Honours degree. Heaney studied for a teacher certification at St Joseph's Teacher Training College in Belfast (now merged with St Mary's, University College ), and began teaching at St Thomas' Secondary Intermediate School in Ballymurphy, Belfast . The headmaster of this school

3675-432: The official version of the true history, political and literary, of the island's past and present". The Anthology was immediately attacked by Field Day's critics as politically biased. The anthology's most conspicuous flaw, however, was the paucity of women writers. In response to the accusations that Field Day had elided the female voice, a new all-female board of editors issued two additional volumes (2002), which exceeded

3750-521: The only member born in the Republic , joined the board in 1988). All of the members of Field Day agreed that art and culture had a crucial role to play in the resolution of what had come to be known as "the Troubles": The directors believed that Field Day could and should contribute to the solution of the present crisis by producing analyses of the established opinions, myths and stereotypes which had become both

3825-425: The poet's first, was inspired in part by Heaney's stroke in 2006, which left him "babyish" and "on the brink". Poet and Forward judge Ruth Padel described the work as "a collection of painful, honest and delicately weighted poems ... a wonderful and humane achievement." Writer Colm Tóibín described Human Chain as "his best single volume for many years, and one that contains some of the best poems he has written...

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3900-815: The publication of multiple accounts from alleged victims of bullying and sexual harassment by Michael Colgan , then director of the Gate Theatre , including those of seven former employees who spoke to The Irish Times , Village published an editorial on the matter. Colgan initiated a defamation action in the High Court in January 2018, claiming the editorial associated him with Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey , both of whom have been accused of sexual assault, and in Weinstein's case, rape. "Your outrageous article seeks to associate our client with and make him

3975-569: The redacted Ansbacher dossier, alleging a long-standing cover-up of ownership of offshore bank accounts by senior public figures and politicians. In 2015, uniquely among Irish-owned print publications, Village printed allegations made by Catherine Murphy TD about interest rates paid by Ireland's richest man, Denis O'Brien , to the state-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation . In 2016 former Donegal County Council county manager, Michael McLoone, initiated High Court proceedings against Village for defamation after it printed what it claimed

4050-671: The rest of his life. This collection was met with much critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Gregory Award for Young Writers and the Geoffrey Faber Prize. The same year, he was appointed as a lecturer in Modern English Literature at Queen's University Belfast . In 1968, Heaney and Michael Longley undertook a reading tour called Room to Rhyme , which increased awareness of the poet's work. The following year, he published his second major volume, Door into

4125-441: The rhythms of ordinary lives and a powerful voice for peace...His wonderful work, like that of his fellow Irish Nobel Prize winners Shaw, Yeats, and Beckett, will be a lasting gift for all the world. Village Magazine Village is an Irish current affairs and cultural magazine. Launched in October 2004 and originally published weekly, it is known for its investigative reporting and describes itself as being "driven by

4200-466: The same year. The loss of both parents within two years affected Heaney deeply, and he expressed his grief in poems. In 1988, a collection of his critical essays, The Government of the Tongue , was published. In 1985 Heaney wrote the poem "From the Republic of Conscience" at the request of Amnesty International Ireland. He wanted to "celebrate United Nations Day and the work of Amnesty". The poem inspired

4275-496: The solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of conscience. President Higgins also appeared live from Áras an Uachtaráin on the Nine O'Clock News in a five-minute segment in which he paid tribute to Seamus Heaney. Bill Clinton , former President of the United States, said: Both his stunning work and his life were a gift to the world. His mind, heart, and his uniquely Irish gift for language made him our finest poet of

4350-455: The subject of the serious criminal allegations that have been published in the media regarding Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and others with the clear defamatory inference that our client has been guilty of serious sexual crimes, including rape," Colgan's solicitor, Paul Tweed, told the publication in a letter sent on 16 November 2017, six days after the article appeared. In October 2018, the magazine claimed that proceedings had not been served on

4425-412: The three-volume Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing , edited by Seamus Deane. The project, according to Deane, was nothing less than an "act of definition", one which he hoped would be inclusive and representative of the plurality of Irish identity: "There is a story here, a meta-narrative, which is, we believe, hospitable to all the micro-narratives that, from time to time, have achieved prominence as

4500-681: The title of Amnesty International's highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award . In 1988 Heaney donated his lecture notes to the Rare Book Library of Emory University in Atlanta , Georgia, after giving the notable Ellmann Lectures there. In 1989 Heaney was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry , which he held for a five-year term to 1994. The chair does not require residence in Oxford. Throughout this period, he divided his time between Ireland and

4575-501: The translation of Beowulf , Electric Light , District and Circle , and Human Chain (fall 2014). In February 2014 Emory University premiered Seamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens , the first major exhibition to celebrate the life and work of Seamus Heaney since his death. The exhibit holds a display of the surface of Heaney's personal writing desk that he used in the 1980s as well as old photographs and personal correspondence with other writers. Heaney died in August 2013 during

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4650-402: The works of Henning Mankell , Donna Leon and Robert Harris while in hospital. Among his visitors was former President Bill Clinton . Heaney's District and Circle won the 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize . In 2008, he became artist of honour in Østermarie , Denmark, and Seamus Heaney Stræde (street) was named after him. In 2009, Heaney was presented with an Honorary-Life Membership award from

4725-586: Was a positive sign insofar as it proved that the company was raising questions generally, but the fact that the debate had narrowed so quickly to the old terms indicated that Field Day was losing the moral and artistic high ground" (Richtarik 249). In 2005, Field Day Publications was launched in association with the Dublin school of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. With Seamus Deane as General Editor,

4800-456: Was among those elected into its first group. (He was subsequently elected a Saoi , one of its five elders and its highest honour, in 1997). Also in 1981, Heaney travelled to the United States as a visiting professor at Harvard, where he was affiliated with Adams House . He was awarded two honorary doctorates, from Queen's University and from Fordham University in New York City (1982). At

4875-508: Was an affidavit opened in court detailing multiple allegations made about planning in County Donegal by former senior county planner, Gerard Convie. In March 2017, Village published a controversial cover depicting US President Donald Trump in crosshairs alongside the headline "Why Not", linked to an editorial explaining why it would be wrong to kill Trump. The headline garnered international coverage, especially from right-wing outlets, including Fox News Insider . In late 2017 following

4950-402: Was born. He earned a living at the time by writing for The Irish Times , often on the subject of radio. A second son, Christopher, was born in 1968. Heaney initially sought publication with Dolmen Press in Dublin for his first volume of work. While waiting to hear back, he was signed with Faber and Faber and published Death of a Naturalist in 1966, and Faber remained his publisher for

5025-541: Was killed in February 1953 at the age of four in a road accident. The poems " Mid-Term Break " and " The Blackbird of Glanmore " are related to his brother's death. Heaney played Gaelic football for Castledawson GAC , the club in the area of his birth, as a boy, and did not change to Bellaghy when his family moved there. However, he has remarked that he became involved culturally with Bellaghy GAA Club in his late teens, acting in amateur plays and composing treasure hunts for

5100-517: Was modestly pitched, he never sought the limelight, yet for all that, his place in our literature is secure." Heaney's poem "Fosterage", in the sequence "Singing School", from North (1975), is dedicated to him. In 1963 Heaney began lecturing at St Joseph's, and joined the Belfast Group , a poets' workshop organized by Philip Hobsbaum , then an English lecturer at Queen's University. Through this, Heaney met other Belfast poets, including Derek Mahon and Michael Longley . Heaney met Marie Devlin,

5175-614: Was named an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society , Trinity College Dublin , and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1991). In 1993 Heaney guest-edited The Mays Anthology , a collection of new writing from students at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge . That same year, he was awarded the Dickinson College Arts Award and returned to

5250-603: Was one. That same year, he contributed translations of Old Irish marginalia for Songs of the Scribe , an album by Traditional Singer in Residence of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin . In December 2011 Heaney donated his personal literary notes to the National Library of Ireland . Even though he admitted he would likely have earned a fortune by auctioning them, Heaney personally packed up

5325-600: Was published in October 2014. To date, Field Day Publications has published 24 titles in the fields of literary criticism, history, Irish art music, cultural studies, art history and 18th-century Irish poetry. From the beginning Field Day struggled to establish a cultural identity, not just for the North, but for the Irish. Much like the stated intentions of the Irish National Theatre established by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory almost one hundred years earlier (Harrington vii),

5400-409: Was published the same year. In 1976 Heaney was appointed Head of English at Carysfort College in Dublin and moved with his family to the suburb of Sandymount . His next collection, Field Work , was published in 1979. Selected Poems 1965-1975 and Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978 were published in 1980. When Aosdána , the national Irish Arts Council, was established in 1981, Heaney

5475-635: Was sued by anti- Lisbon Treaty campaigner Declan Ganley in 2008 but proceedings were settled. In 2010 Village received legal correspondence from Lord Mayor of Dublin, Oisin Quinn , over allegations he should not have voted on high-rise issues in the city, as he had a stake in property that might benefit from changes. In the end, Smith made a successful complaint to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) which found in 2011 that there had been

5550-448: Was the first of nine children. In 1953, his family moved to Bellaghy , a few miles away, which is now the family home. His father was Patrick Heaney (d. October 1986), a farmer and cattle dealer, and the eighth child of ten born to James and Sarah Heaney. Patrick was introduced to cattle dealing by his uncles, who raised him after his parents' early deaths. Heaney's mother was Margaret Kathleen McCann (1911–1984), whose relatives worked at

5625-413: Was the writer Michael McLaverty from County Monaghan , who introduced Heaney to the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh . With McLaverty's mentorship, Heaney first started to publish poetry in 1962. Sophia Hillan describes how McLaverty was like a foster father to the younger Belfast poet. In the introduction to McLaverty's Collected Works, Heaney summarised the poet's contribution and influence: "His voice

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