Today we are visiting the fantastic Seamus Heaney homeplace in Heaney’s own homeland of Bellaghy to ask the question, Who was Seamus Heaney and why is he so important? And not just important in Ireland, but throughout the world.
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We’ll also have a good look at this magnificent information centre devoted to his life and work, which has won quite a few awards as a tourist venue.
So who was this guy Seamus Heaney, before we go any further? Well to summarize he was poet, playwright and translator who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. He’s considered by critics to be the greatest poet of our age, or at the very least the most important Irish poet since W B Yeats.
The building itself, which is a monument to him, is attractive. It is built partly in the vernacular stone of the area with sections clad in weathered cedar wood, but it is also is quite modern, with its large glazed surfaces and cantilevered viewing gallery. It’s situated smack in the middle of the area where Heaney grew up and where so much of his work takes its inspiration.
As we move inside we see the stunning library and reading room, beautifully lit and ambient in its red décor. There’s something very calming about this place. Actually when I think about it, there was something very calming about Seamus Heaney. Those of you who have seen interviews with the man will know what I mean, and this is an excellent place to come to delve into a digital archive of material on the man.
The books contained here where largely donated by the Heaney family. There’s more than 800 titles all hand picked to showcase not just the author’s work (as here), but also his own literary preferences. So you’ll find books here by authors as diverse as Spike Milligan and Bob Dylan.
So why is Heaney so important. I already mentioned his Nobel Prize and the respect he has from his peers. But to me, Heaney is one of those once in a lifetime artists that pop up who are immediately distinguishable by their character. That character might be extravert and extravagant like Picasso or Dali, or understated, honest and brimming with intellect like Heaney. The fact that Heaney comes from humble Bellaghy rather than Paris or New York I think underlines that sense of groundedness that we associate with the artist and his work.
Heaney’s poetry often deals with the ordinary, but like all great artists he makes it extraordinary. He draws attention to many things that we might otherwise ignore and in his imagination these things become transformed and illuminated.
We move into the main exhibition centre. And what better place to begin than a space devoted to children and to bringing Heaney’s poetry alive to them.
We’re heading up now to this little viewing platform that we saw from the outside of the building. This gives us a chance to look out to the townlands that inspired the artist. And then it’s on into the main exhibition space.…and a couple of my favourite exhibits are up first…these two portraits of the poet. The first is by the painter Edward McGuire and the second, in pencil, by Colin Davidson. I’d love to be able to hang either of these portraits on my wall.
This part of the exhibition is a collection of things associated with the poet and his life. An examination of this would take so much more time than we have available in this film. That’s what makes the exhibition so interesting though, you could walk round this all day and still see new things and make new connections. There are some very obvious images and objects connected with the poetry, but depending on which poems you’re familiar with you may or may not make the associations. I kind of like this. It’s so much more rewarding when you do make a connection. For example that water pump is obviously the pump from Heaney’s farm which featured in several vivid poems. A walk around this exhibition really brings home not just the breadth of Heaney’s work, but also the international appeal.
There’s also this space which I imagine must be a replica of the poet’s own workspace. And here we see photos of the famous Nobel Prize award. He is one of 4 Irish writers to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, together with WB Yeats, Samuel Becket and George Bernard Shaw.
And here we can see the wealth of languages that Heaney’s work has been translated into so that it can travel the globe.
I’ve often asked what makes his work so popular. Why do people find it so appealing, or what is the universal appeal. Perhaps it’s the ordinariness of his poems…and I don’t mean that they’re ordinary in a banal sense, just that his poetry deals with very ordinary observation.