Commemorating a Nobel Laureate

On the thirtieth anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Literature being awarded to Seamus Heaney for ‘works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past’, the Embassy of Ireland celebrated his life and achievements.

Students, members of staff, and external visitors gathered in the Aula at SIS to hear from the Irish Ambassador, Barbara Jones, contemporary poet and academic from Queen’s University, Belfast, Dr Gail McConnell, and Postdoctoral Researcher and Heaney specialist Dr Maria Zirra of Stockholm University. Together they explored the influences on Heaney, and his influence in modern literature.

Barbara Jones began her remarks by emphasising community, and how, throughout his life Heaney had straddled both sides of the fractured community in Northern Ireland where he was born. The award of the Nobel Prize in 1995 coincided with a ceasefire in the conflict in Ireland known as ‘the troubles’. Heaney, she noted, had the capacity to reflect and comment upon different aspects, opinions, and social factors that prevailed in his native land, examining the human impact and expressing his own thoughts, doubts, and feeling in lyrical and evocative language.

Gail McConnell caracterised this lyricism as ‘verbal music’ and went on to share how Heaney’s work had touched her since her teenage years. Recalling a deeply personal memory of her father’s murder when she was a child, she went on to read from her work, The Sun Is Open, which celebrates her father through memorabilia in what she calls ‘The Daddy Box’. The short, touching poem had echoes of Heaney in its beauty and apparent simplicity. 

Maria Zirra then took the audience through ‘Tollund’, a poem exposing the depth and sensory aspects of Heaney’s language and poetry – a work with connections to Scandinavia. 

SIS students also joined in the celebration too, with Grade 11 students, Carl, Charlotte, and Victoria providing readings for an attentive and appreciative audience.

The event was a perfect cultural celebration on the very day of the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Laureate.