Actors, authors, musicians and an Irish ambassador will come together for the online programme, which is being staged by the Seamus Heaney HomePlace, the much-loved literary centre in County Londonderry that celebrates the poet’s life and work.
A Nobel Celebration – 'more spacewalk than stepping stone', a title which uses the poet’s own words to describe his journey from his birthplace to the Stockholm stage where he received the Nobel Prize, will be opened by Irish acting star Ciarán Hinds with a specially recorded reading of one of Heaney’s most popular poems, ‘Digging’.
The event is completely virtual, with tickets available for online viewing from the Seamus Heaney HomePlace website.
The occasion will include a keynote address from Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador for Ireland to the United States, talks by renowned academics and authors Rosie Lavan and Roy Foster, and an introduction to her acclaimed version of Heaney’s ‘Anahorish’ by Lisa Hannigan.
In 1995 Seamus Heaney became the latest of four Irish writers to receive the most prestigious literary award in the world. As well as focusing on Heaney’s work, the bespoke production will also celebrate the work of the three other Irish Nobel Laureates, W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett.