Seamus Heaney is named the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature for his poetry of lyrical beauty.
Seamus Heaney is the fourth Irish writer to be awarded the world's most prestigious literary prize. Previous winners include WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett.
The announcement was made at lunchtime in Stockholm when Seamus Heaney was on a hiking holiday in Greece. He unaware of the honour and unaware that he was now one million dollars richer.
Fellow poet Theo Dorgan, Director of Poetry Ireland, had an emotional response to the news and explains Seamus Heaney's extraordinary place in Irish life.
It's as if your uncle or your brother or your Da won something.
The Royal Swedish Society the the prize was going to Seamus Heany for creating works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth.
Poet Paul Muldoon, speaking at Trinity College Dublin, describes him as one of the best known living poets.
Born in Derry in 1939, he was educated at St Columb's College in Derry and at Queen's University Belfast. John Hume, a former classmate of Seamus Heaney's, said the win was fantastic news for all of Ireland.
I have no doubt that the whole country will be totally united in its pride of Seamus Heaney.
Seamus Heaney married Marie Devlin in 1965. They have three children. He began work as a secondary school teacher in 1962 and published his first book of poems, 'Eleven Poems', in 1965. He is a member of Aosdána, established to recognise outstanding literary and artistic achievement.
Speaking a few days earlier in Finland, Seamus Heaney explained why he was a writer.
Because I wrote once and it's addictive.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 5 October 1995. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
