To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Seamus Heaney, RTÉ presents a series of essential recordings from the archives.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin played host to a special edition of RTÉ Radio's The Arts Show for the 70th birthday of Seamus Heaney, presented live by Sean Rocks along with Kay Sheehy.
The broadcast opens with Sean in conversation with Seamus Heaney, discussing the experience of recording the mammoth CD box-set Seamus Heaney - Collected Poems, which includes all his poetry previously published in book form.
Heaney mentions how he 'always believed in the speaking aloud of poetry… it can be a little ceremony, not necessarily ceremonious… it is different to silent reading or reading into yourself, what my old master used to call it… '. He adds that ‘listening driving along in the car allows people to take possession of it’.
He also talks about needing to trust your own style, and that he learned a lot from fellow poet and close friend Ted Hughes about reading your own work and that to read purely you can be true to yourself. Heaney reminds us that poetry is ‘…not just something sold in books but part of your spiritual development… a door onto different landings something that was, is and will be you.’
Those attending the celebration who talk with Kay Sheehy include former president Mary Robinson and Robert Dunbar, a contemporary of Heaney’s from his university days at Queens, Belfast and sculptor John Behan who struck up a friendship with Heaney that ‘solidified when we both served on the Board of The Arts Council’.
Poet Rita Ann Higgins recalls the generosity of Marie and Seamus Heaney when, after one Poetry Now Festival in Dún Laoghaire, everyone was invited back to their house and greatly welcomed. Sean Rocks talks with Heaney’s school friends Des Kavanagh and Paddy Malarky; John Horgan, who got to know the Heaneys when they were a young couple living in Belfast and he was a young reporter in the city and their house was an open haven; Niall MacMonagle, long-time school teacher of Heaney; and Heaney’s brother-in-law Barry Devlin, who in the high spirits of the birthday says the Devlin family are competing with the Heaney family for the numbers attending the celebratory event.
In the final section of the programme, RTÉ presenter John Kelly welcomes Seamus Heaney himself to the podium, to rapturous applause. He thanks Heaney ‘not just for the work which has nourished us and delighted us and moved us and steadied us throughout the years, but also for the way he has carried himself and carried us. He’s an international figure who has remained available and accessible at home and we are very grateful to him for that. RTÉ is particularly grateful for the ways you have collaborated and played ball with your customary grace and decency with all those recordings and signatures and phone calls and faxes…we really do appreciate you being around and being so generous with your time…never forget Seamus that we are also fans and we really do want to thank you for the poems…’
And then Heaney begins.
