Author: Fergal Kearney

Seamus Heaney Centre – The Truth Behind the Hype

28th September 20168th January 2018
by Fergal Kearney

SEAMUS HEANEY CENTRE

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HYPE

So how did this Seamus Heaney Centre come about. This site has for the last 7 years made every effort to bring you the positive news about what is happening in the cultural world of its author and commenting on new creative opportunities for those of us who live and work here (or look in regularly from overseas). Now its time to turn the spotlight on a new cultural centre in my native Bellaghy. Time to look at the Seamus Heaney Centre – The Truth Behind the Hype – in all its ugly detail.

You may or may not have noticed that over the past number of months the page has fallen completely silent on its coverage of the Seamus Heaney HomePlace, which was officially opened in Bellaghy on 29th September 2016 before a private, invited audience. Let’s explain that silence.

When I first started covering the literature of Seamus Heaney in my blog, it coincided with the beginning of a conversation with the then Magherafelt District Council about how we might regenerate Bellaghy. In January 2013 a number of us from Bellaghy gathered at Magherafelt’s Bridewell, spending a Saturday looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of developing a better Bellaghy. Out of that day came a strategy of sorts, which included a more focused development on the tourism offering, including that of poet Seamus Heaney.

That summer of 2013 a community group of sorts was formed in Bellaghy. One of the big issues then was the acquisition by Magherafelt District Council of the site of the former police station on Main St. The Council approached the group to look at the potential of turning the site over to community use. Architects were deployed (that’s a separate story) and a new community and mixed retail/office development was drafted to planning application stage (Pictured).

Seamus Heaney Centre - The Truth Behind the Hype — The Original Community Approved Plans for the Old Bellaghy RUC Station

Then the news of Seamus Heaney’s death came through. Although nothing changed that autumn of 2013, it was through a chance conversation between this page admin and a long time collaborator of Seamus Heaney in Bellaghy Bawn that Christmas, that things changed. And changed utterly.

It became apparent in that conversation that Seamus Heaney’s widow Marie wished to donate the contents of Seamus’ Dublin study to what she called ‘the people of Bellaghy’. This prompted me to take the matter up at the community group, including the likelihood of including some space in the new community building to house the collection.

Then Magherafelt District Council decided unilaterally to forge ahead with a complete rewrite of what was agreed for the police station site and ‘Seamus Heaney HomePlace’ was born that Spring of 2014. When we compare this with the complete intransigence and cultural apathy this group encountered with that same council in our 1st anniversary event for Seamus, the speed and vigour of their sudden embrace of all things Heaney was astonishing.

That is the moment that the focus shifted from developing Bellaghy to developing a memorial to Seamus Heaney. The council’s focus shifted south to Dublin, where Seamus Heaney’s immediate family were brought on board in support of the venture up north. That is when it became clear that this was becoming a vanity project for the council. Indeed, in Spring 2016 your page admin was summoned to a meeting with a senior official of Mid Ulster Council to be told what was and was not acceptable to ‘council’ in the posts on this page.

The decision was made there and then that this page, which had always exercised good will towards the project but which had on occasion questioned the judgement of its sponsors and the scale of expenditure, would no longer give coverage of any kind to HomePlace. Until tonight.

I am not alone in feeling left outside the gates of my own home town and when I bear witness everyday to the extravagance being lavished on the new centre, I do admit to feeling angry. You should be angry too.

Tomorrow the circus will be wheeled into town, just as it was 20 years ago at Bellaghy Bawn (now stripped bare of all association with Seamus Heaney). They will have a party and then they will leave, never to be seen again. Then on Friday, those of us who live here – and were critical players in making it happen at all – will be invited to cross the threshold.

I won’t be among them.

Knowing Seamus Heaney

I knew Seamus Heaney when he was alive, enjoying his company at many literary events across Ireland over the years and on his visits to Bellaghy Bawn when I was centre manager there. Tonight I think he will be spinning in his grave.

Seamus Heaney was a man of great humility and integrity. I and many others believe he would be appalled at the excess of this building in his name and memory – and the dereliction of duty of care to the rest of our village and area. He told me at the Carleton Summer School back in August 1994, when the Bawn project was taking shape in his name, that he was uncomfortable with any hype or anything that would suggest largesse. I don’t believe he would have felt different today.

Bring on the Corporate Bully

At the end of August, in the week before we ran our Poetry House event, Mid Ulster Council declined us grant aid, citing that it did not find favour with the Heaney’s in Dublin (this did not appear anywhere on the criteria for applying of course). This was accompanied by a letter from Seamus Heaney’s daughter telling us that we were not permitted to use her ‘dad’s image’ in any of our promotional work.

This was followed up days before the event with official intervention by officials at Mid Ulster Council with BBC Radio 4, who were doing two programmes from our event. The council cancelled a planned interview with Seamus’ brother Hugh with BBC Radio 4’s Open Country. They also tried to censor the content of the broadcasts. The BBC production team were not amused. Watch this space for how the BBC follow up on this.

And finally, a gulf of unedifying proportions has now opened up between HomePlace and the established Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s. Tomorrow, QUB professors, assorted luvvies and students of the Queen’s centre will come to Bellaghy at the same time as the launch of HomePlace to protest the building of the road through ‘Anahorish’ – a protest, in reality, against the impertinence of Mid Ulster Council and the Heaney’s to building a rival centre in the sticks!

You really couldn’t make it up.

Irish Literature and Landscape

Fergal Kearney on Antiques Road Trip

6th January 2016
by Fergal Kearney

Fergal Kearney on Antiques Road Trip

In July 2015 I received a call out of the blue from STV (Scottish Television) who produce the Antiques Road Trip for the BBC. The soft Scottish burr of the production assistant told me my name had been given by DoENI as something of a specialist on Seamus Heaney and the history of Bellaghy (eh?) and that they would like me to appear on the ‘break out’ segment of their forthcoming series, to be filmed in Northern Ireland.

The Final Resting Place of our Great Friend Seamus Heaney Features in the 2nd Instalment of S12 Ep2 from Northern Ireland

OK I thought, this is nothing new to me? So in August of 2015 I set about hosting the production people at STV on a rendezvous of South Derry, placing us among the landmarks of our wonderful late friend Seamus Heaney.

A day of familiarisation turned into a further day of filming, reduced to a segment of 4 minutes in the eventual show broadcast on Network BBC2 on Tuesday 5th January 2016. To put this in context, a 2 minute segment in Game of Thrones in Toome Canal during September 2014 (S5) took 3 weeks! But there it was this evening in all its HD glory, with all my favourite views of our beloved Parish on show to around 4.9 million UK viewers.

If you want to enjoy the entire show you can view it at Antiques Road Trip here and if you want to skip to ‘moi’ on the telly, I’m the gobshite at minute 12 or so in the production.

I’ve had good feedback so far on my piece to camera and, on an umbilical gazing re-watch, I have to say with my eyes closed that I sounded OK? Hope you agree!

antiques road trip in northern ireland — Paul Laidlaw and Catherine Southon on their Trip Around NI for Antiques Road Trip in August 2015 when they Called in Bellaghy

My New Year Resolution on viewing the show is to become a Size 10 (in lady-speak) by Easter. Did you see the size of thon man on the BBC? Jeeeez! But I do love giving the ould place a boost and putting us on the map for all the good reasons!

Irish Literature and Landscape

A Defining Year for Bellaghy

3rd January 2016
by Fergal Kearney

A Defining Year for Bellaghy

Seamus Heaney to be Memorialised in new Landmark Building

At the beginning of 2012, a group of people from Bellaghy met at Magherafelt’s Bridewell to agree on what needed to happen to ensure that the village and its hinterland could flourish. It had been obvious for some time that something (big) needed to happen to bring new life to the dreary streets of our historic village. A mammoth task lay ahead.

Out of this discussion came a strategy of sorts, covering areas such as housing, public realm, built heritage, economic development and the literary opportunity presented by our very own Seamus Heaney. There was even a regeneration group set up to guide the way forward and to take on the custodianship of a future Bellaghy.

A Slow but Positive Start

Things started slowly. It wasn’t until late 2013 that things started to happen – a Christmas Market, a new Christmas Tree and village lights were just a few of the highlights of that fledgling year. Agreement was also reached on a solution for the reuse of the site vacated by the village RUC station. These plans were approved by the regeneration group in October 2013 and were submitted for planning permission that November. Have a look at the original plans below:-

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This was followed in 2014 by the official handover of the Bellaghy Village Allotments and our first ever Easter Eggstravaganza at Ballyscullion Park. The success of these original events showed great enthusiasm among local people for high quality events and activities.

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The Death of Seamus Heaney

The defining moment of course came on 30th August 2013 when news began to filter through of the death of Seamus Heaney. Seamus’ life and work had been celebrated some years before in the rehabilitation of Bellaghy Bawn, where an exhibition and library of his work remains to this day. Seamus was a long time resident of Dublin but was a regular visitor to his native Bellaghy – and he chose the churchyard at St Mary’s as his final resting place.

The Shock Death of Seamus Heaney Required a Complete Rethink of the New Development

That Christmas, local drama group ‘Off the Cuff’ arranged an intimate afternoon of music and poetry in Seamus’ memory in the Tower Room at Bellaghy Bawn. Featuring local people reciting their favourite poem, interspersed with music, the event was a fitting and appropriate memorial to the great poet.

The Christmas Memorial Event featured Local People Reciting their favourite poem.

When the event finished I got chatting to Pat Brennan, a long term scholar of Seamus Heaney’s work and latterly his archivist. Pat had recently been in conversation with Seamus’ wife Marie who had indicated her desire to donate the contents of Seamus’ Dublin study to ‘the people of Bellaghy’. Her chief concern was that nowhere suitable could be found, as Bellaghy Bawn had long been neglected by government (the Seamus Heaney exhibit had last been updated in 2003) and in any case, it would be much to small to accommodate all of Seamus’ work.

It was on the back of that chance conversation that the replacement building at the site of the old RUC station became the new ‘Seamus Heaney Centre’. The original plans were scuppered and the substantial edifice that has now risen at the corner of Gulladuff Road and Main Street became its landmark replacement.

The Seamus Heaney Centre

Of course, this remains its working title but the new centre will be wholly dedicated to the work and the legacy of Seamus Heaney. Not only will it tell his life story, but will provide a huge archive of the poet’s work, study areas, a library and a 160 seat performance space – and not forgetting the huge personal archive donated by his widow Marie.

But what of the locals?

At the initial stages, the project promoters (Magherafelt District Council – now Mid Ulster District Council) were more concerned with getting the place built than what to do with it. Moderate community engagement has taken place in late 2015 and outreach work with schoolchildren is already underway. But I believe that the speed and the sheer size of the development has taken most people by surprise.

If this is to be truly a defining year for Bellaghy, much more needs to be done to engage with everyone in the community, of every age. Regrettably the regeneration group has ebbed away so there is no representative voice for local people. So here’s my top tips for making 2016 a landmark year for Bellaghy:-

Begin a countdown, publicly displayed on the new building leading up to its opening on 30th June
Put in place a programme of small events using Bellaghy Bawn and other ‘venues’
Engage local people in the opening event – this has to be a landmark event of international significance if it is to have any impact at all
Information, information, information – I’m just not seeing any press or communications to whet even the local appetite, never mind the wider national and international audience
Re-establish the village regeneration group with the appropriate mix of expertise and experience in areas such as economic development, business, tourism, the arts and education

Most importantly of all though is that each and everyone of us embraces this opportunity! It’s once in a lifetime folks that a small place such as ours will have the eyes of the world turned upon us for positive reasons.

So get out there, show your support, attend those events and make Bellaghy work!

Photography Assignments

Tania & Gary Get Wed

21st October 2015
by Fergal Kearney

Tania & Gary Get Wed

The Ceremony and Reception of Tania Johnston and Gary Williamson

It was back in May 2014 at the Mad Masquerade May Charity Ball in the Glenavon Hotel Cookstown that I had the good fortune of sharing the table with the then unknown Tania Johnston and her fiancé Gary Williamson.

As is customary, I had my Nikon on tow to record the event for posterity and after the formal proceedings did a walk around, capturing guests in all their finery and masquerades.

I thought little of it after posting the images of the event to Facebook (where they were very popular indeed) until I got a message from Tania in June this year asking whether I would be interested in doing the photography for her forthcoming marriage to Gary, in October 2015.

“Absolutely”, I said. And there I was, official photographer for the civil ceremony and reception at the White River House Hotel and Restaurant in Toomebridge.

From early on, it was clear that ‘Tania & Gary Get Wed’ wasn’t going to be some stuffy ceremony, but a fun event with a farming theme – including a Massey Ferguson 546 as the official wedding limousine!

Here is my video trailer of one of the most relaxed, yet uplifting days of photography I had the pleasure to record. Thanks Tania and Gary and all your guests for a great day and my very best wishes for a tremendous future of love and happiness!!

Tania & Gary chose my Wedding Package 1 for their big day, which ensures that they have over 250 quality images of their entire wedding day, including their reception and evening event, this online video trailer and of course, their Wedding DVD set to their own personal soundtrack.

You can have lasting memories too of the most important day of your life from as little as £590.00.

Call now for a no obligation chat about your wedding or civil ceremony imagery on 02879 386638!

Irish Literature and Landscape

New Seamus Heaney Translation

10th September 2015
by Fergal Kearney

The family of Seamus Heaney has announced the publication of “Aeneid: Book VI”, a translation of the verse about Aeneas’s journey to the underworld.

Seamus Heaney Aeneid Translation — Faber’s has described the publication of Seamus Heaney’s final work as ‘almost miraculous’. Seamus died on 30th August 2013.

The book will be published in 2016 by Faber & Faber. Seamus began the translation after the death of his father Patrick in 1986 and continued to work on revisions until a month before his untimely death in August 2013. It seems fitting therefore that his last work will be published posthumously given that he often described Aeneas’s venture into the underworld as “a constant presence” throughout his own life.

Seamus’ daughter Catherine-Anne said that “this translation is the result of work and revisions carried out over many years – from the 1980s to the month before his death – and the decision to publish it was one our family took after long and careful consideration”.

She added, “Given its theme of Aeneas’s search for his father in the afterlife, it would be hard to think of a more poignant way for us to mark the end of our father’s own poetic journey”.

The new book is scheduled for March 2016 in the UK and will be published in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Irish Literature and Landscape

In the Footsteps of Seamus Heaney

26th August 2015
by Fergal Kearney

In the Footsteps of Seamus Heaney

An Insight Tour by Fergal Kearney

I grew up in a place called Tamlaghduff, a townland on the periphery of the village of Bellaghy in County Derry, Northern Ireland. As a boy, I shirked work on the family farm as much as I could – denying my parents any help with the turf-cutting in the ‘moss’, reluctantly building the hay bales onto the trailer and then into the shed; then even more reluctantly, tidily building the turf into the cart for their onward journey to the turf shed. Here, the turf were once again lovingly handled into a ‘peat’ wall, as meticulously planned and executed as that of any monastic building.

seamus heaney toner's bog — Toner’s Bog near Bellaghy has returned to nature. First referenced in Seamus Heaney’s ‘Digging’, it is close to where we had our own turf bank at Ballymacombs in the 1970s and 80s.

I suppose in many ways this reluctance was borne out of some sub-conscious rite of passage for my generation, from a background of the rural Catholic poor to the more progressive, optimistic nod to an equal future. My petulance was no doubt the result of trying to break the reins that might hold me forever in this past, of fleeing the narrow boundaries; of escaping the suffocating confines of the march ditch. My parents were probably from that last innocent time, before mass media, television and the attendant political awakening. My mother regaled us with stories of walking barefoot to school, of hard work on the farm, of tough economic times and of a generally awful existence. I’ll never know the extent to which these tales of woe were embellished, but they were a throwback to a time that I never knew, nor cared to.

Beginnings

I came into this world in the late 1960s, when the ‘swinging’ sixties had almost run their course and when a newly enlightened youth were setting an agenda of protest and civil rights. By the time I was born, Seamus Heaney was already a published and respected poet, a man of words and letters and one who had broken the mould of the subservient Catholic citizen; keeping the head down and ‘keeping going’.

In 1978 I went to grammar school in Magherafelt, the first of a cabal of boys in a convent school. Seamus had followed a similar path, but he went to boarding school at St. Columb’s in Derry. I was of course a day student in Magherafelt, a mere 7 miles down the road from home, but the wrench from normal family life was just as complete.

It was in 1st year there that I was introduced to the work of Seamus Heaney through his eponymous poem ‘Digging’. I had heard of Seamus Heaney, mostly because his father had taken the land beside us for grazing and I could see the family home across the fields from our house. I had lesser knowledge, or indeed grasp, of his poetry; any poetry for that matter. But I came to hate that poem ‘Digging’ with an unforgiving passion.

I did of course develop a similar loathing of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens and W Somerset Maugham and Shakespeare and…the curricular list could go on. But let me explain. It wasn’t ever so much a dislike of their work as the manner in which it was taught. When I was 12, school reading was not considered a pleasure or an escape. It was to be drilled into us, passages learned by rote; entire chapters to be summarised and analysed; exam day the most important in any calendar; siphoning any last vestige of joy from the poem, the passage, the play.

So it was that my ‘literary’ awakening was through the pages of “The Hardy Boys” and “Nancy Drew”, and the westerns of Louis L’amour. Later on the horror writing of Stephen King would open my eyes to a whole new world, not just of the supernatural, but of character building and immersive prose.

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Mid Term Break

The poetry of Seamus Heaney never really went away ‘you know’, always hovering somewhere at the back of my literary consciousness. When I was 21 years old, my grandfather died. Death had never visited my family so closely and it was on the back of this life-changing moment that I revisited Seamus Heaney through fresh eyes. For one thing, I was now a good bit older and the words on the page were easier on the eye, but it was a re-reading of Mid Term Break that compelled me to a new appreciation and love of Seamus’ work.

It was my own close experience of death and loss that threw his words into sharper relief, making them real, vivid and connecting with me emotionally. I don’t know of anyone who can read that final stanza in the poem and not feel immediately and suddenly overcome, if not with emotion then with a certain wave of anxiety.

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.

No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

So it was that I turned to ‘New Selected Poems 1966 – 1987’ to reacquaint myself with the poetry of Seamus Heaney. My eyes opened wide to the rich complexity but earthy simplicity of his words and I felt that reconnect between his world and mine – the same world.

Death and Legacy

I have written elsewhere on this website on the death of Seamus Heaney and his legacy (you can read more here). But in the last few years I have given much thought to how I can play my part in keeping his legacy alive and relevant in our fast moving world. I have helped develop the centre in his name, currently under construction in his native Bellaghy (read more here), but I have also put my mind and imagination to how I might share our world with the world – in a manner that is both honorific and respectful.

Last year on the occasion of his 1st anniversary I helped to organise ‘The Poetry House’ and during that event ran a tour of the places and spaces and people of Seamus’ literary world. At the same time I was terribly conscious that this was my own world and that I would be sharing my own deep love of my place. Thus ‘In the Footsteps of Seamus Heaney’ was born. It is a journey that is at once appreciative, respectful; and grateful.

I have realised now that my life has followed in the footsteps of Seamus Heaney and I hope sincerely that one day you will join me on it.

Photography Assignments

Wedding Promo Film

24th August 2015
by Fergal Kearney

Wedding Promo Film

An Introduction to my Wedding Photography

Sit back, put your feet up for a few minutes and take a short wander through my video on my Wedding Photography service. I cover the whole island of Ireland too!!

There’s a good few people out there who take wedding photographs, but before you confirm their booking for the biggest day of your lives, have a look at what I can do for you and then give me a shout and we can all have a chat about what you’d like and how I can match it!

There’s no commitment of course, but I’m hoping that when you meet me and have a chat, there will be no other photographer in the nation that you’ll want for your special day!

Contact me using this form: –

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Irish Literature and Landscape

Heaney Centre Public Event

2nd August 2015
by Fergal Kearney

Heaney Centre Public Event

Bellaghy Public get First Glimpse of New Seamus Heaney Centre

Saturday afternoon, 1st August 2015 saw people gather from near and far to get a glimpse of the new Seamus Heaney Centre in Bellaghy.

Mid Ulster Council put on a great show at Bellaghy Bawn with creative events for youngsters, stiltwalkers, face painting and storytelling. An exhibition of the new centre showed how the finished building will look, inside and out, when it opens its doors in June 2016.

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The afternoon provided a great introduction to what can be expected next year and everyone who came along was enthusiastic and excited about what’s in store for Bellaghy in 2016!

Here are my pictures of the day!

Irish Literature and Landscape

Toner’s Bog

26th July 20157th January 2018
by Fergal Kearney

Toner’s Bog

from Seamus Heaney’s Digging

When I was a schoolboy, we were taught Seamus Heaney’s seminal poem ‘Digging’ like we were taught the Hail Mary and the Our Father! It was a rite of passage for any Catholic school pupil of 12 or 13 to learn that poem by heart, even if it sucked the heart out of that poem. The poem was also my first introduction to the mysterious ‘Toner’s Bog’.

But with maturity comes wisdom and now the poem has become symbolic as the foundation stone of Seamus Heaney’s 5 decades as one of our most gifted and celebrated poets. As he draws parallels in his poem between his father’s spade and his own pen, there is that cathartic moment when he reassures himself that his pen will be his spade, that ‘Ill dig with it’.

As I got older I grew more comfortable with the imagery of that poem insofar as it reflected my own upbringing. My father cut turf on Ballymacombs bog in the traditional manner, a summer of hard labour that this particular writer despised, and avoided if possible. But the key question in ‘Digging’ was about ‘Toner’s Bog’; where it was, or even if it existed at all.

In reality, Seamus Heaney was not given to ‘fiction’ in his work, so it was always going to be the case that such a place did exist, but few if any could tell me where ‘Toner’s Bog’ actually was. Until that is, the first anniversary of Seamus’ death in August 2014, when I first set eyes on the mythical bog where Seamus brought milk to his grandfather, ‘corked sloppily with paper’. And here it is…

A few native trees have grown on what would have been the bog itself, while mature woodland has now crowded the horizon and has hidden the Sperrin Mountains which can (just) be seen lurking behind. This is not far from Ballymacombs Bog where we had our own turf plot, but regrettably our moss was long ago consumed by landfill from the local authority rubbish tip.

Now, here is the poem itself for your enjoyment…

DIGGING

by Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.

Toner’s Bog features in my Seamus Heaney Tour as part of my InSite Tours Ireland series. Learn more here.

Irish Literature and Landscape

Heaney Centre Open Day

20th July 2015
by Fergal Kearney

Heaney Centre Open Day

A Heaney Centre Open Day will be held at Bellaghy Bawn on Saturday 1st August 2015 from 12noon to 3p.m to showcase the features of the new Seamus Heaney Centre, currently under construction in Bellaghy.

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Seamus Heaney – One of Ireland’s Literary Giants

Poet, playwright, translator, lecturer, Nobel Laureate

In the summer of 2016, the new facility will open to showcase the life and work of the boy from Bellaghy who became a poet and academic of international standing and global appeal.

In Bellaghy, at the heart of the place and the people which inspired him, a new building is being created which will use the latest touch screen, video and audio technology to connect visitors with the history and heritage of Seamus Heaney.

Listen to the personal stories of family and friends.
Hear how Heaney was valued by influential figures around the world.
Experience everything from poetry and painting to drama and dance in the 160-seater theatre and performance space.
Get creative in our learning zones for children and adults.
Come in and enjoy our community space for your events, meetings, youth clubs and children’s activities.

Author: Fergal Kearney

SEAMUS HEANEY CENTRE

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HYPE

Knowing Seamus Heaney

Bring on the Corporate Bully

Fergal Kearney on Antiques Road Trip

A Defining Year for Bellaghy

Seamus Heaney to be Memorialised in new Landmark Building

A Slow but Positive Start

The Death of Seamus Heaney

The Seamus Heaney Centre

But what of the locals?

Tania & Gary Get Wed

The Ceremony and Reception of Tania Johnston and Gary Williamson

In the Footsteps of Seamus Heaney

An Insight Tour by Fergal Kearney

Beginnings

Mid Term Break

Wedding Promo Film

An Introduction to my Wedding Photography

Heaney Centre Public Event

Bellaghy Public get First Glimpse of New Seamus Heaney Centre

Toner’s Bog

from Seamus Heaney’s Digging

DIGGING

by Seamus Heaney

Heaney Centre Open Day

Seamus Heaney – One of Ireland’s Literary Giants

Poet, playwright, translator, lecturer, Nobel Laureate

Creating a space where the legacy of Seamus Heaney can be sustained and enjoyed by future generations.

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