Sir, – We cannot all be great poets but we can all be great people. May Seamus Heaney’s teachings and example guide us to greatness so that together we can re-build this country with care, compassion and community. Then he will truly be able to rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
PEGGYANN McCANN,
Chapel Street,
Lismore,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – I would like to thank our national broadcaster for the sympathetic televising of Seamus Heaney’s funeral. As the recorder failed to capture the entire service, RTÉ Player came to the rescue.
I can’t help but think that those who were unable to access it via any medium are the poorer. – Yours, etc,
BOB REED,
Clonard Drive,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16.
A chara, – Much has been written about the gentle kindness and humanity of Seamus Heaney in the last few days. A number of years ago I crossed paths with him and experienced his renowned kindness.
I was boarding a flight from Edinburgh to Dublin, when I spotted him sitting a few rows in front of me. During the flight I was considering whether or not to ask him for an autograph for two friends of mine – directors of a theatre company in Philadelphia and big fans of his work.
As we walked into the terminal in Dublin Airport, I plucked up the necessary courage. With a twinkle in his eye, Seamus Heaney said, “Young lady, why don’t we take a moment while you tell me about your friends.” He wrote a lovely note for Dan and Quinn and wished me all the best.
My memory of that encounter is of a man who had time for strangers, who had a genuine interest in others and who displayed great thoughtfulness.
May he rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
NUALA Nic GHEARAILT,
Woodford Lawn,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Sir, – August 30th, which marked the passing of Seamus Heaney, was one of the saddest days I can remember. His poetry was rooted in the land and rooted in the hands of my grandparents who lived in Ireland.
Nothing comes close to Heaney’s work in terms of capturing the ineffable beauty and harsh realities of the everyday that my family (and many families) experienced. In his hands and in his “squat pen” he held an entire country, the history and the future, with all the complex paradoxes, indescribable grief, and astounding music that we, as human beings, carry in our voices.
Although I live in America, my family is originally from Islandmore in Clew Bay. It is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in the world, and I am lucky enough to be able to spend the summers there. Many members of my family, who grew up on the island, remember nights when the high tide swept into the house. As children, my cousins would wake up to find the ocean at their fingertips. I believe Heaney’s lines from The Disappearing Island are a poignant reminder of this: “The island broke beneath us like a wave/ The land sustaining us seemed to hold firm.”
Likewise, there are moments when Clew Bay becomes completely still. The ocean seems to rest for a minute, unstartled, and the reflection of the sky is indistinguishable from the sea.
Those moments feel as close to the edge of the world as a human being can possibly get. It reminds me of the last line from the poem, “All I believed that happened there was vision.” To me, that line is the perfect embodiment of that feeling. And Seamus Heaney was the only one who could so precisely bring that feeling into language.
I was fortunate enough to hear Seamus Heaney speak eloquently about poetry at a writers’ conference in Boston several months ago. He said: “I usually considered myself a noun basically. But to be transformed into a verb, seems to me, to be the call of poetry.” I want to tell Seamus Heaney, wherever he might be, that he is a verb. He is a verb to me and to the rest of the world, now and forever. – Yours, etc,
KELLY MICHELS
Grove Crabtree Crescent ,
Raleigh,
North Carolina, US.
Sir, – Methinks Derek Carr (September 3rd) is mistaken in questioning Seamus Heaney’s right to be ranked at least as an equal in the same Pantheon as Joyce, Yeats and Shaw. – Yours, etc,
TOM O’HIGGINS,
Highfield Road,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – When Seamus Heaney was awarded an honorary degree by Queen’s University, Belfast, he asked the teenage son of one of the university officers what he did at school. On being told the boy had published a poem in the school magazine, he asked if it rhymed. No, replied the boy. “Good!” beamed Dr Heaney. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD FROGGATT,
Strangford Avenue,
Belfast.
Sir, – Given the wonder, beauty and mystery of the world we inhabit, which Seamus Heaney so eloquently described, should scientists not now be adding “spirit” to their space-time continuum? – Yours, etc,
TOM FITZGERALD,
Kildimo,
Co Limerick.