This article is from page 4 of the 2013-09-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
SEAMUS Heaney’s love of County Clare that shone through until his untimely death last Friday has been recalled this week by the chairman of Cumman Merriman, Liam Ó Dochartaigh. Heaney made his last visit to the county over under three weeks ago when attending the annual Merriman Summer School in Lisdoonvarna on an occasion when Ó Dochartaigh revealed he had his audience “in the palm of his hand and blew us away”.
The world renowned poet and Nobel laureate was patron of Cumman Merriman for the past five years, following in a list of distinguished patrons that went before him, all of whom were presidents of Ireland – Eamon de Valera, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh and Dr Patrick Hillery.
“On the passing of President Hillery in 2008, Cumann Merriman decided to invite Seamus Heaney, who had translated a large portion of Brian Merriman’s famous poem, ‘Cúirt an Mheán Oíche’ to be its Éarlamh,” revealed Mr Ó Dochartaigh.
“He accepted our invitation willingly thereby honouring the memory and legacy of Brian Merriman and the annual Merriman Summer School far more than we could ever have honoured him,” headed.
“He featured memorably in a number of Merriman Summer Schools but most memorably and most recently, a little over two weeks ago, on Friday evening, August 16, in the Pavilion Theatre in Lisdoonvarna.
“Along with his life-long friend, fellow Northerner, and fellow poet, Michael Longley, he read turn and turn about. The Pavilion Theatre was packed to capacity, with some 400 patrons in attendance to hear them; it was a night to remember, a night of our lives, which will live long in the memory. Both poets’ affinity with County Clare was evident on the night but it can be said that with the reading of the last poem in his own selection, and the final poem of the evening, Seamus Heaney had us in the palm of his hand and blew us away,” continued Mr Ó Dochar- taigh.
In reference to driving along Clare’s Flaggy Shore on a windy day in September or October, Heaney read: ‘You are neither here nor there, A hurry through which known and strange things pass, As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways, And catch the heart off guard and blow it open’.
“But another deadly breeze came in the night,” said Mr Ó Dochartaigh mourning his death, “caught us off guard and swept our hero-poet away. Cumann Merriman mourns the loss of Seamus Heaney but our loss and the nation’s loss is as nothing compared to that of his wife, Marie, and their children, Michael, Christopher and Catherine Ann,” he added.