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And the Craic was 90! October 2013 ianohio.com Ireland’s Great Poet Seamus Heaney Passes … Pages 2 and 3 An Irish Halloween … Page 9 2013 Gaa Finals in Pics, Praise and Promise … Page 12-15 Cover photo by Marianne Mangan, www.mariannemangan.com 2 IAN Ohio “We’ve Always Been Green!” www.ianohio.com October 2013 Seamus Heaney described this decision as his “early warn- four, when Heaney was away at school. ing system.” Hundreds of mourners attended the (1939-2013) Instead, Heaney was careful to keep his poet’s funeral at Sacred Heart Church in By Neil Conway role as poet within the limits of writing Donnybrook, including his widow Marie, Seamus Heaney, broadly regarded as described as having “ a primeval, epiph- and children Michael, Christopher and Ireland’s greatest poet since WB Yeats, anic” quality (Fox & McKinley), laced Catherine Ann. Also in attendance were died at the age of 74, in Dublin, Ireland. with ancient Celtic and Greek mythologi- the Taoiseach of Ireland Enda Kenny, His accolades include the Nobel Peace cal references. For this reputation, Heaney President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, Prize for Literature in 1995 for over a evolved to become the most broadly read Playwright Brien Friel, the rock group U2, dozen poetry collections and theatre poet of our times. At the same time, his Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, Northern contributions that can be described col- lyrical style embraced a wide range of Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin lectively as “works of lyrical beauty.” He topics, including love, conflict, poems McGuinness, former President Mary also received the French Commandeur to friends and poems to the dead. He McAleese, and his contemporary, poet de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996, literally reveled in the use of the English Michael Longley. and the T.S. Elliot prize in 2006. language as a mode of expression. Enda Kenny described Seamus Heaney Yet Mr. Heaney did not let his popular- Seamus Heaney was buried next to his as “…the keeper of our language, our ity diminish the fact that he expanded his brother Christopher, for whom he wrote codes, our essence as a people.” He will ability to describe rural life to explore the the poem “Mid Term Break.” Christo- be also remembered for being regarded as strife and moral quandaries that defined pher died in an accident at the age of Ireland’s literary messenger of humanity. the modern Irish condition leading to the peace accord of 1998. Despite his national- ist views, he was the recent guest of Mary and Martin McAleese at Dublin Castle, with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. He also was awarded the Whitbread Prize in 1996 for his translation of Beowulf, and the David Cohen prize by the Arts Council of England in 2009 for lifetime achievement. Born in on a farm in Northern Ireland in 1939, Heaney was the oldest of nine children. Heaney’s intellectual ability was recognized at an early age, when he was sent on a scholarship to St. Columb’s College in Derry, at the age of twelve. He subsequently entered Queen’s University in Belfast, where he eventually became a lecturer in English, and again at Carysfort College in Dublin. His career included becoming a regular visiting professor at Harvard University, and professor of poetry at Oxford University. In 1972 he became a freelance writer. As the troubles in his homeland became more and more violent in the 1960s and 1970s, Heaney’s writing addressed the root of its origin; that is, a divided, un- equal society. He did not, however, allow his fame to make him a spokesperson for the Republican movement. Mr. Heaney October 2013 “We’ve Always Been Green!” www.ianohio.com 3 gone before him. matter in the Irish literary canon places, in the early 1990s. I was a The muse, who had proven him reveal an unquiet soul. The lan- postgraduate student giving my successful, begins to mock his guage he loves, skillfully ma- first paper at an academic confer- skills. He must now prove himself nipulates, echoes back to him as ence. Heaney was of course the against the literary greats of Joyce, hollow, insignificant and lacking keynote speaker, the literary giant, Carleton, and Kavanagh. conviction. among other prestigious scholars. My favourite group of poems What elevates the poems is his I was fearful and timid about deliv- is from Station Island. The poet tendency to vacillate, side step the ering a paper to such an illustrious Digging to Find the Man is no longer following in the deep hard questions, in what seems to group, and as such, keeping a very I protested against him, the more footsteps of his father or grandfa- be a desire to be true to himself. To low profile. The renowned poet, statesman, each phrase became part of my ther; rather, he is traipsing after the quote Eugene O’Neill’s character, My Professor, Bob Welch, knew and scholar Seamus Heaney re- psyche, until I could not struggle heritage of the literary greats. He Larry Slade, from “The Iceman Heaney and was also an important cently passed from this life. I still against the transcendent landscape confronts himself with the ferocity Cometh”, Heaney is able to see figure in Irish academia. The con- remember my first introduction to of rural Northern Ireland. As of a monk chastening himself in both sides of the question. ference seemed to me sufficiently Heaney’s poetry while at college. Synge had done before, It is this inability to not stacked with enough talking heads Since he was from my home county, Heaney brought to us simply be propagandist, or to terrify someone at the beginning Derry, I was intrigued and excited the beauty, wonder, a reductionist, that leaves of their academic life. On the day I to delve into his work. The first and fragility of a world us watching a man at war was to give my paper, I got into the poem we read was one of his most that bore the same scars with the natural feelings of lift and to my surprise my supervi- celebrated early works, Digging. of the city but with less wanting to belong. While sor, accompanied by Heaney, was Coming from a rural part of the brutality. The anxious not wanting to seem as if also in the elevator. I was intro- county, and a long line of farmers, Protestant neighbour, he were naively ‘neutral’, duced to the poet, and when I told Heaney was now leaving the fam- graciously awaiting the the victim to shifting loy- him that I was giving a paper later ily tradition and taking up a new end of the Rosary, or alties, Heaney struggles that day, he told me that he would skill, poetry. the delighted anti-Pa- to fine the authentic voice, love to come and hear me only he His discomfort with being the pist returning from the the spirit of reconciliation was giving a paper at the same first to venture beyond the farm war with a Rosary that in a land divided by par- time. I was immediately struck shows in his veneration of the would choke a donkey, tisanship. by his modesty, friendliness, and past. The past is eulogized, he seismically shook us My appreciation for He- unassuming personality. Needless moves towards the present and while we laughed. aney has grown as I have to say, I was also relieved to hear future with a sense of reluctance. My appreciation for become older, as the fire that he was not coming to hear With the pen ‘snug as a gun’, he the Nobel Prize win- of youth has smouldered. me torture my first paper to death. writes apologetically, hoping to ner has grown as I have seen his the hope of redemption. I now admire his calm insistence Heaney started with Digging atone for his departure from the poetry change from the early years Heaney lets each echo of the past in confronting the enemy within. and he has left us digging for the time honoured traditions of the of struggling to reconcile himself accuse, torment and discomfort He allows the muse to bring him man behind those lines. Belaghy farmers. to his literary vocation, to becom- him. Each voice demands some- the sophistication, and conviction *Terry, originally from Derry, His university education and ing the professional poet, the man thing from him, something that that comes from a language borne now resides in Chicago and teach- love of language had wedged itself of letters. Having accepted the runs counter to who he is, and as out of who has lived in the crucible es Irish and British Literature at between him and his ancestors. mantle, Heaney begins to measure such he finds himself wanting. of doubt. Loyola University, Chicago. Separated from land, he began to himself against those who have His projections of those who I met Heaney in Japan, of all [email protected] use the earth as part of a sacred sensual iconography, choosing ap- pease his conscience by metaphori- Casey’s cally digging into the bonds of family, friends and lovers, expos- ing the common roots of humanity, Irish Imports and inviting us as readers to join Casey’s is Celebrating Our 25th Anniversary with him in the journey beyond simply reminiscing about the past. of Serving the Irish Needs of Greater Cleveland! My first reaction to his poems Irish Sweaters Irish Food was immature, arrogant, and the Waterford Crystal Belleek China stuff that youth is made of. I de- Christmas Ornaments Irish/Celtic Jewelry rided the need to make good with SALE the seemingly nostalgic turn of Thu 3 DAY Thurs.,rs., Oct.Oct.

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