13 Apr 2022
Books, On This Day, Reading
13 April 2022 Cheryl

13 April 1939: Seamus Heaney is born

Seamus Heaney in 1971

During his lifetime, Seamus Heaney’s books made up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the UK, an astonishing statistic that points towards the foundation of his success: he was as popular with readers as he was with the more specialised audience of critics and academics. [1]

Irish poet, Seamus Justin Heaney was born on 13 April 1939, at the family farmhouse called Mossbawn, in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He was the eldest of nine children in a Catholic family. His father, Patrick was a farmer and cattle dealer, and his mother, Margaret, worked on the farm.

Heaney’s childhood was marked by the rural landscapes and traditional culture of Northern Ireland, which would later become a central theme in his poetry. It was not without its hardships, however. Northern Ireland was in the midst of political and social turmoil with tensions between Catholics and Protestants running high. Heaney’s family was caught in the middle of this conflict, and they often had to contend with sectarian violence and discrimination.

As a child, Heaney attended Anahorish Primary School, where he was a bright and studious student. He showed an early talent for writing, and his teachers encouraged him to pursue his interest in literature. He was also deeply influenced by his Catholic upbringing, which instilled in him a strong sense of faith and moral responsibility. Heaney won a scholarship to St Columb’s College boarding school when he was twelve years old. While studying there his younger brother Christopher was killed in 1953 at the age of four in a road accident. The poems Mid-Term Break and The Blackbird of Glanmore are related to his brother’s death. He continued his education at Queen’s University Belfast, before training as a teacher.

In his poetry, Heaney would go on to explore the themes of memory, identity, and the relationship between humans and nature. His childhood experiences provided the foundation for this work, and his unique perspective on Northern Ireland’s cultural and political landscape would go on to make him one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century.

Heaney was and is still recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime and he received many awards during his lifetime. He died in August 2013, aged 74.