seamus-heaney

Poetic landmark ‘came most intensely out of the first shock of the Troubles’ – The Irish Times

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Seamus Heaney’s collection North turns 50 next month, but does it still have relevance for today’s readers and critics? In advance of a major conference to mark the milestone at Queen‘s University Belfast, Stephen O’Neill reassesses the controversial anthology Looking back on his career with Dennis O’Driscoll in Stepping Stones (2008), Seamus Heaney claimed that … Read more

It was an education in being an outsider. I felt alienated from the very start – The Irish Times

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Studying English literature at the University of Oxford as an Irish undergraduate was an education in being an outsider. I felt alienated from the very start. On my second evening, the college organised a “formal dinner” for us, the new undergraduates, to meet our tutors. We all had to wear “white-tie” and “sub fusc” while … Read more