[kennyc]

Sad news:

Poet Seamus Heaney dies aged 74

Heaney won the Nobel prize for literature in 1995

Seamus Heaney, acclaimed by many as the best Irish poet since Yeats, has died aged 74.

Heaney was born near Toomebridge, Northern Ireland, but as a child moved to Bellaghy.

He was a teacher and then had a distinguished career in poetry, winning the Nobel prize for literature in 1995.

Heaney had been awarded numerous prizes and received many honours for his work. He recently suffered from ill health.


In 2011, Heaney donated a collection of his literary papers to the National Library of Ireland.

It included manuscripts of his poetry, a comprehensive and vast collection of loose-leaf, typescript and manuscript worksheets and bound notebooks.

The collection spanned Heaney's literary career, from the publication of his first major collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966), to volumes such as Wintering Out (1972) and North (1975), right through to Station Island (1984), Seeing Things (1991) and his most recent publications, District and Circle (2006) and Human Chain (2010).

The latter won the prestigious £10,000 Forward Prize in 2010.

The writer had been nominated for the prize three times before, but this was his first win. Judge and author Ruth Padel described Heaney's volume as "painful, honest, and delicately weighted".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23898891