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Coda: Remembering Seamus Heaney

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Cultural Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Late Work

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Abstract

The Coda frames the poet himself as a memory site by exploring the memorial culture that has emerged since his death. Since 2013 there has been a proliferation of memorials. The commemorative practices range from the textual (elegies, eulogies and special journal editions) to the monumental (for instance, a purpose-built museum, Seamus Heaney HomePlace, in the village in which he was born). The Coda considers how these commemorative practices shape the legacy of Seamus Heaney.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Oona Frawley, ‘James Joyce, Cultural Memory, and Irish Studies,’ Memory Ireland, no. 4 (2014): 2. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30941

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 8.

  3. 3.

    Seamus Deane, ‘The Famous Seamus,’ The New Yorker, March 20, 2000, 79.

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    Ann Rigney, The Afterlives of Walter Scott: Memory on the Move (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 168.

  6. 6.

    Rigney, The Afterlives of Walter Scott, 168.

  7. 7.

    Including Neil Corcoran, Ciaran Carson, Peter McDonald, Jahan Ramazani, Edna Longley, Fran Brearton, Hugh Haughton, Paul Muldoon, Leontia Flynn, Carol Ann Duffy, Frank Ormsby, Paul Durcan, Medbh McGuckian and Michael Longley.

  8. 8.

    Vona Groarke, ‘Editorial,’ in ‘A Seamus Heaney Special Issue,’ ed. Vona Groarke, special issue, Poetry Ireland Review, no. 113 (2014): 7.

  9. 9.

    Alan Gillis, ‘Heaney’s Legacy,’ The Irish Review, nos. 49–50(2014–5): 143.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 145.

  11. 11.

    Both Gillis’s and Ramazani’s papers are also published in ‘After Heaney,’ themed issue, Irish Pages 9, no. 1 (2015).

  12. 12.

    Helen Vendler, ‘Coda,’ Irish Pages 8, no. 2 (2014): 19.

  13. 13.

    Chris Agee, ‘The View from the Lagan,’ Irish Pages 9, no. 1 (2015): 7.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 8.

  15. 15.

    Ignatius McGovern, ‘To Seamus Heaney in Heaven,’ Irish Pages 8, no. 2 (2014): 37.

  16. 16.

    Paddy Bushe, ‘A Candle in Montenegro,’ Irish Pages 8, no. 2 (2014):30.

  17. 17.

    In a funeral oration, the Heaney’s son revealed that his final words were Noli timere (which he translated as ‘don’t be afraid’), texted to his wife before he went into surgery. ‘This wasn’t as portentous as it seems: he frequently used Latin as conversational shorthand.’ Mick Heaney, ‘My Father’s Last Words,’ The Irish Times, September 12, 2015.

  18. 18.

    Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, ‘In Memoriam Seamus Heaney,’ Irish Pages 8, no. 2 (2014):163.

  19. 19.

    Seamus Heaney, ‘Title Deeds: Translating a Classic,’ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 148, no. 4 (2004): 422, https://amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/480401.pdf

  20. 20.

    Sean Lysaght, ‘The Crossing,’ Irish Pages 8, no. 2 (2014): 34–5.

  21. 21.

    Paul Muldoon, ‘Cuthbert and the Otters,’ Times Literary Supplement, December 20, 2013, http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/cuthbert-and-the-otters/

  22. 22.

    Sally Connolly, ‘Two Genealogical Elegies for Seamus Heaney,’ Literary Imagination 18, no. 3 (2016): 224, doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/litimag/imw025

  23. 23.

    Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (London: Faber & Faber, 1999), xxv-xxvi.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., xxv.

  25. 25.

    John Lavin, ‘Poetry: One Thousand Things Worth Knowing by Paul Muldoon,’ Wales Arts Review, May 17, 2015, http://www.walesartsreview.org/poetry-one-thousand-things-worth-knowing-by-paul-muldoon/

  26. 26.

    Connolly, ‘Two Genealogical Elegies,’ 227.

  27. 27.

    Agee, ‘The view from the Lagan,’ 7.

  28. 28.

    In 2004 his alma mater, Queen’s University, Belfast, created The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. As well as teaching creative writing, the centre hosts conferences, public readings and a Summer School. The three-million-pound poetry centre was established to promote links between poetry and criticism and to develop collaborative projects which might attract external funding. ‘Heaney Centre Opens at Queen’s,’ The Irish Times, February 21, 2004.

  29. 29.

    Interview with the architect Philip Hutchinson, Northern Builder 27, no. 5 (2016), 48.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 50.

  31. 31.

    Roslyn Sulcas, ‘Celebrating Seamus Heaney’s Legacy, at His Birthplace,’ The New York Times, 11 October 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/arts/international/celebrating-seamus-heaneys-legacy-at-his-birthplace.html?_r=1

  32. 32.

    Ibid. The exhibition uses touchscreen technology and comprises video interviews with a range of people, from friends to world leaders, and audio recordings of Heaney reading his own poetry.

  33. 33.

    Seamus Heaney HomePlace, ‘Step Into HomePlace,’ http://www.seamusheaneyhome.com/visit-homeplace/step-into-homeplace/

  34. 34.

    Rachel Cooke, ‘At Home in Heaney Country,’ The Guardian, October 2, 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/02/seamus-heaney-homeplace-review-bellaghy-co-down

  35. 35.

    Mid Ulster District Council, ‘Almost £700 K From Heritage Lottery Fund for Seamus Heaney Trail Development,’ http://www.midulstercouncil.org/Council/News/News-January-2016/Almost-%C2%A3700K-From-Heritage-Lottery-Fund-For-Seamus

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 48.

  37. 37.

    Liedeke Plate, ‘Walking in Virginia Woolf’s Footsteps Performing Cultural Memory,’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 9, no. 1 (2006): 102, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549406060810

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 103.

  39. 39.

    Anne Hoppen, Lorraine Brown, and Alan Fyall. ‘Literary Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges for the Marketing and Branding of Destinations?,’ Journal of Destination Marketing and Management 3, no. 1 (2014): 38, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2013.12.009

  40. 40.

    David Herbert, ‘Literary Places, Tourism and the Heritage Experience,’ Annals of Tourism Research 28, no. 2 (2001): 313, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(00)00048-7

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 318.

  42. 42.

    Rigney, ‘The Afterlives of Walter Scott,’ 133.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 140.

  44. 44.

    Pól Ó Conghaile, ‘First Look: Inside the Stunning New Seamus Heaney HomePlace,’ Independent.ie, September 30, 2016, http://www.independent.ie/life/travel/ni-travel/first-look-inside-the-stunning-new-seamus-heaney-homeplace-35090726.html

  45. 45.

    Including classes on basket weaving and paper making.

  46. 46.

    Seamus Heaney HomePlace, ‘Across the threshold: Season 2, January–March 2017,’ (2017), https://www.seamusheaneyhome.com/SeamusHeaney/media/SeamusHeaney/Publication%20Files/SHHP-Season-2-Programme-final-low-res-version-for-web_1.pdf

  47. 47.

    Freya McClements, ‘Seamus Heaney HomePlace Opens: Son Moved by Voyage Round His Father,’ The Irish Times, September 29, 2016, http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/seamus-heaney-homeplace-opens-son-moved-by-voyage-round-his-father-1.2810592

  48. 48.

    Mark Hilliard, ‘Row over €190 m New Road through Landscape That Inspired Heaney,’ The Irish Times, September 2, 2016, http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/row-over-190m-new-road-through-landscape-that-inspired-heaney-1.2776075

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Adrian Rutherford, ‘QUB Rift Grows as Seamus Heaney Centre Opens in Bellaghy,’ Belfast Telegraph, September 28, 2016, http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/qub-rift-grows-as-seamus-heaney-centre-opens-in-bellaghy-35085242.html

  51. 51.

    National Library of Ireland, ‘Heaney Donates Archive to the NLI,’ http://www.nli.ie/en/list/latest-news.aspx?article=8403d69b-332e-4004-959d-c363eb178c0f

  52. 52.

    Elaine Justice, ‘Emory Opens Seamus Heaney’s Papers to Public,’ Emory News Center report, February 29, 2016, http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/02/upress_seamus_heaney_archive_opens/campus.html

  53. 53.

    Hoppen et al., 40.

  54. 54.

    Jahan Ramazani, ‘Seamus Heaney’s Globe,’ The Irish Review, no. 49–50 (2015): 51.

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  1. Independent Scholar, Mount Waverley, VIC, Australia

    Joanne Piavanini

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Piavanini, J. (2020). Coda: Remembering Seamus Heaney. In: Cultural Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Late Work . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46927-6_7

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