Over the past year, we’ve been working with the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University on the Annual Seamus Heaney Lecture.
The idea behind this new collaboration is that the lecture will reflect the values of Seamus Heaney and his ability to communicate and connect with a wide audience, and that it will foster engagement with some the ideas that preoccupied him throughout his life and informed much of his writing - the power of language, and the place of the artist in society, among others.
The inaugural lecture was given on October 17th, 2019, by Professor Louise Richardson, political scientist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, who knew Seamus Heaney stretching back to the 1980s, when both were at Harvard, he as a teacher, she as a post-graduate student. The lecture was preceded by a reading of thee poems by the celebrated actor, writer and director, Adrian Dunbar.
We’ll be announcing next year’s lecturer in the coming months - in the meantime, you can watch the inaugural lecture below - it was illuminating, erudite and full of insight and memories - a memorable evening. Our thanks to all involved!
