Twenty years ago, Seamus Heaney was invited by the Government of Ireland to write a poem to mark the Day of Welcomes, celebrating the accession of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia to the European Union. He read poem, ‘Beacons at Bealtaine’, at the ceremony, which took place in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on May Day 2004.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of that historic day, ‘Beacons at Bealtaine’ has been translated and published in the national languages of the ten states, together with this short film made by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. It begins and ends with SH himself, reading the poem he wrote for that hopeful day.