Search Results for 'Seamus Heaney'

HE WAS Ireland’s first literary celebrity; he moved in exciting political and artistic circles; he was a best selling writer; a political satirist; a biographer, and above all a celebrated lyricist, admired by Hector Berlioz.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Niall Ó Brolchain

In what must be the ultimate irony in the compelling story of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and their brief, but significant visit to Connemara in September 1962, it was Hughes who returned to find solace and peace there. Sylvia had planned to return that autumn, instead she found, what she thought was a refuge in the former home of WB Yeats in London, and despite the onset of severe depression, remained there to write her best poems. It would probably have saved her life if she had taken up the rented cottage she had paid a deposit for, between Cleggan and Moyard. Instead in London she battled against a bitter cold winter, ‘flu, frozen pipes, and minding her two small children while writing furiously most of the night.

I n the late 19th century women and girls rarely swam in the sea. It was considered unseemly. Yet in the belief that sea water was good for the skin, hotels and guest houses along the seafront at Salthill proudly offered sea baths, and 'showers' which could be enjoyed in any weather.

AHEAD OF Bloomsday, County Galway publishing house Doire Press will hold the launch of a new poetry collection, Furey, by James Joyce. The Joyce in question is not the author of Ulysses but Galway’s own James Martyn Joyce, and the collection revolves around the vivid, memorable, persona of Furey.

FOUR NEW books will be launched at the next Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering - poetry collections by Stephanie Conn, Robyn Rowland, and Kate Ennals, and a new short story collection from Rosemary Jenkinson.

A great grandson of Galway's World War I fighter ace Major Robert Gregory, Robin Murray Brown, read WB Yeats' famous poem An Irish Airman Foresees His Death in Belfast last Sunday. St Anne's Cathedral was filled to capacity for a service to commemorate the centenary of the Royal Air Force (RAF), which succeeded the Royal Flying Corps in which Major Gregory flew. Major Gregory joined the war effort in 1916 and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. He was also awarded the Legion d’Honneur — France’s highest honour.

AMONG THE feast of events at next week’s Cúirt International Festival of Literature is the launch of the debut book of poems by well-known Galway writer Moya Roddy - Out Of The Ordinary, published by Salmon Poetry.

New scholarship launched for marine biology students at GMITA new scholarship opportunity for second year marine biology students has been launched at GMIT.