Across the threshold SEASON TWO JANUARY - MARCH 2017
SEAMUS HEANEY HomePlace
www.seamusheaneyhome.com
music, theatre, poetry, song, readings and talks 12 months, 12 books
www.seamusheaneyhome.com
Step into HomePlace Immerse yourself in the extraordinary world of Seamus Heaney, and explore through his words and imagination the people and place that so inspired him. Described by Michael Longley as ‘an echo chamber for the poet’s beautiful lines’, Seamus Heaney HomePlace features an interactive exhibition over two floors, filled with personal stories, images and the voice of the poet himself. An interpretation of his Dublin study will transport you back to 1995, when Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Previously unseen artefacts, transcripts and books kindly donated by the Heaney family are also on display, ensuring a truly unique and illuminating experience for all. You can also explore our gift shop, featuring bespoke ranges by local craft-makers influenced by the surrounding landscape and, of course, the work of Seamus Heaney. Stocking delicious locally sourced produce, our café is the perfect place to begin or end your journey.
For more information and to book tickets contact the Box Office on 028 7938 7444 or visit www.seamusheaneyhome.com Ticket Prices Adult £7, child £4.50, concession £4.50, family £19.
Welcome across the threshold Welcome to our second programme of events at Seamus Heaney HomePlace. We continue to draw our inspiration from Heaney’s collections – in this case North, Field Work and Station Island – and to interweave exclusive appearances by critically acclaimed actors and authors, leading musicians and songwriters, with celebrations of local talent and creativity. In January, we focus on North and naturally the extraordinary bog poems of that collection are to the fore. And when better than at the beginning of 2017 when Aarhus, home to ‘The Tollund Man’ and the subject of Heaney’s famous poem of the same name, begins its year as European Capital of Culture? Field Work, written during Heaney’s four years of what he called his ‘hedge school’ at the cottage in Glanmore, is at the heart of February’s events and we’re delighted to be hosting an exhibition curated by John Dunne which highlights the significance of that particular place in Heaney’s writing. Delighted, too, to be welcoming Stephen Rea back to HomePlace where he will direct a dramatic reading of the collection.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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In the third and final month of this particular programme, the dramatic interpretation of Station Island comes from our very own Lyric Theatre and we’re pleased also to be hosting the Ulster Orchestra for a special evening of music inspired by Seamus Heaney. The last weekend in March is, however, a veritable who’s who of the cultural world: Simon Armitage, Professor of Poetry at Oxford; Nick Laird, originally from Cookstown and now an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Ireland Professor of Poetry. That we continue to have so many distinguished guests participating in the programme at HomePlace is testament to the esteem in which Seamus Heaney was held by so many of his colleagues and friends, and a fitting contribution to his great legacy. Whatever you choose to see and do as part of the new season’s programme, enjoy the experience. Councillor Trevor Wilson Chair Mid Ulster District Council
THREE
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Foreword from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Seamus Heaney HomePlace hit the ground running the moment it opened its doors to the public in September. The opening programme featured specially commissioned music, readings by eminent poets and dramatic interpretations of Heaney’s works, and the second programme followed up with the likes of Phil Coulter, the Henry Girls, Louis de Bernières, Stella McCusker, Ian McElhinney and a touch of Schubert. It’s a well-worn cliché to suggest ‘something for everyone’, but it’s important that a centre such as this should be able to offer an artistic programme that has sufficient breadth to appeal to the widest of tastes. Heaney himself is, after all, one of the world’s most read, most popular and most accessible poets. The arts are indeed ‘for everyone’, and they will continue to hold people’s attention for so long as they continue, in the wake of Heaney’s example, to deliver the highest, most ambitious and most inspiring experiences. The Arts Council, as one of the centre’s principal funders, was happy to lend our backing to an interpretative centre dedicated to celebrating the life and work of our greatest poet. But we have been surprised and delighted by the quality of the artistic programming that HomePlace has achieved. So how do you maintain the breadth and quality of the artistic programming that we’ve all enjoyed here to date? Well, read on… Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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FIVE
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JANUARY 2017
North
Eamonn Kelly: Bog Bodies
£5
Saturday 14 January - 3pm
Ever since ‘The Tollund Man’ in Wintering Out, the unforgettable image of bog bodies, shot through with political resonances, haunted Heaney’s work. Heaney was inspired by PV Glob’s classic book The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved, which examined bodies such as that of the Tollund Man, throwing new light on the ancient burial rites of our European ancestors. For this inaugural talk in our second season, Eamonn Kelly, former Head of Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland and a leading world authority on bog bodies, explores the importance of these fascinating figures and asks what they have to teach us about our past.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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SEVEN
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The Home Key: Glen Hansard Saturday 14 January - 7.30pm
Kabosh: Performance Reflections on North by Seamus Heaney £15
£10
Saturday 28 January - 8pm
Glen Hansard had just started to study Seamus Heaney’s poetry when, at the age of 13, he left school to busk on the streets of Dublin. Within a year he’d met Heaney himself, and the experience had a profound effect on him: ‘To look into the eyes of a master is a very potent thing,’ he recalled.
Each month, HomePlace invites a leading theatre company/director to respond – in whatever way they choose – to one of Seamus Heaney’s celebrated poetry collections. Specifically designed to take place in the intimate surrounds of The Helicon, each staging will enjoy a unique combination of elements – including music, visuals, lighting and performance – to offer a fresh perspective on Heaney’s words. This month, HomePlace invites Belfast-based theatre company Kabosh (under the direction of Paula McFetridge) to explore Heaney’s fourth collection, North, an intense engagement with politics, place and history that digs deep into the Northern Irish psyche.
These days Hansard could lay claim to the title of ‘master’ himself. After years of graft with The Frames, he finally found stardom with Once, the film that spawned a Broadway musical and earned him an Oscar for best original song. Now, basking in the acclaim for his Grammy-nominated solo album, Didn’t He Ramble, Hansard comes to HomePlace for an intimate show in The Helicon, drawing on his extraordinary back catalogue.
Kabosh is an independent, multi-award-winning theatre company that seeks to reinvent the ways in which stories are told, commissioning new writing and devising work for site-specific environments and installation.
‘a collection of beautifully crafted, heartfelt songs, created by an artist who has more than earned his place at the top table’ Hot Press on Didn’t He Ramble
North: An Illuminations Introduction Declan Kiberd Saturday 28 January - 5pm
Declan Kiberd
£5 The Illuminations series aims to introduce each of Seamus Heaney’s poetry collections to a wide audience. Taking place immediately before a staged reading of the work, each Illuminations Introduction explores the themes and techniques underlying a specific collection, setting the poems in context. In this talk, critic Declan Kiberd offers his own unique insights into Heaney’s fourth collection. Declan Kiberd is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers and critics and a leading authority on the literature of Ireland. Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, his books include The Irish Writer and the World, Inventing Ireland and Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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NINE
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Peter Taylor and David McKittrick In Conversation £5
Sunday 29 January - 3pm
It was at the very height of the Troubles that Seamus Heaney found, with North, an overarching theme that enabled him to link the conflict to the ancient raids, feuds and invasions that left their mark on the history of Ireland. This special event brings together two of the most respected commentators on Northern Irish politics – Peter Taylor and David McKittrick – to discuss their memories of that period, setting Heaney’s work in the context of the political struggles of the time. Winner of a BAFTA Special Award, Peter Taylor is a British journalist, author and documentary maker who has covered Northern Ireland for more than 40 years. Belfast-born David McKittrick was The Independent’s Irish correspondent for many years. A winner of the Orwell Prize, his books include Making Sense of the Troubles, ‘by far the clearest account of what happened in the Northern Ireland conflict and more importantly why it happened’ (Irish News).
Peter Taylor
‘[Peter Taylor] is, and deserves to be, one of the most respected journalists in the world’ Roger Bolton
David McKittrick
‘[David McKittrick is] probably the most consistently perceptive and well-informed journalistic observer of the conflict’ The Irish Independent
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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ELEVEN
FEBRUARY 2017
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Field Work
Exhibition: The Hedge School of Glanmore
FREE
From Friday 10 February In 1972 Seamus Heaney and his family moved from Belfast to a small cottage in Glanmore, Co. Wicklow. The move was designed to enable him to write full time and over the next four years he wrote some of his most significant work, including the well-known ‘Glanmore Sonnets’. ‘Glanmore truly was what I called it,’ Heaney recalled, ‘a “hedge school” in the literal sense. I gathered blackberries off the briars and ate them, as if I were back on the road to school. I even found a blackbird nest in the hedge at our gable.’ In 1976 the family moved to Dublin but, twelve years later, the opportunity arose to purchase the cottage and it became a retreat for writing and rest. The Redress of Poetry and the ‘Glanmore Revisited’ sequence in Seeing Things were written there, and the house provided space and inspiration for other poems. This exhibition, curated by John Dunne, features manuscripts and typescripts of poems written in the cottage, revealing Heaney’s writing process from first draft to final printing. Also on display are a range of rare publications, from first editions and signed limited editions to broadside poems and contemporary reviews.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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THIRTEEN
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Deirdre Madden In Conversation
photo - Mark Condren
Saturday 4 February - 2pm
‘for almost 30 years, Irish writer Deirdre Madden has published novels of quiet and subtle brilliance’ The Telegraph
£5
Deirdre Madden was born in Toomebridge in County Antrim and studied at Trinity College Dublin, where she won the Costello Award for English Literature. Her early short stories were published in Ireland in various magazines, and in 1980 she won the prestigious Hennessy Literary Award. Her novels include Hidden Symptoms, The Birds of the Innocent Wood and Molly Fox’s Birthday. She has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature and been shortlisted several times for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her latest novel, Time Present and Time Past, was published by Faber in 2013 and she has also written books for children, including Snake’s Elbows and Jasper and the Green Marvel. Deirdre will be in discussion with Paul Delaney of Trinity College Dublin and will talk about her work, her inspirations and the influence of the local landscape.
John Dunne, Pat Brennan and Michael Kinsella In Conversation Saturday 11 February - 11am The cottage at Glanmore was of great importance to Heaney and, though he lived there for only four years, in later life he bought it and used it as a writing retreat. John Dunne, curator of The Hedge School of Glanmore, joins Pat Brennan and Michael Kinsella – both of whom were closely involved in setting up the exhibition – to discuss the importance of the cottage, and of Glanmore itself, to Seamus Heaney’s writing.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
£3
A Room of One’s Own: Carlo Gébler & Ruth Padel £5
Saturday 11 February - 4pm
Glanmore Cottage was enormously important to Seamus Heaney as a refuge and a place to write, and its sanctuary was instrumental in the creation of many of the poems in Field Work, just as Heaney’s Dublin study (recreated at HomePlace) was to his later work. But do writers really need a place to write, or – especially in our age of portable devices – should they be able to write anywhere when inspiration strikes? This event brings together two leading writers to debate the freedoms and the tyranny of the writer’s desk. Award-winning poet and broadcaster Ruth Padel has a study but spends ‘hardly any time there’, while as both a writer and the son of writers (Ernest Gébler and Edna O’Brien), Carlo Gébler has experienced the writer’s need for a room of their own from both sides.
‘Gébler is an overlooked novelist. The Dead Eight is one of the truest, least flashy, most human novels I have read for a long time’ The Telegraph
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‘a poet of great eloquence and delicate skill’ Colm Tóibín on Ruth Padel
FIFTEEN
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Awhile with Seamus Heaney Performed by Larry McCluskey Presented in association with Bellaghy Historical Society £5
Tuesday 14 February - 7.30pm
HomePlace is delighted to present this one-man show celebrating the work of Seamus Heaney in conjunction with Bellaghy Historical Society. Irish actor-director Larry McCluskey takes the audience on a personal journey through Heaney’s most popular work with a dramatic reading, commentary and live music. The journey moves from Heaney’s childhood to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and is a personal and identifiable celebration which has had huge success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Bellaghy Historical Society was formed in 2000 to chart the historical landscape of Bellaghy and the surrounding area. More than 15 years on, the organisation has gone from strength to strength and meets in The Old Schoolhouse on a monthly basis.
‘one of the most original and accomplished poets of her generation’ The Guardian
Concert: Music from the HomeLand Saturday 18 February - 7.30pm
£10
Hosted by Sean Donnelly, this evening of music, song and chat will feature local musicians from the Mid Ulster area, including Rhoda Barfoot and many more. Sean Donnelly is one of Northern Ireland’s most respected singers, with eight albums under his belt and a wealth of radio and television appearances both at home and abroad. His intricate guitar and mandola playing perfectly enhance his authentic and ‘homely’ approach to the songs and often witty stories that he is a loving custodian of. Celebrating the music and the musicians of the HomeLand, this promises to be an evening not to be missed.
£5
Saturday 25 February - 5pm
Film Screening: Something to Write Home About FREE Friday 24 February - 7.30pm This 1998 documentary, written by Seamus Heaney and directed by David Hammond (a close friend of Heaney and a fellow board member of Field Day), offers a celebration of Seamus Heaney’s life and work and an exploration of his home ground, divided as it was between the industrialised mill village of Castledawson, where his mother came from, and the parish of Bellaghy, where his father’s family had lived for generations, a world, as Heaney put it, of ‘cattle-herding and hill forts’.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
Field Work: An Illuminations Introduction Leontia Flynn
The Illuminations series aims to introduce each of Seamus Heaney’s poetry collections to a wide audience. Taking place immediately before a staged reading of the work, each Illuminations Introduction explores the themes and techniques underlying a specific collection, setting the poems in context. In this talk, Leontia Flynn introduces Heaney’s fifth collection, Field Work. Leontia Flynn is Research Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University. Her three collections of poetry have garnered numerous awards, including the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Prize for Irish Poetry. BOX OFFICE T: +44 (0)28 7938 7444
SEVENTEEN
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The Given Note: Peadar Ó Riada Saturday 25 February - 2pm
£10
Seán Ó Riada was one of the great postwar Irish composers, celebrated for his marriage of traditional and classical forms, for his acclaimed soundtracks to films like Mise Éire, and for his role in the revival of traditional music in the 1960s. Founder and director of the groundbreaking ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann, he died at the age of just 40, in 1971, and Seamus Heaney wrote an affectionate elegy for his friend in Field Work. For this special event, Seán Ó Riada’s son Peadar – himself an acclaimed composer and musician – performs a tribute to both his father’s work and Heaney’s, performing some of his father’s and his own compositions, and setting some of Heaney’s poems to music. Peadar will be joined by Máire Ní Chéileachair, accomplished sean-nós singer. Peadar Ó Riada is a highly respected composer of traditional, classical and liturgical music, director of Cór Cúil Aodha (the all-male choir founded by his father more than 50 years ago), and a celebrated musician with groups such as Triúr, the traditional music trio with Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. His latest work, ONÓIR, premiered at Dublin’s National Concert Hall in October 2016.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
‘any recording that includes Peadar Ó Riada always brings with it an air of solid authenticity’ TradConnect
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NINETEEN
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Field Day Theatre Performance Reflections on Field Work, directed by Stephen Rea Saturday 25 February - 8pm
‘of Finghin Collins as soloist, little needs to be said … he is exceptionally fluent, exceptionally intelligent, exceptionally sensitive, responding to every possible nuance’ International Record Review
£10
Each month, HomePlace invites a leading theatre company/director to respond – in whatever way they choose – to one of Seamus Heaney’s celebrated poetry collections. Specifically designed to take place in the intimate surrounds of The Helicon, each staging will enjoy a unique combination of elements – including music, visuals, lighting and performance – to offer a fresh perspective on Heaney’s words. This month, Stephen Rea, director of Field Day, directs a dramatic reading of Field Work. Seamus Heaney was one of the board members of Field Day (alongside Stephen Rea) and they presented the world premiere of his The Cure at Troy in 1990. There will be a post-event discussion with the audience. Field Day is an award-winning Irish theatre company and publishing house. Founded in 1980 by Brian Friel and Stephen Rea, it has staged a series of acclaimed productions, including plays by Friel, Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney, and published works of literary criticism, history, politics and cultural studies, including The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing.
Piano Recital: Finghin Collins The Music of John Field £8
Sunday 26 February - 2pm
Seamus Heaney was a great admirer of John Field, the Irish composer and father of the Romantic nocturne, one of which Heaney chose to accompany him on Desert Island Discs, and ‘September Song’, his elegy to Field, appears, appropriately, in Field Work. For this closing event in our Field Work season, internationally renowned Irish pianist Finghin Collins performs a selection of Field’s piano works. Finghin Collins is one of Ireland’s most successful musicians. Since winning the 1999 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition at the age of 22, he has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s great orchestras and released a series of acclaimed recordings of works by Schumann, Mozart and others.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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TWENTY-ONE
www.seamusheaneyhome.com MARCH
2017
Station Island
‘a very brilliant, insightful historian’ Conor Cruise O’Brien
Station Island: An Illuminations Introduction Roy Foster Saturday 11 March - 5pm
Lyric Theatre: Performance Reflections on Station Island by Seamus Heaney
£5
The Illuminations series aims to introduce each of Seamus Heaney’s poetry collections to a wide audience. Taking place immediately before a staged reading of the work, each Illuminations Introduction explores the themes and techniques underlying a specific collection, setting the poems in context. In this talk, Roy Foster introduces Heaney’s 1984 collection, Station Island. Roy Foster is one of the most accomplished historians of our time. Carroll Professor of Irish History at Hertford College, Oxford, he is also a well-known broadcaster, reviewer and critic, and a celebrated stylist whose books include Modern Ireland 1600-1972, a landmark in Irish scholarship, an acclaimed two-volume biography of Yeats, and most recently Vivid Faces, an account of key figures in the Irish revolutionary period.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
£10
Saturday 11 March - 7.30pm
Each month, HomePlace invites a leading theatre company/director to respond – in whatever way they choose – to one of Seamus Heaney’s celebrated poetry collections. Specifically designed to take place in the intimate surrounds of The Helicon, each staging will enjoy a unique combination of elements – including music, visuals, lighting and performance – to offer a fresh perspective on Heaney’s words. This month, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre explores Station Island. Belfast’s award-winning Lyric Theatre is the only full-time producing theatre in Northern Ireland. Since 1951 it has premiered the work of leading Northern Irish playwrights including Stewart Parker, Martin Lynch, Marie Jones and Christina Reid.
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TWENTY-THREE
Gallery Goes to Bellaghy
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£5
Friday 24 March - 8pm
AGE 4+
Amadan Ensemble Presents… Mr Mess
Seamus Heaney enjoyed a long-standing friendship with Peter Fallon, the founder of Gallery Press, and over 20 years published several titles with him. This special event in collaboration with Gallery Press brings three of its leading authors to HomePlace to read from their work. Concession Rate
Saturday 18 March - 11am & 2pm
Ciarán Carson is the former director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University. Winner of both the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize, he is the author of more than two dozen books of poetry, prose and translation, most recently The Ballad of HMS Belfast.
£3 £5
Mr Mess is trying to go about his day but accidents are never far away. From uppity umbrellas to bursting balloons, nothing is going to plan. Mr Mess fumbles his way through the simplest of tasks; he is lanky, he’s foolish and there is more to his briefcase than meets the eye. Mr Mess is a fun-filled family performance suitable for all ages. Expect lots of fun and balloon-popping in this charming show! (Age range: 4 years +)
Since her first collection, Acts and Monuments, in 1966, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s poetry has been celebrated for its unmistakeable beauty, and for its ability to move between the material and spiritual realms. An Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Trinity College, she was recently appointed to a three-year term as Ireland Professor of Poetry.
£5
The Ulster Orchestra is delighted to perform at HomePlace as part of its ‘On Your Doorstep’ concert series. This is a new initiative for the orchestra, founded in its 50th Anniversary Season, which sees the orchestra play in as diverse a range of venues as possible across Northern Ireland. At this very special event the orchestra will present a specially commissioned programme of music inspired by and related to the life and work of Seamus Heaney. For almost 50 years the Ulster Orchestra has been at the forefront of musical life in Northern Ireland. Founded in 1966, and comprised of 63 full-time musicians, the orchestra forms the region’s only professional symphony orchestra and celebrates its 50th anniversary in the 2016/17 season.
Life, Literature & Inspiration
Ciarán Carson
photo - Bobbie Hanvey-Gallery
photo - Manus Carson-Gallery
On Your Doorstep with the Ulster Orchestra Saturday 18 March - 8pm
photo - Brian McGovern-Gallery
Andrew Jamison is one of the most exciting young poets to emerge from Northern Ireland in recent years. In 2011 he won the Templar Pamphlet Award and took part in the International Biennale in Rome, and his debut collection, Happy Hour, was published by Gallery Press in 2012.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
‘[Carson’s] voice is truly original, both intelligent and passionate’ AS Byatt, Sunday Times Books of the Year
Andrew Jamison
‘Ní Chuilleanáin has long been ‘Ni established as one of the leading Irish poets of her generation’ The Irish Times
‘[Andrew Jamison] is the kind of poet who lets all the mess in, unfiltered, ungroomed, … and the greatest surprise of all is the lavish lyricism that ensues’ Justin Quinn BOX OFFICE T: +44 (0)28 7938 7444
TWENTY-FIVE
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Simon Armitage Saturday 25 March - 4pm
£8
It’s almost 30 years since Simon Armitage burst onto the poetry scene with his debut collection, Zoom! Since then Armitage has become ‘the most popular English poet since Larkin’ (The Sunday Times) while amassing an astonishingly varied body of work encompassing poetry, plays, fiction and non-fiction, film and television, travel writing and (like Seamus Heaney) translations of classical and medieval verse. Now Professor of Poetry at Oxford University (a post that Heaney held in the early 1990s), Armitage comes to HomePlace to read from his work, together with some of his friend Seamus Heaney’s poems.
Nick Laird Sunday 26 March - 3pm
£5
Nick Laird’s passion for literature was instilled by his early readings of Seamus Heaney’s work. It was fitting, then, that his debut collection, To a Fault, was praised by Heaney himself as ‘the most auspicious debut in Irish poetry since Paul Muldoon’. Since then Laird has firmly established himself at the head of a new generation of Northern Irish poets, while publishing two highly acclaimed novels. Originally from Cookstown, but now an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York, Laird returns to his home ground to read from his work and reflect on his debt to Heaney.
‘at his frequent best he finds the right voice to address and calm the fears of past and future times’ The Daily Telegraph
‘the best poet of his generation’ Craig Raine
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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TWENTY-SEVEN
SPECIAL EVENTS Season 2 Programme
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THE HOMEPLACE BOOK CLUB With Carol O’Doherty and Patricia Broderick FREE Dates: The first Sunday of the month, starting on Sunday 5 February 3pm – 4.30pm Cost: Places are free but must be booked in advance. Maximum Places: 15 A story is always better if you have someone to share it with and what better spot to meet and share stories than HomePlace? Join Carol and Patricia for this relaxed and friendly book club. Meeting monthly, the club will choose accessible and entertaining books relating to themes found in Seamus Heaney’s work. Come along for a cup of tea, entertaining conversation and shared love of a good book!
For the first book, we’re reading The House Where It Happened by Omagh-born author and Irish Independent columnist, Martina Devlin. The last conviction for witchcraft in Ireland took place in County Antrim on March 31, 1711, when eight women appeared at Carrickfergus Castle. Their accuser? An 18-yearold named Mary Dunbar, who claimed she had been tortured and bewitched by the women while a guest at her cousin’s house in Islandmagee.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
PAPERMAKING WITH BILL MCBRIDE Saturday 21 January 10am – 4pm
GARDEN TRUG BASKET-MAKING WITH WELIG CRAFTS
Join papermaker Bill McBride for a fascinating introduction to the craft of making paper by hand using traditional methods. Following a brief outline of the history of papermaking and the relevance of papermaking in the local area, the workshop will guide you through the simple processes and let you make your own pieces of paper to take home from materials such as rags of linen, cotton and wool, dried and pressed flowers and herbs and even an old pair of denim jeans. All materials will be provided. Maximum Places: 10
Saturday 25 February 10am – 4pm
Cost: £15
MARCH
WRITING MEMOIR WITH JO EGAN Saturday 18 February 11am – 4pm
POTATO BASKET-MAKING WITH WELIG CRAFTS Saturday 18 March 10am – 4pm
Jo Egan is a playwright and author from Belfast who is interested in stories that come directly from the human experience. In this relaxed oneday course, Jo will introduce the idea of writing from your own experience and memory, as Seamus Heaney often did. No previous experience is necessary, but it will be useful to have a memory or personal experience in mind that you would like to explore through creative writing.
Potato baskets were once made in their thousands around the shores of Lough Neagh. This one-day course will enable you to make the domestic size of basket used to ‘teem’ and serve potatoes. Clive Lyttle from Welig Heritage Crafts will lead you through the weaving and construction of this basket. All tools and materials are supplied. Maximum Places: 8
In this course you will use willow to create a simple gardening basket called a ‘trug’ which can be used to collect your flowers and herbs over the coming season, or as a decorative addition to your home. This is a great basket for beginners to willow-crafting to start with. Clive Lyttle from Welig Heritage Crafts will tutor the workshop with all tools and materials supplied. Maximum Places: 8 Cost: £25
Cost: £25 Cost: £10
Life, Literature & Inspiration
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TWENTY-NINE
AT A GLANCE
AT A GLANCE
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
Saturday 14 January 3pm Eamonn Kelly: Bog Bodies £5
Opening Friday 10 February Open Daily Exhibition: The Hedge School of Glanmore FREE
Saturday 14 January 7.30pm The Home Key: Glen Hansard £15
Saturday 21 January 10am – 4pm Papermaking £15
Saturday 28 January 5pm North: An Illuminations Introduction £5 / Combined Price £12*
Saturday 28 January 8pm North: Dramatic Reading £10*
Sunday 29 January 3pm Peter Taylor & David McKittrick £5
Saturday 4 February 2pm Deirdre Madden £5
Starting Sunday 5 February 3pm – 4.30pm (monthly) The HomePlace Book Club
Friday 24 February 7.30pm Film Screening: Something to Write Home About FREE
Saturday 25 February 2pm The Given Note: Peadar Ó Riada £10
FREE – Places must be booked in advance
Saturday 11 February 11am Glanmore Panel Discussion £3
Saturday 11 February 4pm Carlo Gébler & Ruth Padel £5
Tuesday 14 February 7.30pm Awhile with Seamus Heaney £5
Saturday 18 February 11am – 4pm Writing Memoir £10
Life, Literature & Inspiration
Saturday 18 February 7.30pm Concert: Music from the HomeLand £10
Saturday 25 February 10am – 4pm Garden Trug Basket-Making £25
Saturday 25 February 5pm Field Work: An Illuminations Introduction £5/ Combined Price £12*
Saturday 25 February 8pm Field Day Theatre Performance Reflections on Field Work £10*
MARCH Saturday 11 March 5pm Station Island: An Illuminations Introduction £5/ Combined Price £12*
Saturday 11 March 7.30pm Lyric Theatre: Performance Reflections on Station Island by Seamus Heaney £10*
Saturday 18 March 11am & 2pm Mr Mess £5/ £3
Saturday 25 March 4pm Simon Armitage £8
Sunday 26 March 3pm Nick Laird £5
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Saturday 18 March 8pm Ulster Orchestra: On Your Doorstep £5
Saturday 18 March 10am – 4pm Potato Basket-Making £25
Friday 24 March 8pm Gallery Goes to Bellaghy £5
Sunday 26 February 2pm Finghin Collins: The Music of John Field £8
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Seamus Heaney HomePlace 45 Main Street Bellaghy BT45 8HT T: +44 (0)28 7938 7444 E: SeamusHeaneyHome@midulstercouncil.org Monday–Saturday, 10am–5pm Sunday, 1pm–5pm
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