Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Is pribhléid agus onóir é dom caint faoi Seamus Heaney. Mar is eol dúinn, is ócáid bhrónach í seo, go háirithe dá chlann agus dá chairde. Ní cheart dúinn bheith brónach, i slí eile, os rud é go bhfuil a fhios againn go mbeidh Seamus Heaney againn go deo - trína chuid filíochta, trína chuid léachta agus trína chuid scríobhneoireachta.

The playwright, Robert Bolt, wrote a play some years ago about Thomas More called A Man for All Seasons. I believe that is an apt title for Seamus Heaney because he was a man for all seasons, not only in the seasonal sense of spring and summer but also a man for all seasons for people in their relationships and moods. Those moods encompass everything in his writing from sadness to happiness and from despair to humour. I always particularly liked his sense of humour which is encapsulated in the poem he wrote about his loving wife Marie, entitled The Skunk in which he used imagery of the animal. We see the man for all seasons aspect in the titles of the collections of poetry: Death of a Naturalist, Door into the Dark, Field Work and Seeing Things. It is also part of all the seasons in our past because in his fourth volume, North, he ranges over 3,000 years of European civilisation stretching back to classical Greece and up to 19th century Ireland.

He was a poet of the people, whether he was writing about his aunt Mary in Sunlight, his father in The Harvest Bow or figures from his childhood. I recall the air of menace and fear created in A Constable Calls. He wrote a poem called Bogland. I am unsure of his view about the current debate about bogs but he had an interest in bogscapes, the many bogs, and the way bogs preserved traces of our past in such a way that they are like museums. We saw that in his poem Bogland.

Poets write poetry because they have something to say and have an urge to communicate. Ezra Pound said that good poetry is "news that stays news" and that is relevant to Heaney's poetry because there is a relevance and resonance that is with us and will be with everyone who reads poetry from here on in.

There are interesting things in his writings particularly in The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures. He said "the poem is asked to set the balance right". He was talking about the political, social and personal balance. He was writing about a poem by Elizabeth Bishop called One Art. He says about Bishop that she manages to advance poetry beyond the point where it has been helping us to enjoy life to that even more profoundly verifying point where it helps us to endure it. That is true of his poetry too. His was a compassionate and wise voice that helped us to endure as well as appreciate life. He spoke about the social character of poetry and how the poet is concerned with his fellow man, among whom he lives, and that the poet is a source of truth and a voice with people.

Another point he made is interesting because we are in a political establishment. In The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures he wrote about how poetry offers a response to reality which has the liberating and verifying effect upon the individual spirit. He went on to say how that is not sufficient for the political activist because the political activist will always want the redress of poetry to be an exercise of leverage on behalf of his point of view and that he would require the entire weight of the thing. This is reminiscent of Yeats's dilemma. He debated whether there should be art for art's sake or art for politics' sake. For Heaney, the redressing effect of poetry comes from its being a glimpsed alternative. We could all do with lots of alternatives.

As a direct response of his award of the Nobel Prize for literature, the Ireland chair of poetry was established between Queen's University, UCD, Trinity College and the arts councils of Northern Ireland and Ireland. As a Dubliner and a north-sider I am delighted that another Dubliner and north-sider, Paula Meehan, is taking up the chair. They have in common their voices of compassion, tolerance, empathy, sensitivity and humour.

A debate is going on at the moment about the Seanad, but my view is that the Seanad should be a place where people are honoured to be Senators. It is an honorary position. I can only imagine a Seanad of people like Seamus Heaney and his fellow poets, including Montague and Longley, and the type of debate it would ensure. It could help us to get away from looking at society and life from a purely economic point of view.

Two particular lines encapsulate Seamus Heaney for me. In The Forge he says "All I know is a door into the dark", but I believe he showed us more than a door into the dark. In Postscript he said "And some time take the time to drive out west". He had us driving all over the place to have views of other perspectives.

See this speech in context