Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire agus roimh na h-aíonna speisialta, go háirithe Marie. Is dóigh go bhféadfaí a rá faoi Seamus Heaney nár aithin sé teorann. Níor aithin sé teorann ó thaobh tíreolaíochta nó ó thaobh ealaíne agus chuaigh sé thar na teorainneacha ar fad ó thaobh a chuid ealaíne agus a chuid scríobhneoireachta. Marie is very welcome and it is an honour to be able to pay respects in the Seanad to Seamus and to try to say words that encompass all he achieved. I feel completely inadequate standing up to do so because I know anything we say will not match the genius of the man himself.

I cannot say I ever met Seamus Heaney but I bumped into him once in the airport and was totally starstruck. We were queueing for an aeroplane and when one is doing that one goes backwards and forwards. I caught his eye and he caught mine and I knew he was looking at me and saying, "You know who I am". I was an ordinary Joe Soap at the time - I still am - but there was a glint in his eye that told me he recognised that I knew who he was. What struck me in the first instance was the size of the man - he was a big man and he had a long grey coat and that white hair. There was a sense of humility about him. One did not get a sense of ego or "look at me". He gave a really nice smile. I did not need to say anything to him. I wanted to talk to him because there were so many questions I would have liked to ask him but to be honest I was too shy. I was awestruck. However, I got a sense of the man he was, a very gentle, warm, smiling man - wonderful.

Seoid náisiúnta a bhí ann. He was an absolute treasure for us. File, drámadóir, teagascóir - he was a poet, a dramatist and also a teacher. From what I have read and seen and from listening to people talking about him the great thing that comes across is the generosity of his gift. He saw his writing as a gift; as far as I can see he never saw it as something he had that was special. but saw it as a gift he was lucky to have, one he was so very willing to share it. That is very special and it is probably one of the elements that made him so special. He had a great knowledge of very many countries and places but very much of Ireland - all of it. I will try to do justice to one of my favourite poems, which relates particularly to the west of Ireland, from where I come. One can see the way he captured nature, time and life passing on:

Lovers on Aran

The timeless waves, bright, sifting, broken glass,
Came dazzling around, into the rocks,
Came glinting, sifting from the Americas

To posess Aran. Or did Aran rush
to throw wide arms of rock around a tide
That yielded with an ebb, with a soft crash?

Did sea define the land or land the sea?
Each drew new meaning from the waves' collision.
Sea broke on land to full identity.

Obviously, Seamus was a genius but it seems to me he was somebody who carried his genius very humbly. To be able to put so much into so few words was an incredible gift.

It is strange. I was delayed coming up to the Chamber because an Irish language event was taking place downstairs and I bumped into a girl who was a student in St. Patrick's College last year. Seamus visited that college last year. I was not sure how much background Seamus would have had with the Irish language but she told me that he came to them when they were doing an event as Gaeilge, and supported them wholeheartedly. He spoke to them in Irish and told them to keep up the good work, saying, "Coinnigh suas an dea-obair, coinnigh suas an obair mhaith". Another point is that he seemed to have crossed generations and is loved by old and young alike, which is an amazing gift to have.

We are a much poorer nation because of his loss. There are lessons we must learn too. In this Chamber we tend to have many debates on finance and the economy, the cost of things, etc. However, I do not know whether we realise the value of things, in particular the value of the arts, creativity and so on. A moment such as this in the Chamber is a time to reflect on that. Although we may be going through difficult times financially and economically, we have a great richness of language, theatre and the arts. People like Seamus Heaney are our gold bullion. We need to remember that and to encourage it, as he would have done. I am sure that what he might say to us is, yes, we will get through the tide, the woes and the hard times, but let us remember we have this great richness to us as well.

Another great poet from the west was John O'Donoghue. If I may, I will quote three lines of one of his poems, to note the occasion:

Though we need to weep your loss
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you

Bhí sé linn, beidh sé linn agus tá sé linn. Tá mé cinnte. Go maire a cháil go deo agus go dtuga Dia suaimhneas síoraí dá anam.