Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many of us here who could also claim that, a Chathaoirligh.

I offer my most sincere condolences to Marie and all the family. I met Seamus Heaney once, in New Ross during the summer, at the opening of the Kennedy homestead. It was not the first time I had come across or spoken to him. Somebody very close to me, whose mother died, was reading a poem by Seamus.

That person was reading a poem by Seamus Heaney. I have to read it without my iPhone because unfortunately Senator Fiach Mac Conghail got to the Republic of Conscience before me. The poem is Valediction:

Lady with the frilled blouse

And simple tartan skirt,

Since you have the house

Its emptiness has hurt

All thought. In your presence

Time rode easy, anchored

On a smile; but absence

Rocked love's balance, unmoored

The days. They buck and bound

Across the calendar

Pitched from the quiet sound

Of your flower-tender

Voice. Need breaks on my strand;

You've gone, I am at sea.

I am at sea

Until you resume command

Self is in mutiny.

Like Senator Feargal Quinn I requested a copy of that poem to be signed and to my surprise I did not just get a copy of that poem but many other pieces from the great man himself, all signed and it was very much appreciated.

The Irish have many traits. The one I hold in highest regard is the trait of understatement. Last night I was speaking with a few men who really surprised me. I said I would probably speak on this debate but I was not sure what to say. One man who knew Seamus Heaney's works told me to say one thing, that he was a good man. Seamus Heaney was a good man.