Exhibition to feature unpublished Heaney work

Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney’s unpublished works, diaries, and letters will be revealed at a new exhibition celebrating his life.

The show, to run for several years and attract global interest, will be staged at a new cultural centre in one of Dublin’s landmarks — Bank of Ireland on College Green, which was formerly the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Mick Heaney, the poet’s son, said his family are delighted at the new exhibition, organised by the National Library of Ireland. “He was extremely happy that his papers found a home at the National Library and our family is honoured at the prospect of this exhibition and the opportunity for a wider audience to enjoy and engage with his archive,” he said.

The exhibition opens next year. It will draw on Heaney’s work as a poet, essayist, playwright, translator, professor, and literary critic.

It will showcase his extensive literary archive, donated to the institute in 2011, two years before his death.

Original manuscripts as well as letters, unpublished works, diary entries, photographs, broadsides, and multimedia recordings will also feature.