“I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university.”

Irish poet, playwright and translator

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright, and translator. He won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature and is closely associated with modern Irish poetry. He died in 2013. Heaney’s first major published collection was Death of a Naturalist, released in 1966. His work and reputation drew strong praise from other writers and critics, who often described him as a major Irish voice and a poet of unusual range and narrative skill.