Posted by Jim on September 2, 2013
In the week that we lost our greatest scribe Séamus Heaney, Belfast came together as one family to mourn his passing and celebrate his life with an uplifting night of poetry, music, and craic at the Lyric Theatre.
Full marks to Stephen Douds of the Lyric who put the evening together in a heartbeat, exactly the type of generous and spontaneous response to grief which enriches us all. And with the Lyric team full-out with their plans to bring the stupendous Brendan at the Chelsea to New York next week, the city salutes them for making space for Séamus.
I had the great honour of reading the harrowing lament An Chéad Mháirt den Fhómhar during the evening of celebration for all that Séamus Heaney gifted Ireland and the world and while that poem about a father losing his son is, perhaps, angrier than the occasion merited it is also a tremendously moving poem by another people’s poet, Séamus Ó Dónaill of the Rosses — 200 years back.
We will pay our own homage to hope and history at City Hall on Monday when we open a book of condolence for Séamus Heaney, with the consent of all parties.
If you don’t make it to City Hall to sign the book of condolences, I do hope you’ll make it to our Belfast Diversity Day on Sunday 29 where we will raise a glass to all the different cultures, cuisines, colours, musics, and peoples of Belfast. Our festivities will take place the day after my installation dinner and will mark our thanks to the city for all it has given us with a special nod to the migrants to Belfast and the ethnic minorities who are building Belfast.
The day will end with a blessing by our eight wonderful chaplains. I’ve been invited to spend time with them all in the weeks ahead and this morning had the good fortune to spend some time meditating and listening to my Buddhist chaplain Ryushin Paul Haller at the Black Mountain Zen Centre. As regular readers will know, I don’t do enough listening and rarely pause. You can take it, therefore, that both were good for my soul.
Posted by Jim on August 30, 2013
Tributes to the Nobel prize winner Derry poet Seamus Heaney has
dominated the Irish media following the announcement of his death this
morning, Friday 30th August.
He died following a short illness and his death has come as a shock.
The son of a farmer from Bellaghy and the eldest of nine children, Mr
Heaney died following a short illness and his death has come as a shock.
He is being remembered as one of the greatest poets of the last hundred
years.
His publisher Faber and Faber issued a statement on behalf of the family
and went on to describe the poet as a world great and an inspiration for
the company.
“We cannot adequately express our profound sorrow at the loss of one of
the world’s greatest writers,” a spokeswoman for Faber and Faber said.
“His impact on literary culture is immeasurable.”
Fellow poet Michael Longley, a friend of Heaney, said he wrote some of
the world’s finest nature poems.
“I was very pleased that a few months ago I was able to tell him that
I’d been reading his early poems, the poems he wrote as a young man, and
that they struck me as miracles.
“And he joked, he says, ‘well they came from Bellaghy, they’d have to
have been miracles’.
“And he continued to produce miracles right the way through his life.”
The citation for the 1995 Nobel literature award praised Heaney “for
works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles
and the living past”.
Among the other awards he received, a year after his Nobel win he was
made a Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French ministry
of culture.
Educated at St Columb’s College, Derry and later at Queen’s University
Belfast, Heaney made his home in Dublin where he worked at Trinity
College Dublin.
His world renowned poetry first came to public attention in the
mid-1960s with his first major collection, ‘Death Of A Naturalist’,
published in 1966.
His experiences of the conflict were seen through the darkened mood of
his later work, such as the 1975 collection ‘North’.
His poems on the conflict stopped short of offering a a direct political
opinion. Instead, he addressed the violence in a wider historical
context and wrote elegies to friends and acquaintances who were killed.
But he declined to become British poet laureate for political reasons,
commenting “I’ve nothing against the Queen personally: I had lunch at
the Palace once upon a time”.
He published “Requiem for the Croppies” on the 50th anniversary of the
1916 Easter Rising, a poem that commemorates the Irish rebels of 1798.
He described the poem as “silence-breaking rather than rabble-rousing”.
His most commonly cited political statement came in 1982 when he
objected to being included in an anthology of British poetry. He wrote:
“Be advised my passport’s green. No glass of ours was ever raised to
toast the Queen.”
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams expressed sadness at the death. “I knew and
was very fond of Seamus. He was a wonderful man as well as a literary
figure of huge international stature.”
Irish President Michael D Higgins said Heaney’s contribution to the
“republics of letters, conscience, and humanity” was immense. “The
presence of Seamus was a warm one, full of humour, care and courtesy,”
he said.
“Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus’ poems.
Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the
critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him
for all the solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of
conscience.”
Posted by admin on August 26, 2013
CAPITOL HILL. Sunday, August 25, 2011. — Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, has been chosen to serve on the World Peace Awarding Council (WPPAC). The Council consists of twelve international and interfaith members.
“ This was totally unforeseen and unexpected,” explained the Irish-born priest. “I was really surprised to receive the invitation to serve from Dr. Han Min Su, Co-Founder and Executive Judge, who is based in South Korea. Naturally, I am deeply honored and humbly grateful. Doubly so, because my dear friend former Congressman Lester Wolff (D-NY) is the Chief Judge. And in 2011, another dear friend, former Congressman Ben Gilman (R-NY) was presented with the World Peace Prize. Both of these splendid Jewish-Americans did wonderful work for human rights, justice and peace in Ireland. I shall be eternally grateful to both.”
In its Mission Statement, the WPPAC states:
“World Peace Prize is an initiative to promote world peace and inter-religious understanding. It is awarded periodically to individuals who have contributed to the causes of world peace by preventing regional conflicts or world war; by settling the disputes of political, diplomatic and economic matters; by developing new inventions to minimize threats and confusions within mankind…”
The World Peace Prize is a prestigious award presented by the World Peace Corps Mission, an international Evangelical missionary organization. It was established in 1989 by the late former Congressman Robert L. Leggett (D-NY) and Dr. Han Min Su.
Previous recipients of the Peace Prize include President Ronald Reagan;
Yitzhak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel; Fidel Valdez Ramos, former President of the Philippines; and Gen. Yakubu Gowan, former President of the Republic of Nigeria.
The other Judges on the World Peace Prize Council are: Rev. Dr. Han Min Su, Christian, South Korea; Honorable Lester Wolff, Jewish, USA; Dr. Suzi Leggett, Catholic, USA; Dr. Carlito S. Puno, Christian, Philippines; Dr. Shiu Loon Kong, Confucian, China; Former Ambassador, Dr. Bhupatary M. Oza, Hindu, India; Former Ambassador, Dr. Asher Naim, Jewish, Israel; Former Ambassador, Dr. Mohamed A. Cholkamy, Muslim, Egypt; Dr. Epharaim Isaac, Jewish, USA; Honorable Peter Lewis, former Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly, Christian, Australia; Former Navy Commander, De. Gennady P. Turmov, Russian Orthodox, Russia.
END.
Posted by Jim on August 25, 2013
A Prayer for Belfast
God of love whose love streams unceasingly and relentlessly to all, we cry to you for our city.
We pray for peace on our streets, for economic well-being, for understanding across our differences.
Build us as one community, though diverse, that being reconciled to you we might be reconciled to one another.
Lord, turn our hearts to you that your glory might dwell in this city
In the name of Jesus, who is Lord of all.
Amen
