I was a bit upset today as I watched the funeral of Seamus Heaney. It was a live three hour broadcast on RTE tv from the Sacred Heart Church in Donnybrook. It was most moving, dignified and memorable occasion. I met Seamus Heaney twice, and I have a most amusing and cherished story to tell about a magical moment I shared with him back in the 1990s...on a crowded Dublin city bus at Christmas time! He lived in Sandymount village where I worked and I passed his house on Strand Road on my long walk home along the beach most evenings, from Sandymount village to Stillorgan village. He was a good man and a wonderful poet. I hope that todays funeral service and tv broadcast will be made available on a DVD as it was an moment in time that should be shared with peoples from wherever poetry is read, written and loved.
