Irish poet Heaney's last words: a text message in Latin, son says at funeral
Reuters
2013-09-02
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Ireland mourned the 'keeper of language' Irish poet Seamus Heaney, one of the world's best-known poets and winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature, who died Friday after a short illness at the age of 74.
The funeral service for the 74-year-old County Derry-born writer and academic was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook.
As well as Seamus Heaney's wife Marie and family, the Irish President and Prime Minister attended the funeral mass.
Those who came to pay their last respects to the late poet included well-known faces from the world of politics, music and literature, such as Bono and Edge from Irish pop group U2.
In a moving and emotional speech Heaney's son Michael paid tribute to his father and revealed the last words, Heaney sent his wife Marie via text message: "In a text message he wrote to my mother minutes before he passed away, in his beloved Latin, 'Noli timere', 'Don't be afraid'," he said.
Ireland mourned the 'keeper of language' Irish poet Seamus Heaney, one of the world's best-known poets and winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature, who died Friday after a short illness at the age of 74.
The funeral service for the 74-year-old County Derry-born writer and academic was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook.
As well as Seamus Heaney's wife Marie and family, the Irish President and Prime Minister attended the funeral mass.
Those who came to pay their last respects to the late poet included well-known faces from the world of politics, music and literature, such as Bono and Edge from Irish pop group U2.
In a moving and emotional speech Heaney's son Michael paid tribute to his father and revealed the last words, Heaney sent his wife Marie via text message: "In a text message he wrote to my mother minutes before he passed away, in his beloved Latin, 'Noli timere', 'Don't be afraid'," he said.
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