Sean Walsh

I live in Dublin, Ireland. Sometimes. Most times I live in my head, quite unaware of my surroundings – if you know what I mean… If you succeed in tracking Sean Walsh, please let me know, ok? I've been searching for him for years…

Seamus Heaney: Wee Memory

Published on Saturday 31st August 2013 by Sean Walsh

1974. I started work in RTE as a Producer, Radio. One of my first assignments was a series of half-hour programmes called Personal Choice scheduled for Sunday night listening. Guests were invited to choose their personal likes in music, poetry, prose.

One such was Seamus Heaney: a young man who had recently come to live in a Wicklow cottage with his wife, Marie. To write in solitude, doubtless, unhindered. He had left behind him at Queen’s University, Belfast, a secure career. To make a living writing poetry? I wondered!..

Needless to say, he performed in studio with hardly a hitch and his personal choice was well received when broadcast that summer. How did I find him? Quiet, unassuming, humble with a wry sense of humour. At the Reception area in the Radio centre we shook hands and I wished him good luck. I turned away, wondering would he make it?!

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