Video interview with Seamus Heaney, poet, by David Hanly in 1989 for RTE television programme Hanly’s People. Heaney is interviewed only months after the Provisional IRA renewed its campaign in Britain. He discusses a diverse series of topics during the interview, among them community divisions in Northern Ireland, the Civil Rights movement and the depiction of peace and violence through the arts. Hanly’s People was a short television series on RTE in the 1980s on which significant public figures were interviewed about their life, career and contemporary society.
Date of Release/Broadcast: 10 April 1989
Name of First Interviewee: Seamus Heaney
Role at time of Interview: Poet
Interviewer: David Hanly
Purpose: Research
Media: Audio
Copyright: © RTÉ 2012
Link: Listen to the interview
Programme/Book/Article: Hanly’s People
Time Period covered: 1939-1989
Key Individuals: Seamus Heaney
Key Words: B-Specials, religion, community relations, Provisional IRA, Civil Rights movement, the arts