Queen's announces new £4.9m Seamus Heaney Centre

The new centre will be located at 38 - 40 University Road

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) has announced plans to move its Seamus Heaney centre to a new venue.

The centre's new location on University Street will include an exhibition area to display the poet's archive held by the university.

It is set to open to the public in early 2024.

Director of the centre Prof Glenn Patterson said he hopes the new venue will help the centre foster the next generation of writers.

Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, he said the new building will allow space to hold readings and lectures not currently possible in the centre's current premises.

Seamus Heaney died 10 years ago

QUB has committed £4.9m to the renovation of 38 - 40 University Road, a short distance from the university's main main Lanyon building.

The centre will also feature an expanded poetry library, a large venue space, teaching rooms, academic offices, and a scriptorium, with individual work stations for up to 30 students.

An an artist's impression of the new centre

At more than 1,000 sq metres, the new centre will be over double the size of the current Seamus Heaney Centre.

Welcoming the new building, Seamus Heaney's daughter, Catherine, said: "The Seamus Heaney centre is really important to me and my family because it's about education.

"Queen's is where my father started writing poetry, where he studied himself and started his career as a lecturer and an educator.

"It's very much part of his writing past and the amazing thing about the centre is that it's carrying that into the future," she added.

Mr Heaney is among Ireland's best known poets and he received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature for his work.

The Seamus Heaney Centre was founded in 2004 under its first director, the late Ciaran Carson.

The centre's original building was opened by Seamus Heaney himself, who died in 2013.