Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22210/ur.2025.070.1/03
An “Obligation to Duty”: Seamus Heaney and Field Day
Aidan O'Malley
orcid.org/0000-0002-6178-5468
; Sveučilište u Rijeci
Abstract
Seamus Heaney’s involvement with the Field Day enterprise was perhaps the most controversial period of his career, provoking criticism from commentators who believed that his association with this group signalled a breach of his poetic vocation in favour of a more political
stance. Field Day was founded in 1980 by the actor, Stephen Rea, and the playwright, Brian Friel, and produced dramas and critical interventions that stimulated a rethinking and reimagining of the cultural histories of Ireland that had contributed to the stalemate of the Northern Irish “Troubles”. This article re-examines Heaney’s time with Field Day and the texts he produced under its banner in light of archival sources and the publication in 2023 of "The Letters of Seamus Heaney". This opened another window on his efforts to find a balance between what can be termed the private space of his poetry and the calls made on him by a seemingly endless series of public duties. While these demands often threatened to become overwhelming, Heaney nevertheless saw them as a part of his job as a poet. Considering that, as Christopher Reid the editor of the collection noted, the “principal theme” running through the letters is Heaney’s “obligation to duty”, the fourteen years he spent as a director of Field Day were by no means the anomaly that critical reaction in the 1980s and ’90s suggested. On the contrary, his work for the company and the texts he produced for it articulate tensions between different public realms and the private world of poetry that can be traced throughout his oeuvre and career.
Keywords
Seamus Heaney; Field Day; Northern Ireland; "An Open Letter"; "Sweeney Astray"; "The Cure at Troy"; "Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing"
Hrčak ID:
349189
URI
Publication date:
13.7.2026.
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