Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Michael Longley
Date: Thu 23rd Jan, 2025 | 13:46
“It is with the deepest sadness that I, like so many others, have learned of the death of Michael Longley. I regarded him as a peerless poet with at least three poetic lives. It is, however, the generosity of his heart, and the lovely cadence of a voice of love and friendship that I will most remember.
Michael Longley will be recognised as one of the greatest poets that Ireland has ever produced, and it has long been my belief that his work is of the level that would be befitting of a Nobel Prize for Literature. The range of his work was immense, be it from the heartbreak of loss to the assurance of the resilience of beauty in nature.
In his poems, we find a quiet attentiveness to the vagaries of the human heart, its ambitions, its disappointments, its successes and failures, and above all its capacity for empathy. Michael worked to give space and actuality to the moral imperative that we must live together with forbearance, with understanding, with compassion and insight, and above all else, perhaps, with hope.
I think, in particular, of his magisterial poem ‘Ceasefire’, a poem which I have had the privilege to hear Michael read in person on a number of occasions.
I think for instance of when it was an honour to be present when Michael was conferred with the Freedom of the City of Belfast in 2015 and, in particular, when he read the poem in Áras an Uachtaráin in 2017 at an event attended by the then Prince Charles.
I think it is appropriate to quote the final two lines of that poem, which recall a classic reference in response to loss, and which express the terrible and beautiful essence of what it is to forgive:
I get down on my knees and do what must be done
And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son.”
Michael Longley worked for artists’ welfare and his company was treasured by us all. In the course of a distinguished career with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Michael worked to support, encourage and nurture creativity in the most generous and inclusive way possible.
May I send my deepest condolences to Michael’s wife, the scholar and writer Edna Longley, to his children and to all of his family, friends and many admirers across the world.”
ENDS