Seamus Heaney and the Bogs

This year, we are delighted to welcome Dr Patrick Roycroft, Curator of Geology of the National Museum of Ireland, to speak on the landscape that inspired Heaney’s poetry across his lifetime, from his admiration of his father turf cutting in Digging, to his praise of bogs as Ireland's mythological landscape in Bogland, to the troubling portents of violence in The Tollund Man. From Giant Elks to preserved butter to bog bodies, the bogs provided a treasure trove of inspiration for the poet.

Interspersed with poetry readings, discover the natural history behind the poetry, including when and why the bogs formed in Ireland, the marvels preserved within them, and what Ireland was like before the bogs even came to be.