Seamus Heaney died in the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin on 30 August 2013, aged 74, following a short illness.[82][83][84] After a fall outside a restaurant in Dublin,[84] he entered a hospital for a medical procedure, but died at 7:30 the following morning before it took place. His funeral was held in Donnybrook, Dublin, on the morning of 2 September 2013, and he was buried in the evening at St. Mary's Church, Bellaghy his home village, in the same graveyard as his parents, younger brother, and other family members.[82][85] His son Michael revealed at the funeral mass that his father texted his final words, "Noli timere" (Latin: "Be not afraid"), to his wife, Marie, minutes before he died.[59][86][87]
His funeral was broadcast live the following day on RTÉ television and radio and was streamed internationally at RTÉ's website. RTÉ Radio 1 Extra transmitted a continuous broadcast, from 8 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the day of the funeral, of his Collected Poems album, recorded by Heaney in 2009.[88] His poetry collections sold out rapidly in Irish bookshops immediately following his death.[89]
Many tributes were paid to Heaney. President Michael D. Higgins said:
...we in Ireland will once again get a sense of the depth and range of the contribution of Seamus Heaney to our contemporary world, but what those of us who have had the privilege of his friendship and presence will miss is the extraordinary depth and warmth of his personality...Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus' poems. Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him for all the solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of conscience.[90]
President Higgins also appeared live from Áras an Uachtaráin on the Nine O'Clock News in a five-minute segment in which he paid tribute to Seamus Heaney.[91]
Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, said:
Both his stunning work and his life were a gift to the world. His mind, heart, and his uniquely Irish gift for language made him our finest poet of the rhythms of ordinary lives and a powerful voice for peace...His wonderful work, like that of his fellow Irish Nobel Prize winners Shaw, Yeats, and Beckett, will be a lasting gift for all the world.[92]
José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, said:
I am greatly saddened today to learn of the death of Seamus Heaney, one of the great European poets of our lifetime. ... The strength, beauty and character of his words will endure for generations to come and were rightly recognised with the Nobel Prize for Literature.[92]
Harvard University issued a statement:
We are fortunate and proud to have counted Seamus Heaney as a revered member of the Harvard family. For us, as for people around the world, he epitomised the poet as a wellspring of humane insight and artful imagination, subtle wisdom and shining grace. We will remember him with deep affection and admiration.[92]
Poet Michael Longley, a close friend of Heaney, said: "I feel like I've lost a brother."[93] Thomas Kinsella said he was shocked, but John Montague said he had known for some time that the poet was not well.[94] Playwright Frank McGuinness called Heaney "the greatest Irishman of my generation: he had no rivals."[95] Colm Tóibín wrote: "In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."[96] Gerald Dawe said he was "like an older brother who encouraged you to do the best you could do".[95] Theo Dorgan said, "[Heaney's] work will pass into permanence. Everywhere I go there is real shock at this. Seamus was one of us." His publisher, Faber and Faber, noted that "his impact on literary culture is immeasurable."[97] Playwright Tom Stoppard said, "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper".[95] Andrew Motion, a former UK Poet Laureate and friend of Heaney, called him "a great poet, a wonderful writer about poetry, and a person of truly exceptional grace and intelligence."[93]
Many memorial events were held, including a commemoration at Emory University,[98] Harvard University, Oxford University and the Southbank Centre, London.[99][100][101][102] Leading US poetry organisations also met in New York to commemorate the death.[103]
