Michael Longley remembered as ‘one of the greatest poets that Ireland has ever produced’ following death aged 85

Belfast-born writer Michael Longley has been remembered as “one of the greatest poets that Ireland has ever produced” following his death aged 85.

Tributes have been paid to the poet, described as “one of the world’s greats”, after he died in hospital on Wednesday following a short illness.

Born in 1939, he attended Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI) before studying at Trinity College Dublin where he became immersed in poetry.

Longley published his first poetry collection, No Continuing City, in 1969 followed by many more acclaimed poetry collections including The Weather in Japan and The Stairwell.

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Best known for poems including The Ice-Cream Man and arguably his most famous poem, Ceasefire, which depicts sectarian violence during the 1970s and ‘80s and was inspired by a declaration of an IRA ceasefire in the 1990s.

He held the post of professor of poetry for Ireland from 2007 to 2010.

He was awarded numerous international prizes throughout his illustrious career, including the Whitbread Poetry Award and the TS Eliot Prize and also received Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2001 and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2003.

He was awarded the freedom of Belfast in 2015 for his contribution to literature and cultural life.

A close friend of poet Seamus Heaney, following his death in 2013, Longley wrote an elegy called Room to Rhyme, which was published in his collection, Angel Hill.

Just last year he won a €250,000 European arts award, the Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry.

His most recent work, Ash Keys: New Selected Poems, draws upon his 13 collections showing the breadth of his talent.

In an interview with The Irish News in October, Longley still refused to refer to himself as a poet.

“You mustn’t take yourself or your work too seriously,” he said.

“If someone describes themselves as a poet, they’re probably not a poet, because that’s like calling yourself a saint.”

President Michael D Higgins led tributes and said he was a “peerless poet”.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Writer and broadcaster Eamonn Mallie described how he “loved Longley’s company”.

“I spent hours and hours with him. Always an enriching experience” he wrote on X.

“Asked in class to say something insightful about prose and poetry Michael replied ‘Well Sir, if prose is a river, poetry’s a fountain.”

Artist Colin Davidson shared his portraits of Longley on social media and said he was “filled with sadness” following the death of “my dear friend”.

“Michael was one of the Belfast greats. One of the Irish greats. One of the world’s greats,” he said.

“A poet whose work quietly whispered those truths which we all needed to hear.

“During our darkest days, and indeed our most joyous days, his words were a touchstone for our traumatised and most hurt people.

“Ceasefire demonstrates his deep understanding of the heart of our people. The momentous task of healing. Of peace.

“But it is his poems of the everyday which will stay with me personally. Poems of family, of grandchildren, of birdsong, of the hedgerow, of the Mayo coastline.

“For, although rooted in place and lived experience, they throw a light on what it means to be a human being in this world. And this is the mark of any great work of art.

“Rest in peace Michael. It was a joy to know you.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna said he was “our greatest living poet”.

“More pertinently, he was a beautiful human being, kind, generous, open, humorous,” she said.

“He was truly a wonderful person.”

Chair of the Arts Council Maura McGrath also said Longley “leaves a rich legacy of poetry and praise”.

“Dedicated to his writing and to the poetic form, he inspired generations of readers and young poets through his work, his criticism and his teaching,” she said.

“As warm as he was wise, Michael Longley was a literary giant, and his poems will continue to be treasured by readers in Ireland and around the world.

“We will miss him.”