THE family of poet Seamus Heaney were in Liverpool for the first annual lecture named after the Nobel Laureate which it is hoped will "become a major cultural event in the life of the city".
The University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies 'established the Seamus Heaney Lecture which "will seek to reflect the values of the man, and his ability to communicate and connect with a wide audience".
The poet's wife, Marie; daughter, Catherine; and sons, Christopher and Michael all travelled to the event.
Professor Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, deliver the first lecture, with Line of Duty Enniskillen-born actor Adrian Dunbar reciting three of the fellow Northern Ireland man's poems.
Professor Richardson, whose talk was entitled Airs and Graces, worked alongside Heaney while both were at Harvard University - a period when he also served as Oxford Professor of Poetry.
Speaking on behalf of the Estate of Seamus Heaney, his daughter Catherine Heaney said: "We are extremely proud that the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies has chosen to honour my father Seamus Heaney, by inaugurating this annual lecture in his name.
"With its joint patrons HRH the Prince of Wales and the President of Ireland, the Institute makes a fitting home for such a tribute, particularly at a time of such critical importance for relations between the two islands, and in the year of what would have been my father's 80th birthday."
Professor Peter Shirlow, director of the Institute of Irish Studies, described him as "a man who delicately healed many of the wounds within Ireland in a manner that was thought provoking and graceful".
