b'Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award on the 40th Anniversary celebration of The AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Awardjune, 2012 A highlight of The 2012 Worldwide IrelandFunds Conference in Cork was the awarding of The LifetimeAchievement Award to Seamus Heaney. Mr. Heaney was the second recipient of the AWB VincentAmerican Ireland Fund Literary Award back in 1973 and has remained a dear friend to The IrelandFunds ever since. In June, before an audience of 250 donors and guests that included TaoiseachEnda Kenny and former US President Bill Clinton, Mr. Heaney thanked The Ireland Funds for their endorsement in the early days of his career and for the difference they had made to the work of Irishwriters over the past 40 years. Below is a reflection on Seamus Heaney by Dr. Maurice Hayes.When in 1973 the Trustees of the American-Irish Foundation successors in title to the Foundation) who have been indebtedmade a modest award to the young Seamus Heaney, they dis- to himnot only for the poetry, but for his friendship (whichplayed prescience, a critical acuity and a nose for a winner that is equally legendary) and his willingness to oblige. Along withwas to be vindicated by the ultimate accolade of the Nobel Marie, his constant Muse, he has been a familiar presence atPrize for Literature. events, a source of inspiration and encouragement, even inThe first award had gone to the venerable Austin Clarke the darkest days, lighting the candle of hope. His tutelage andin recognition of a lifetime of service to poetry. For thekindly monitoring over the years have helped maintain thesecond, the Trustees put their money on a young emergingstandard, and the standing, of the Literary Award.talent and what a talent that turned out to be. As a safe bet, it Of another beloved Irish writer of an earlier age who alsomust have been the greatest racing certainty since Pegasus managed to be a Citizen of the World while remaining firmlybounded down Parnassus bearing Poetry. earthed in the soil of his native place, the great Dr. JohnsonThatawardenabledtheyoungpoettocompletehiswrote that There is nothing which he touched which he hasimportant second collection, North, as he acknowledged in a not adorned.prefatory note. Since then it has been The Ireland Funds (as we can say no less of seamus. Dr. M a u r i c eH a y e sco 20 299connnneecctt 201121 2'