The public conference brought leading academics, poets, writers, and friends of the University together through a series of events to celebrate the life and literacy legacy of the esteemed poet, writer and musician, Professor and founding Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s Ciarán Carson.  

Ciarán Carson, born in Belfast in 1948, was a towering figure in contemporary Irish literature. His works spanned across various genres, including poetry, prose, and translation, and were known for their lyrical beauty, linguistic inventiveness, and deep engagement with the complexities of Irish identity and history, especially his home city of Belfast.  

Speaking about the conference, Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, Professor Glenn Patterson said: “Last Night’s Fun was not just an academic conference but a heartfelt, public celebration of a literary giant whose work has only grown in importance, here in Belfast and much, much further afield, in the four years since his passing.  

“Ciaran was as at home in the ‘small back room’ where music was being played and yarns were being spun as he was in the lecture hall or on the festival stage. His attention to language – his belief that writing began with the word (all hail Chambers Dictionary and the OED!) – is a valuable lesson to us all: writers, readers, people who rarely if ever pick up a book. Learn the words and speak the world, don’t let it speak you. 

“The involvement of the Carson family – with Ciaran’s wife Deirdre playing at the City Hall reception, his brother Liam reading at the performance of ‘Owenvarragh’ – made the whole thing even more special. A conference like no other, for a writer like no other.” 

Keynotes were delivered by Professor Sinéad Morrisey, Professor Alan Gillis, and Professor Paul Muldoon.  

The conference dealt with all aspects of Carson’s writing, most obviously his poetry, but also his translations, criticism, fiction, and non-fiction, on subjects as diverse as music, food, the city, history, memory, and violence. 

Media

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen's Communications Office on email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk