Not to Learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future. It is to cut oneself off from ways of being at home. If we regard self-understanding, mutual understanding, imaginative enhancement, cultural diversity and a tolerant political atmosphereas a desirable attainments, we should remember that a knowledge of the Irish language is an essential element in their realisation.

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

Nowadays, what an award gives is a sense of solidarity with the poetry guild, as it were: sustenance coming from the assent of your peers on the judging panel.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

The dotted line my father's ashplant made On Sandymount Strand Is something else the tide won't wash away.

The end of art is peace.

The appointment [in Harvard] gave me economic safety, writerly support, and intellectual self-respectplus eight months to myself every year.