Northern Irish poet Michael Longley has died aged 85

The Irish poet Michael Longley has died aged 85. Born in Belfast, the poet lived in the city until his death. He attended school at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and went to university at Trinity College Dublin in the ‘50s, where he met his wife Edna.

Throughout his time at college, Michael discovered an interest in poetry, later rising to prominence in the ‘60s as a young poet from Northern Ireland. When he was thirty, he published his first collection of poetry, No Continuing City.

Describing him as one of Ireland’s greatest poets, President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to Longley:

"I regarded him as a peerless poet with at least three poetic lives. It is, however, the generosity of his heart, and the lovely cadence of a voice of love and friendship that I will most remember.

"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 the course of a distinguished career with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Michael worked to support, encourage and nurture creativity in the most generous and inclusive way possible”.

He concluded, "May I send my deepest condolences to Michael’s wife, the scholar and writer Edna Longley, to his children and to all of his family, friends and many admirers across the world”.

Longley wrote about nature and landscape for over five decades, as well as poems that remembered victims of the violence in Northern Ireland.

His most famous poem, Ceasefire, reflects on the cost of peace, looking to Homer’s The Iliad.

Throughout his career, Longley received many awards, such as the TS Eliot Prize, the Hawthorden Prize, the PEN Pinter Prize, and the inaugural Yakamochi Medal, amongst others.

He was awarded the prestigious Feltrinelli International Poetry Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in 2022.