Funeral of Belfast poet Michael Longley to take place The funeral of acclaimed Belfast poet Michael Longley will take place later.
Irish President Michael D Higgins led the tributes to Mr Longley after his death, stating he would “be recognised as one of the greatest poets that Ireland has ever produced, and it has long been my belief that his work is of the level that would be befitting of a Nobel Prize for Literature”.
The poet won a number of awards throughout his life including the TS Eliot Prize, the Feltrinelli International Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Prize, and he was made a CBE in 2010 as well as being awarded the freedom of Belfast.
Roisin McDonough, the chief executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said the poet had been a “towering figure” of Northern Ireland arts for 60 years.
She added: “He was one of our truly great poets, one of the most respected and influential of his generation, his name spoken alongside Heaney, Carson and Mahon, all of whom are sadly now no longer with us.
