Laggan poet Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha named new Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s
East Donegal poet Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha has described as a ‘great honour’ her appointment as Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s for 2026-27.
Laoighseach was born in 1994 and raised in the Laggan area of Donegal between Derry and Letterkenny.
“It gives me great pleasure, and it is a huge honour, to have the opportunity to be a Seamus Heaney Fellow in 2027. As an Ulster poet, first and foremost, Heaney has always had a significant influence on my work and I am humbled to accept this fellowship which bears his name,” she said.
Each year, the Seamus Heaney Centre announces three Fellows from the worlds of Poetry, Fiction, Music, Film and Television to explore creative writing in all its forms by working with students and contributing to the Centre’s activities within the University and the wider literary community.
Belfast-based actor and playwright Marie Jones and Holywood-based writer Ian McDonald have also been appointed.
Said Laoighseach: "I am looking forward to meeting with staff and students, exploring the Seamus Heaney Centre and the campus, and spending more time in Belfast - a hub of Irish-language culture and activity. Míle buíochas don Ionad as an deis iontach seo.”
After ten years in Galway City, Laoighseach now resides in Connemara. Her first and second collections, Solas Geimhridh agus Dánta Eile (2023) and Mainistir na Feola (2025) were both published by Barzaz.
She founded the literary magazine An Dearcán in 2025, and in 2026 took up the role of Irish-language writer-in-residence at Dublin City University (DCU). Her dual-language collection St Lucy and the Eye Doctor is forthcoming with Bloodaxe Books, and her third Irish-language collection, Éiric na Seirce, is due to be published in 2027.
Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, Professor Glenn Patterson said: “If I am allowed to say this about our own appointments, ow, wow! I admire each of the new Fellows in their own right, but the thought of the three of them working together, adding to the life of the Heaney Centre, the School of Arts, English and Languages, and the wider literary community, is something else again. I'm looking forward to welcoming them in the New Year.”