Something To Say looks at the personal and professional friendship between Seamus Heaney and musician, film maker and broadcaster David Hammond, and features screenings with accompanying correspondence and production notes of some of the work they made together.
This exhibition celebrates friendship and collaboration, charting the evolution of ideas through correspondence, in both meanings of the word: letters, faxes, and scribbled notes; but also, the shared understanding that grows between artists as they learn the language of each other’s artforms.
Working backwards from Something to Write Home About (2005), Heaney’s televisual love letter to his home place, the exhibition charts a lifelong friendship that joined both families in an atmosphere of creative exchange through school holidays, on-site shoots, Nobel prize ceremonies, and beyond.
Featuring never-before-seen photographs, rarely spotted written materials, and many of the treasures of the SHC Broadcast Archive, the exhibition shows the deep mutual understanding of these co-conspirators and reveals some of the unseen labour behind their work. To open the ‘inner path’ and find something to say, it helps to find someone who catches your drift; friendship is a very fine art. And that, as Heaney put it, still seems something to write home about.’
In this same spirit of collaboration, this year we made a record, inspired by Hammond’s Flying Fox broadcast collection, which forms the basis of our archive. This is it, Yeah is an album of poetry and music from writers associated with the Centre, with fragments of interviews with Seamus Heaney. Genius is shared, generous and generative, and this snapshot of voices past and present gives a glimpse into how we’ve grown together.
The exhibition will run between the 24th of June – 20th of September 2026.
The Seamus Heaney Centre, our opening hours are 10am-4pm, every Tuesday-Sunday.
more information: https://linktr.ee/SeamusHeaneyCentre
