The Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts and the Embassy of Ireland is honoured to invite you to the 13th Seamus Heaney Memorial Lecture, featuring internationally acclaimed Irish novelist, essayist, critic and playwright Colm Tóibín.

In his lecture, “The Legacy of 1939: Seamus Heaney and Irish Poetry,” Tóibín will reflect on the enduring influence of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney and explore the development of Irish poetry within its broader historical and cultural context.

Colm Tóibín is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and the recipient of the 2026 Budapest Grand Prize. Widely regarded as one of Ireland's foremost contemporary writers, he is the author of numerous acclaimed novels, essays and works of criticism.

The programme will begin with welcome remarks by H.E. Ragnar Almqvist, Ambassador of Ireland to Hungary, followed by the conferral of Honorary Membership of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts upon Colm Tóibín by Győző Ferencz, Executive President of the Academy.

Date: Friday, 2 October 2026, 6.00 pm

Venue: Grand Hall, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1051 Budapest, Széchenyi István tér 9

Please register by Wednesday, 30 September 2026.

This event will be conducted in English.