Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 6, 1995                   TAG: 9510060063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHAWN POGATCHNIK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND                                LENGTH: Short

IRISH POET IS NOBEL LAUREATE

Over three decades Seamus Heaney has built a reputation as the English language's greatest living poet, reflecting the wild beauty of Ireland and the passionate contradictions of his native north.

As he won the Nobel Prize for literature Thursday, friends and fans celebrated a shaggy-locked ``teddy bear'' who rejected the tribal labels of Catholic and Protestant to explore the divided national soul.

``As a teacher, I know how enjoyable and accessible Heaney's work is in the classroom,'' said Frank Ormsby, a poet and editor of several anthologies of Northern Irish poetry.

``At the same time it's got the kind of depth and profundity that challenges academics and critics. It's so rich and rewarding.''

Widely regarded as the greatest Irish poet since William Butler Yeats, Heaney had been ranked a likely Nobel laureate for a decade. He is the first poet to win the prize since 1992.

Thursday's decision may have been made with an eye to the past year's paramilitary cease-fires and difficult negotiations in Northern Ireland.

``He wouldn't think of himself as separate from his country and would view this very much as a national award,'' said Medbh McGuckian, a respected Belfast poet who studied under Heaney in the 1960s.