Event details

Princeton Assistant Professor of Classics Peter Kelly presents a lecture on “Seamus Heaney and the Classics,” sharing material from his current book project on connections between the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon and the Greco-Roman classics. For these Northern Irish writers, the translation and reception of Latin literature became a means of operating inside, outside, and across political and cultural divides, Kelly explains, and opened up a space for meaningfully reflecting on the fractured and bifurcated nature of place in Northern Ireland. Kelly argues that Heaney in particular turns to the classics to transform the landscape from one characterized by political trauma and violence during the Troubles to one that reflects a desire for reconnection in the wake of the climate crisis.

The Fund for Irish Studies Series is co-chaired by Jane Cox, Professor of the Practice in the Program in Theater & Music Theater, and Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters.

About Peter Kelly

A native of Galway in the west of Ireland, Peter Kelly received his PhD in Classics from the University of Galway. He joined the Princeton Classics department in 2022, having taught at the University of Galway and in the Honors College in Oregon State University.

Kelly's first book Ovid and Plato: Disturbing Realities was published last year (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and his edited volume, Ekphrasis in Ancient and Modern Literature: Creative and Academic Intersections, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury (2027). He is currently finishing his second monograph, Resisting Roots: Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon's Eco-Political Reception of Latin Literature. Kelly is also a practicing poet.

At Princeton, he teaches courses on Latin language and literature, and the reception of ancient literature across different media.

Tickets

The event is free and open to the public; advance tickets required.

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Directions

Get directions to the James Stewart Film Theater, located on the first floor at 185 Nassau Street.

Accessibility

The James Stewart Film Theater is an accessible venue. The theater has raked fixed-chair seating reached via steps with spaces for wheelchair and companion seating in the top row. A mechanized lift provides access to all levels in the Theater for a wheelchair or a patron with a mobility disability. See an event staff member in the Theater for assistance using the lift.

Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at 609-258-5262 or email LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week in advance of the event date.