The Right Hon Dame Siobhan Keegan delivers the annual Seamus Heaney Lecture, with readings of poems by Kathy Kiera Clarke.

The 2026 Seamus Heaney Lecture, organised by the Institute of Irish Studies and the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, in association with The Estate of Seamus Heaney, will be delivered by The Right Hon Dame Siobhan Keegan, Lady Chief Justice Of Northern Ireland. The evening will open with a reading of Seamus Heaney poems by Kathy Kiera Clarke and will conclude with refreshments.

Dame Siobhan Keegan was sworn in as Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland on 2 September 2021, becoming the first female holder of the office. A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, she was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1994 and to the Inner Bar in 2006.

During her career at the Bar, Dame Siobhan served as Vice Chair of the Bar of Northern Ireland, Chair of the Young Bar, Chair of the Family Bar Association, Chair of the Bar Charity Committee, and a member of the Bar Professional Conduct Committee.

Prior to her appointment as Lady Chief Justice, Dame Siobhan served as a High Court Judge, during which time she held roles including Presiding Coroner for Northern Ireland and Senior Family Judge. She was Northern Ireland’s designated judicial member of the International Hague Network of Judges and served as Judge in Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Dame Siobhan has served on the Judicial Studies Board, represented Northern Ireland on the Franco-British-Irish Judicial Cooperation Committee, and was a Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission, which she now chairs. She is a Bencher of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, and an Honorary Bencher of both Gray’s Inn and King’s Inns.

Dame Siobhan is an honorary member of the Society of Legal Scholars, an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Queen’s University Belfast in 2023 in recognition of distinguished public service.

Kathy Kiera Clarke is a twice IFTA-nominated actress with an extensive career across television, film and theatre.

Among her television credits are The Pale Horse, Omagh, Eskimo Day, Take A Girl Like You and Make That Movie. Her film work includes Bloody Sunday, The Most Fertile Man In Ireland, A Bend In The River and Dead Man's Money. On stage, she received an RNT/Ian Charleson Award nomination for her title-role performance in MEDEA and has appeared in productions for the National Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Rough Magic, Prime Cut Productions and the Almeida Theatre.

Voicework credits include Eugene O’Hare’s Hello, I Appear To Have Killed My Husband, Little Darlings and Prestige Drama.

Kathy is perhaps best known for playing the iconic Aunt Sarah in Channel 4's award-winning comedy Derry Girls.

Seamus Heaney was born and raised in County Derry. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966 and was followed by poetry, translations and criticism which established him as one of the leading poets of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”. Seamus Heaney died in 2013.

Description supplied by the event organiser.