(b Carna, Co. Galway, 1920; d Seattle, 1 May 1984). Irish traditional singer and story-teller. From a western maritime area noted for sean-nós (‘old-style’ unaccompanied Irish-language) singing, Heaney became a leading and magisterial exponent of this style, with a large repertory of several hundred songs, including many in English, which he learnt mostly from his father, aunt and neighbours. His repertory ranged from religious songs and other items of medieval survival to local love and comic songs and political ballads. After an uncompleted period of study at teacher-training college and successes in singing competitions at Irish-language festivals, he emigrated to Scotland in 1947 and later moved to England where he worked as a labourer. He came to the attention of folk revivalists there and, having returned to Ireland in 1957, was one of the first sean-nós singers to record commercially. Heaney emigrated to the USA in the late 1950s where he worked as a doorman in New York and performed at folk festivals and academic workshops. In the 1970s he became a visiting artist at the University of Washington, Seattle, where an archive of his music is now kept.
Sing the Dark Away, RTÉ TV documentary, dir. M. Davitt (Dublin, 1995)
Say a Song, Northwest Archives NWAR CD 001 (1996)
Ó Mo Dhúchas, Gael-Linn CEFCD 051 (1997)
NICHOLAS CAROLAN