The Lanyon building at Queen's University BelfastQUB
Want to tap into the creative pulse of Belfast? Look no further than Queen's University Belfast and its renowned Seamus Heaney Centre.
What is it that links two great yet different cities like Belfast and New York? At the recent New York, New Belfast conference in New York City, leaders from both sides of the Atlantic came together to discuss the shaping of these two cities' futures.
Representing Queen's University Belfast, which ranks as one of the top 200 universities in the entire world, were Business Development Manager Anya O'Connor; novelist Glenn Patterson, Director of Queens' Seamus Heaney Centre; and filmmaker and scriptwriter Aislinn Clarke, also with the Heaney Centre.
On the balcony of the New York, New Belfast conference venue Pier A Harbor House, overlooking New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, IrishCentral caught up with O'Connor, Patterson, and Clarke about what makes Belfast and its Queen's University a hotbed of creativity and innovation.
O'Connor spoke to Belfast's re-imagining of what creative futures look like, and the many opportunities for young people in the city.
Patterson reflected on the Heaney Centre's founding mission as a center for excellence in poetry, creativity, and criticism, and its alignment with the line from Seamus Heaney's poem Kinship: "This centre holds and spreads."
The garden at the Heaney Centre
Clarke, who attended Queen's University Belfast and now lectures there with the Heaney Centre, spoke about her deep love for Queen's University forged by her full-circle journey from her undergraduate years, to her time in New York, to her landmark achievement as the first female filmmaker on the island of Ireland to make a feature horror film, The Devil's Doorway.
Learn more about what's happening at Queen's University Belfast and the Seamus Heaney Center by following them on social media:
Facebook: QUBelfast, Heaney Centre
Twitter: QUBelfast, Heaney Centre
LinkedIn: Queen's University Belfast
Instagram: QUBelfast