SOURCE: "Laureate and Symbol, Heaney Returns Home," in The New York Times, October 9, 1995, p. B4.

[In the following article, Clarity reports Heaney's reactions to winning the Nobel Prize.]

Seamus Heaney, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, arrived home last night and was welcomed not only as a great poet in a land that loves writers and writing, but also as a symbol of hope for lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland 56 years ago but now lives in Dublin, was on vacation in Greece when his award was announced on Thursday. For a full day, neither his children nor the scores of reporters seeking interviews could find him. He was invited to a dinner party on Friday at the residence of the American Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, but did not appear.

But when he arrived at Dublin's airport on Saturday...