Funding has been secured to develop the Seamus Heaney Arts and Literary Centre in Bellaghy, L'Derry.

£980,000 is to be invested in the project and Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín

made the announcement.

She said: "Mid Ulster District Council, and previously Magherafelt District Council, have shown tremendous vision and enterprise in aiming to create a timely, lasting and educational tribute to this famous son of Derry. It is appropriate that it is to be located in his beloved Bellaghy and I know it will be a lasting symbol in an area that has previously suffered from under investment.

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"I am today pleased to commit almost £1million of funding for this magnificent project which honours a man who is undoubtedly amongst the greatest literary exponents ever to have come from these shores and who, like his fellow Nobel laureates Shaw, Yeats and Beckett, has done so much to ensure that the richness of Irish literature has received true recognition on the world stage."

(CD/LM)