The Guardian issues awkward Seamus Heaney correction

The Irish poet Seamus Heaney had a brilliant way with words, so you would almost certainly want his thoughts on the passing of the Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who died this week.

Perhaps that’s why the Guardian decided to quote the poet paying tribute in their obituary for the singer yesterday. The paper wrote, ‘Seamus Heaney, the renowned Irish poet, tweeted: “A great Irish poet and singer left us today. She was beautiful, courageous and wore her heart on her sleeve.’”

A lovely tribute indeed. But with only one problem: Heaney died a decade ago in 2013, and certainly didn’t tweet about Sinead O’Connor yesterday.

So what happened? Did the Guardian decide to pull out an ouija board to communicate with the long-dead poet, rather than doing the normal job of quoting living musicians and critics? Or could poetry lovers perhaps dream of a Heaney resurrection?

Unfortunately not. Instead, it turns out the paper had been quoting a fan account, rather than the actual poet.