The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is located at Queen's University Belfast, and named after the late Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class Honours in English language and literature. It was officially opened in February 2004 and its founding director was the award-winning poet and Queen's graduate Ciaran Carson. On 30 April 2009, it gave Heaney a 70th birthday party involving a special literary evening. Ciaran Carosn retired as director in 2016 and was replaced by Fran Brearton.