Seamus Heaney (recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature) and his wife were driven here after Heaney had a stroke in 2006. Bill Clinton - in Ireland at the time for 2006 Ryder Cup in County Kildare (just west of Dublin and many hours south of Letterkenny) - heard about Heaney's 'episode', as Heaney himself described it. "The next thing, [Clinton] put a call to the hospital, and said he was on his way. He strode into the ward like a kind of god". Heaney noted that Clinton took the time to introduce himself to and shake the hands of "my fellow sufferers, four or five men much more stricken than I was", who shared his ward, then Clinton "went round all the wards and gave the whole hospital a terrific boost. We had about 25 minutes with him, and talked about Ulysses Grant's memoirs, which he was reading." Clinton departed, heading straight to the airport.