The Lady Gregory-Yeats Autumn Gathering breaks fresh ground this year with a new website, theme and leadership.
Led by new executive director (and 2025 chair ) Ella Swift Redding and chaired by Melissa Sihra, Associate Professor of Drama with Trinity College Dublin, this year's Autumn Gathering will also offer children’s art activities (ages six and up ) during the morning lectures, live performances daily, meals and coach service included in all ticket prices, and an early bird pricing discount on ticket prices through September 12.
For 32 years, the Autumn Gathering has been welcoming families, scholars and fans of Lady Gregory and WB Yeats to their former homes of Coole Park and Thoor Ballylee. The annual event, always held on the last weekend of September, is a wonderful local secret, cherished for its intimate atmosphere and deep insights into all things Gregory, Yeats, and their peers within the Irish Cultural Revival.
This year’s theme is Nature and how Gregory and Yeats drew creative inspiration from the natural environments around them. The AG 2026 speaker line-up includes experts across many fields: literature, geology, creative process, Irish language and folklore, botany, history, theatre and performance, and ancient sporting traditions.
Festivities start on Friday afternoon, September 25, with a historical seaweed tour by Wild Kitchen’s Danny Burke at Traught Beach, near Doorus House, where Gregory, Yeats and Edward Martyn famously crafted their play for the Irish Literary Theatre (precursor to the Abbey Theatre ). Gregory collected folklore from seaside harvesters all around Galway Bay, including at Traught Beach. Guests will then enjoy tea and local oysters (a favourite of Gregory’s ) at Wild Living Wine Bar in Kinvara.
As is traditional, the Autumn Gathering will officially open on Saturday at Coole Park with the Welcome and Cutting of the Barm Brack by descendants of Lady Gregory. This year’s brack will be cut by James Persse, Lady Gregory’s great-great nephew and sponsor of the new Lady Gregory Student Awards, which provides full weekend passes to the Autumn Gathering for several lucky students from the University of Galway.
Speakers scheduled for Saturday include Patrick Lonergan, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies with University of Galway, speaking on how nature influenced Gregory’s prolific creative works across many genres. Tiernan Henry, Hydrologist and Senior Lecturer of Earth and Ocean Sciences with the Ryan Institute (University of Galway ), will walk guests through the watershed and turlough systems running through and under Coole Park, including how Coole’s watershed is reflected in Gregory’s famous ‘River’ meditation.
After lunch in Coole Park’s new restaurant – Cobblestone – Wild Irish co-founders Siobhán de Paor and Diarmuid Lyng will lead guests in two exciting workshops incorporating Irish language and sport, rewilding one’s creativity, and the powerful intersection created with Gregory and Yeats’ legacy of early reclamation work of Ireland’s indigenous folklore, culture, language and landscapes alongside colleagues like Douglas Hyde.
Saturday evening will feature a cherished highlight of Autumn Gathering tradition: the spectacular candlelight dinner at Cobblestone, hosted after hours in Coole Park. The dinner features live performance and traditional music, a delicious multi-course meal, and a chance to experience the profound quiet of Coole after dark, with return coach service offered from the Lady Gregory Hotel.
Sunday brings the festivities to Thoor Ballylee, the 14th century Norman tower and former home of Yeats and his family. Belinda McKeon, novelist and Director of the MA in Creative Writing with Maynooth University, will kick off the morning’s events with her research into how Yeats’ sense of place and possessions interplayed within his life and work.
Following on McKeon’s insights, Abbey Theatre archivist Mairéad Delaney will offer wonderful examples of how nature directly inspired early Abbey productions during Gregory and Yeats’ tenure. Ed Maggs, Maggs Bros Ltd Rare Booksellers, will then present brass candlesticks once owned by Yeats to the Thoor Ballylee Society, donated by the estate of renowned Yeats scholars Warwick Gould and Deirdre Toomey.
Lunch will be followed by a theatrical performance of Gregory and Yeats’ most famous collaboration, Cathleen Ní Houlihan, presented as Gaeilge by theatre group Na Cleasaithe (in Irish, English subtitles provided ).
For further information and tickets, visit the Autumn Gathering’s new website autumngathering.com Inquiries may be sent to [email protected].
