Search Results for 'Augusta, Lady Gregory'

THE COOLE Music School in Gort, will reach a new milestone this Saturday when its youth orchestra makes its debut at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Coole Park hosted a conferring ceremony for graduates of the NUI Maynooth certificate in local history last weekend, the first ceremony of its kind to be held at the park. The course was run as an outreach programme at Coole by the NUI Maynooth department of modern history, in association with the university’s adult education office. Nineteen students were conferred on the day.

I find it hard to imagine that not everyone liked Lady Augusta Gregory of Coole Park. What few readers there are of the Diary, I am told, sigh with exasperation when they see her name appear. They know that I will eulogise endlessly about how her home at Coole became a ‘workshop’ for writers, poets and artists during those exciting days at the beginning of the last century, leading to such remarkable talents as WB Yeats, John M Synge, Sean O’Casey and others to stand as giants on the European literary stage. She was the co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, its director and organiser during its shaky early days. She was a substantial playwright, journal keeper, folklorist, scholar, etc, etc, and, in my opinion, this amazing Galway woman never got the recognition she deserved.

What would have happened to James Joyce had he come to the relative comforts of Coole, instead of opting for hardship and exile and the life of a wandering artist in Europe?

COPE Galway has launched their ‘Coole Runnings 5k Trail Run’, which will take place at Coole Park on September 18 at 10am.

There is often more drama in the board room of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, than what is presented on its stage. Following a famous conversation in Doorus House, Kinvara, one rainy afternoon in 1897, Lady Augusta Gregory of Coole Park, Edward Martyn of Ardrahan, and the young poet WB Yeats agreed to set up the Irish Literary Theatre. Theatre at the time was mainly influenced by the popular British music hall variety; and melodrama. It was agreed that day in Co Galway that the new Irish theatre would ‘embody and perpetuate Irish feeling, genius, and modes of thought’.

A number of free events will take place at Coole Park next week as part of National Heritage Week.

The Friends of Coole has announced a review of its biannual Coole Park Cultural Programme.

With summer in full swing Coole Park is offering guided walks on Sunday afternoons, and children's nature activities each Wednesday afternoon during July and August.

The Friends of Coole is a voluntary group “dedicated to celebrating and continuing the creative influence of Lady Gregory and her contribution to Irish cultural life”. From their founding in 1994, they have worked to establish a cultural and heritage education centre at Coole Park.