Search Results for 'Augusta, Lady Gregory'

The efforts by a group of local people to have the famous Yeats' Tower (Thoor Ballylee), near Gort, south Galway, reopened is to be welcomed and supported.

How many famous people lifted that heavy brass knocker on the door of Lady Augusta Gregory’s home at Coole, Co Galway, and gave it a resounding rat- a -tat -tat? It resounded again last weekend with all the authority of a grumpy judge’s gavel. The writer and broadcaster John Quinn, chairman of the 19th Autumn Gathering, used it to great effect to keep speakers to their time, and to summon people to the next event.

In the closing weeks of the summer of 1913, there was intense activity at Coole Park, the heart of the Celtic Literary Revival. The considerable energies of both Lady Gregory and WB Yeats were fully committed to supporting Gregory’s nephew Hugh Lane, and his quest to establish a municipal gallery of modern art in Dublin.

In September 2004 Seamus Heaney opened the Autumn Gathering in Gort, and he read the above poem (which I will conclude in a moment), and told the audience that he was happy to be once again in south Galway. “ To drive across Ireland, east to west, towards Padraic Fallon’s native Galway, is to experience a double sensation of refreshment and déja-vu. The refreshment comes from the big lift of the sky beyond the River Shannon, the déja-vu from entering a landscape which has been familiar for a century as an image of the dream Ireland invented by the Irish Literary Revival.’

IRELAND WAS an inspiration to the 19th century Romantic movement, while the Irish Literary movement would inspire the imagination of the 1916 rebels.

The Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering, now in its 19th year, will this year include a tribute to women writers around the world. This year’s event will take place in Coole Park over five days in October.

The Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering, now in its 19th year, will this year include a tribute to women writers around the world. This year’s event will take place in Coole Park over five days in October.

The famous holiday home of WB Yeats and his family, Thoor Ballylee, near Gort, could soon be in the hands of a local interest group and the county council.

The promotion of a trail which incorporates many of the historical sites across South Galway could yield a large dividend for tourism in the region, according to its organisers who will launch the trail’s website next week.

“ We are no petty people. We are of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence...." so spoke out WB Yeats proudly, during a passionate debate in the senate in June 1925.