On the Yeats Trail and so much more...
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Gort and slowly head back to Dublin. We will be spending three nights in the very center of Ireland with promises of more unique discoveries.
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| William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory,and others, founded the Abbey Theatre. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honored for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Thoor Ballylee was Yeats's monument and symbol; in both aspects it had multiple significance. It satisfied his desire for a rooted place in a known countryside, not far from Coole and his life-long friend Lady Gregory.To live in a Tower complemented, perhaps, his alignment with a tradation of cultivated aristocracy which he had envied and a leisured peace which he had enjoyed. |
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| I the poet William Yeats with old millboards and sea-green slates. And smithy work from the Gort forge. Restored this tower for my wife George and may these characters remain When all is ruin once again. |
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| Coole Park was once the home of Lady Augusta Gregory, dramatist, folklorist and good friend of Yeats. Coole Park, in the early 20th century, was the centre of the Irish Literary Revival. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O' Casey all came to experience its magic. Although the house no longer stands, one can still appreciate the surroundings that originally drew so many here. |
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| Kilmacduagh Monastery, established by the 7th century Saint Colman on land given him by his cousin King Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin (died 663 in Ireland) of Connacht. |
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| The monastery contains a round tower, notable as both fine example of this particularly Irish feature but also because of its noticeable lean, over half a meter from the vertical. The tower is over 30 meters tall, with the only doorway some 7 meters above ground level. This site was of such importance that it became the center of a new diocese, the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, in the 12th century; it is now incorporated into the Diocese of Galway. The monastery, because of its wealth and importance, was plundered several times in the 13th century. |
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| We have learned so much from the people we've met in various places. Yesterday, while at the Clare Museum in Ennis, we met Nelli, a woman who was pretty amazing. She and her husband bought a house here in Ireland and got a few sheep for 'lawn care'. Since there were only a few sheep, no one would come to their farm to shear them, remembering seeing it done when she was a child, she grabbed some shearing scissors and gathered wool the old fashioned way. This lead to a spinning wheel, combined with her childhood lessons in knitting, all led to her current business and fascination with knitting "from scratch". |
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| We asked about the sheep with colored dots on them. Nelli said that in a field of female ewe, there will be a 2-3 male ram. Each ram has a color that is his. As he mates with the.female, she gets marked the same color as the ram that 'got' her. We had no idea. The discussion after this fact was rather comical. Do they watch the sheep to see who does what to whom? Why are some sheep multicolored. Are they sheep sluts? Just rambunctious rams? Hmm. |
1 comments:
Ewe'd be surprised at how promiscuous them sheep are.
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