A new Autograph Tree dedicated to the late Ronnie O’Gorman will be planted in the Walled Garden at Coole Park this weekend as part of the Lady Gregory-Yeats Autumn Gathering.
Mr O’Gorman, who passed away in May, was director of the Autumn Gathering and chairman and founder of the Galway Advertiser.
This year’s Autumn Gathering, which takes place from tomorrow, Friday September 27, to Sunday September 29, will include visits to a number of sites associated with the Irish Literary Revival of the early 20th century, which was centred around the home of Lady Augusta Gregory at Coole Park.
The Gathering will also visit Thoor Ballylee, former home of WB Yeats, and Duras House, home of Count Florimond De Basterot, where Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn of Tulira Castle and WB Yeats, founded the Irish Literary Theatre, later the Abbey Theatre.
Friday will include a visit to Irish Natural Stone, a centre of excellence for limestone sculpture which will also hold an exhibition at Coole during the Gathering, followed by a visit to Duras House Gardens in Kinvara, with talks by historian John Donnellan and author Jeff O’Connell.
Saturday will see the official launch of the Autumn Gathering at Coole by Jane Murray Brown, great-granddaughter of Lady Gregory, at 10am. The day will feature talks chaired by Melissa Sihra, associate professor of drama and theatre at Trinity College Dublin, and a walk to the Walled Garden for the dedication of the new Autograph Tree.
Speakers on the day will include Adrian Paterson, lecturer in English, School of English and the Creative Arts University of Galway, who will talk on ‘Music had driven their wits astray’: Raftery, Yeats, and Galway’s applied arts; Dr Cecily O’Neill, writer and dramaturg and the author of several books on drama education, who will present ‘No peace for my mind, no rest for my pen’; and Garry Hynes, Druid Theatre’s co-founder and artistic director, who will talk about ‘DruidGregory: Words in the Coole air’.
Saturday’s events at Coole will be followed by candlelit dinner and entertainment at the Lady Gregory Hotel in Gort.
Sunday’s programme centres on Thoor Ballylee, where Caitríona McLaughlin, artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, will discuss her new production of Lady Gregory’s groundbreaking 1912 play Grania. This will be followed by a special screening of Lilly and Lolly Yeats: The Forgotten Sisters, presented by Imelda May.
Tickets for each day, and for the candlelight dinner, are available on eventbrite.ie
For booking, see https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/lady-gregory-yeats-autumn-gathering-2024-tickets-980046103277.
For more information visit www.autumngathering.com, or contact Marion Cox at [email protected], phone 086 8053917.
