Excitement is building at Thoor Ballylee as their longstanding mill wheel project finally comes onstream, with a launch event planned for Saturday 24 May at 2pm.
The restored mill wheel will be dedicated to the memory of Ronnie O’Gorman, former Board Member of Thoor Ballylee and founder of the Galway Advertiser. Ronnie was passionate about the restoration of this unique mill wheel and inspired the enthusiasm and dedication which led to the wheels turning once again.
Situated a few hundred yards along the stream from the Hiberno-Norman tower where Yeats spent his summers, is the culmination of several years of work and planning by a skilled volunteer crew, led by engineer Eugene Murphy (who is interviewed in this paper on Page 14 ), and made possible thanks to a successful fundraising campaign involving almost 50 individual donors who each sponsored a paddle.
Senator PJ Murphy, an early supporter of the mill wheel restoration project, called this “One of the most important restoration projects of recent years in County Galway.”
By the time the tower and cottage at Thoor Ballylee passed into W.B. Yeats’s hands in 1917, the mill had been decommissioned. A restored but still venerable wheel on site had long ceased to function, but during the last few years Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society has been working hard to put this right. Eugene Murphy and his team have designed a completely restored wheel using wood and iron, and associated works to fit the tight water courses. Using local materials and craftworkers, the wheel was remade, assembled, and fitted, slotting into place, tested and turned, paddle by paddle.
Archaeologist and heritage expert Paul Gosling, who will do the honour of launching the mill wheel, said the watermill at Ballylee is a little-known place a stone’s throw from Thoor Ballylee.
“Its riverside location, leafy surrounds, unusual design and connections with the folk herbalist Biddy Early, and the poet W.B. Yeats, stir the imagination and evoke memories of by-gone life and lifeways.”
The launch will take place on the first anniversary of the passing of founding Director and Board member of Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society, Ronnie O’Gorman, a passionate supporter of the mill wheel restoration project and a great benefactor of Thoor Ballylee.
The public is invited to join for the official launch of the mill wheel this Saturday May 24 at 2pm. Those interested in finding out more about Thoor Ballylee, the Mill wheel or supporting the project can visit yeatsthoorballylee.org
