Search Results for 'Anthony Raftery'
6 results found.
Ballylee - ‘To go elsewhere is to leave beauty behind’
In 1960 Mary Hanley forced open the wedged shut door of the cottage at Thoor Ballylee. She walked into the large damp room. For 12 productive and happy summers, the cottage and its adjoining Norman tower had been the home of WB Yeats , his wife George Hyde Lees, and their two children Anne and Michael. Now, however, the floor was covered with manure. For years it had been used as a cow barn. Pulling aside stones that had blocked exits to keep the cattle enclosed, Mary walked into the dining room, with its magnificent enlarged window overlooking the Streamstown river as it races under the four-arched bridge.
Thoor Ballylee - The perfect home for a poet
In August 1896 WB Yeats and his friend Arthur Symons went on a tour of the west of Ireland. The poet was 31 years of age. They stayed with Edward Martyn at Tulira Castle, Ardrahan, visited the Aran Islands, and Yeats made his first visit to Lady Gregory at Coole Park.
Make every effort to open Thoor Ballylee for Yeats’ 150th anniversary
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.
The really ‘cultivated classes’ were the Irish themselves
“ 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.
A blind poet’s love for Mary Hynes
South Galway still echoes with stories of Antoine O Raifteiri , and 18th century blind poet and fiddle player in the ancient bardic tradition. His best known poems are probably Cill Aodain, and Anach Cuan. He never wrote his poems down, but they were collected by Douglas Hyde, and Lady Gregory, from those whom he taught them to, after his death.
A corner of William Street, c1920
This photograph was originally published in Burrows Guide Book which was printed c1920. The main feature is The Medical Hall and Pharmacy which was owned by AP Wallace. To the right of that you can see the entrance to Higgins’ Garage (he was an agent for Ford cars), and to the right of that again, down a little alleyway, was the entrance to the Empire Theatre.
