Sligo is known around the world as ‘Yeats Country’, a reference to the strong connections with the highly artistic Yeats family, particularly Nobel Prize winning particularly poet, dramatist and writer William Butler Yeats, and artist Jack B Yeats. The brothers spent childhood holidays and some of their formative years with their maternal grandmother in Sligo which left an indelible impression on their work. Sligo’s Yeats connection is comfortable, relaxed and refreshingly accessible to visitors.
The striking WB Yeats statue in the town centre isn’t easy to miss, on the corner of Markievicz Road and Stephen Street. Erected on the 50th anniversary of his death in 1989, the statue, which looks over to the Yeats Building, was created by sculptor Ronan Gillespie. A fantastic, flamboyant work, the poet is made larger and dressed in a jacket reminiscent of wings and covered with excerpts of his poetry.
Susan O’Keeffe, Director of Yeats Society Sligo.
The beautiful Arts & Crafts style Yeats Building is home to Yeats Society Sligo and a true hub for literary culture and the arts. A permanent Yeats exhibition focuses on W B but also includes artworks by many members of the family and tells of their strong connections with Sligo. The Yeats sisters Susan (Lily) and Elizabeth (Lolly) were pioneers in the early Irish Arts & Crafts movement engaged in textiles, bookbinding and printing. The Yeats Building is a perfect introduction to this fascinating family and is open all year round. Staff can organise Yeats-inspired tours, both in the town and across the county – small and large. An academic library with over 3,000 titles is available to scholars for research purposes. It’s run by the Yeats Society who also present the Yeats International Summer School each July; the longest running literary summer school in the world.
With so many Yeats connections in Sligo, it’s unsurprising that a number of trails have been developed to introduce visitors to them. The groundbreaking Yeats Unwrapped comprises six scenic trails including 53 Yeats-connected destinations across the county. It’s a digital tour linking WB Yeats’ poetry to the landscape accessed via a free downloadable app and is the first of its kind in Ireland.
More traditionally, the signposted Yeats Trail touring route incorporates fourteen significant Sligo locations with close W B Yeats associations. Some are familiar – the Lake Isle of Innisfree and his final resting place at Drumcliffe beneath Ben Bulben – while others were favourite childhood haunts like Rosses Point or inspirational such as Glencar Waterfall namechecked in The Stolen Child. Many are marked by a specially commissioned sculpture.
Martha Quinn
The Yeats Trail begins at Knocknarea Car Park where sculptor Martha Quinn’s installation reflects the ancient heritage of the location with an enlarged version of a scraper tool fashioned by early settlers on the mountain. The black granite disc is shaped to emulate the ‘knapped’ or chipped surfaces of the dark flint-like material chert.
The Riverstown-based artist also created the evocative sculpture at Union Wood beside Ballygawley Lake. The inkwell, hand carved from Kilkenny limestone, depicts two swans in water and above it a huge feather quill rises, turning into birds in flight. The swans were chosen as they are year-round inhabitants of the lake and feature in the poetry of Yeats. Swan feathers would have been traditionally used to make writing quills in the past.
Martha Quinn’s work can also be seen on the Sligo Way, on the tall limestone Fáilte stones and kilometre marks. Inspired by nature, the Irish hare, which also appears on the County Sligo crest, is the unifying feature between each.
Emer McGarry, Director of The Model, Sligo.
Jack B Yeats, younger brother of the poet, is widely considered the most significant Irish artist of the twentieth century but perhaps did not get that recognition within his own lifetime. The Model in Sligo is home to The Niland Collection, one of the best and most extensive collections of Jack B Yeats work in existence. It presents regular curated exhibitions of his work. The vibrant centre, housed in a beautiful old ‘model’ school building, is both flexible and responsive to societal changes. More than just a museum, it also houses several exhibition spaces, a cinema, a concert hall and eleven artists’ studios as well as a café. Sligo Global Kitchen pop ups aim to bring communities together to experience food and music from around the world, reflecting the changing face of Sligo.
One little known fact about Jack B Yeats is that he was an Olympic medallist – in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Yeats’ painting The Liffey Swim won a silver medal in the arts and culture segment of the Games.
The colourful, talented and eccentric Yeats family are intrinsically linked to Sligo. The ties are woven lightly into many of the tourism attractions and amenities making them equally accessible to both those with a casual interest and the dedicated Yeatsian scholar.
