Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death. Horseman, pass by
One of the foremost figures of 20th century literature, a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory and others, founded the Abbey Theatre.
His mother came from a wealthy family in Sligo and the family relocated there to stay with her extended family, though the family later moved to England to aid their father, John, to further his career as an artist and returned to London in 1887.
Yeats had a life-long interest in mysticism, spiritualism, occultism and astrology. In 1889, Yeats met Maud Gonne, then a 23-year-old heiress and ardent Nationalist, to whom he proposed many times though she refused each proposal.
In December 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He died in France. Yeats’s gravestone is in Drumcliffe, County Sligo.
A little trek away from Yeat’s haunts but Kilronan castle in Roscommon and The Ice House in Mayo offer a luxury base camps for touring the area.
