During the month of March, MICEport is going to highlight some of the amazing places to visit in Ireland, some history, cookery, culture, music and so much more as part of our #GlobalGreening and hoping to #FillYourHeartWithIreland. While it may be difficult to travel right now, there is no reason to not be inspired by all that Ireland has to offer for your next visit to the island of Ireland.
The first person we want to visit with is William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) who was an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature.
In July 2020, conservation to a long-overlooked part of St. Stephen's Green in Dublin was nearing completion. Henry Moore's iconic 'Knife Edge' sculpture is the focal point of a tribute to one of its greatest poets at the WB Yeats Memorial in the heart of Dublin in St. Stephen's Green. It was so overgrown that most people just passed by this gem in the center of Dublin.
Yeats was a pillar of the Irish literary establishment and helped to found the Abbey Theatre (www.abbeytheatre.ie) in Dublin. The Abbey Theatre is still inspired by the revolutionary ideals of the founders and the rich canon of Irish dramatic writing. The mission of the Abbey Theatre, to this day, is to imaginatively engage with all of Irish society through the production of ambitious, courageous and new theatre in all its forms. Their commitment is to tell the whole Irish story, in English and in Irish. When the time is right, visitors can do backstage tours, walking tours, see some amazing theatre and be part of Irish history as part of your incentive (individual or group) to Ireland.
Anyway, back to Yeats, in his later years, he served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.
Yeats was born in Sandymount, on the south side of Dublin, and educated in Sandymount and in London. He spent childhood holidays in beautiful County Sligo in the Northwest of Ireland and studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends.
His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
Yeats is commemorated in Sligo town by a statue, created in 1989 by sculptor Rowan Gillespie. On the 50th anniversary of the poet's death, it was erected outside the Ulster Bank, at the corner of Stephen Street and Markievicz Road.
In typical Irish humor, Yeats had remarked on receiving his Nobel Prize in 1923, that the Royal Palace in Stockholm "resembled the Ulster Bank in Sligo".
For more ideas and information for your next incentive (individual or group) contact the MICEport Team inspireus@miceport.com or why not try some of our virtual platform programs to keep your staff and customers engaged and enthused.