Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his attendance. This matter concerns Yeats Tower, Thoor Ballylee, County Galway. This is a building of special importance from an historical, recreational and cultural perspective to the people of Kiltartan and Gort in County Galway. Indeed, in 1965, for the centenary of W. B. Yeats's birth, Ballylee was fully restored by the Kiltartan Gregory Cultural Society, replete with a collection of first editions and items of furniture. The adjoining cottage was a tea room and shop from that period on.

However, following the flooding of the Cloone River in 2009, the Thoor was extensively damaged and thereafter was no longer open to the public. Significant works have been undertaken recently by Fáilte Ireland to protect the structure. I have made several representations to that body in this regard since I was nominated to the Seanad by the Tánaiste. The famed tower that W. B. Yeats purchased in 1917 and which was used as a summer home by the poet and his family until it was abandoned in 1929, is critical to a tourism revival in east Galway. On that basis I have corresponded and had meetings with Fáilte Ireland on a number of occasions in the past two years both in my own capacity and with a local tourism group, the Lady Gregory Yeats Heritage Trail Group, of which I was a member and which has done a huge amount of work promoting this area and its tourism potential. I was also in contact with the Minister. In the past I worked to summon interest in this structure by writing to interested parties in the Galway area as a means of maximising the area's connection to W. B. Yeats.

Thoor Ballylee is steeped in connections with W. B. Yeats and should be just as important a tourism landmark as his grave in Drumcliffe, County Sligo, which tens of thousands of people visit every year. It is clear that south Galway badly needs a tourism boost and the opening of this tower, which I have requested in the past, is critical to the revival of the tourism sector in east Galway. I thank Fáilte Ireland, which is in charge of Thoor Ballylee, for its enthusiastic and positive responses to my meetings with the body about this matter. I look forward to the Minister of State's response to my request to have the tower re-opened to the public as a tourist attraction with all ancillary services.