Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak in the House today ahead of Yeats Day 2015. As has been mentioned by several of my colleagues, this earmarks the 150th anniversary of W.B. Yeats's birth, a man who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest poets the English language has ever known. What a gift his poetry and legacy have been to the people of Ireland, capturing the myths and beauty of our landscape and transporting them right across the world through the weight and majesty of his words.

Much has been made of Yeats’s strong links to Sligo, rightly so – I look forward to visiting the newly opened Lissadell House over the summer and perhaps even climbing Knocknarea if I feel brave enough or energetic enough on the occasion - but as a Galway East-based Senator I feel it is very important also to highlight the links to my own locality, in particular Gort and its surrounding area. Yeats famously kept a summer home at Thoor Ballylee just outside Kiltartan. It is a Norman tower quite close to Gort. He purchased it in 1917 and restored it. It was one of the inspirations for many of his celebrated collections, in particular The Tower, which featured some of his best known and best loved poems, including "Among School Children", whose closing verse always bears reciting:

The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.

Nor beauty born out of its own despair,

Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.

O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,

Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

Thoor Ballylee is of huge historical significance to the Irish people and artistic and literary communities in this country and around the world. As such, it is very much now the key driver of tourism in the south Galway area. I am hugely proud of the work that has been done by the community of Gort and the local Yeats committee, including Sr. DeLourdes, Karen, Colm, Rena, Ronnie, Senator Healy Eames, and everyone else who has been involved in the surrounding area, to preserve and celebrate Yeats’s local legacy.

I am also very proud to have campaigned for vital funding for the restoration of Thoor Ballylee after extensive flooding in 2009 and 2010. I raised the matter in the Seanad on several occasions in the past. I look forward to the future development of the site, as research has indicated that as with Drumcliffe in Sligo, tourists would spend a lot more time at Ballylee if facilities were in place. I therefore urge the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to liaise with her colleague in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to ensure that in the years ahead Fáilte Ireland gives priority to Thoor Ballylee and gives it the attention and investment it deserves as a key part of Ireland’s cultural history. We have seen the fantastic success of the Wild Atlantic Way in the past year and there is no reason a similar route could not be plotted for cultural landmarks throughout the west and north west of Ireland, of which Thoor Ballylee is most definitely one.

I commend Senator Susan O’Keeffe on her work on the committee and everybody else who has been involved with the Yeats Day, the weekend and also Yeats 2015. There is no question but planning such celebrations is a huge undertaking. A huge amount of effort, enthusiasm and energy goes into it. To have developed such a vibrant and diverse programme of events is something that each and every person who is involved with it should be very proud. I extend my sincerest congratulations to each and every one of those involved.