Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to start by thanking Senator Maurice Cummins for scheduling the statements, which are very significant in the week in which we will celebrate the 150th birthday of W.B. Yeats which takes place on Saturday.

It is a very special time for us in Galway. I note in particular what Senator Lorraine Higgins has said. We will reopen Thoor Ballylee, Yeats’s ancestral home this Saturday. I am chair of the voluntary committee which has worked tirelessly against all the odds to reopen Thoor Ballylee. It was closed in 2009 due to flooding. It was in the ownership of Fáilte Ireland but it wants no more to do with it. Last September in this Chamber, as chair of the committee I was granted a licence to take over the tower, by the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring. It is only from then on that we have made progress to bring about the opening on Saturday.

The tower is opening against all the odds and sadly with no help from the State this year or any share of the €500,000 invested in the Yeats 2015 commemorative fund. That has dismayed the local committee. People have asked why that is the case. Thoor Ballylee is an iconic building, a national treasure. The Norman tower Yeats bought in 1917 is also an iconic building in and of itself yet the State was prepared to let it fall into ruin. We do not understand that, given the very valuable literary heritage of Yeats’s own life and work. He spent many summers there in the 1920s. According to Yeats scholars he is reputed to have written his best works there with The Towerin 1928 and The Winding Stairin 1933.

The question I have for the Minister is what value the State puts on our heritage given that it is prepared to let a building as important as Thoor Ballylee go to ruin. I only echo the concerns of local people. Thoor Ballylee would not be opening on Saturday but for the voluntary work of people such a Ronnie O’Gorman, Sr. DeLourdes, Colm Farrell, Rena McAllen, Deirdre Holmes, Joe Byrne, Angela Guillemet, Sharon Brennan, Mary Callanan and others. We are dismayed that the Minister would not meet the committee either in Galway or Dublin. It is not easy for me to say that in the House. Senator Susan O’Keeffe has been more than helpful. She has come down to meet us and she has supported us all the way on the matter.

In a funny way Yeats predicted that Thoor Ballylee might fall into ruin. He bought the tower for his wife George. He wrote:

I the poet William Yeats

With old mill boards and sea-green slates,

And smithy work from the Gort forge,

Restored this tower for my wife George.

And may these characters remain

When all is ruin once again.

It has been our goal to ensure that would not happen, because the tower is iconic. It is a national treasure with an incredible international reach that is carrying the words of Yeats worldwide. It is a total shame to see the number of people who go there on cold days to find it closed. As of Saturday, we will reopen it and we will announce that we will keep it open for the summer season from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, manned by volunteers. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, who has responsibility for the Office for Public Works, OPW. He said the OPW is not in a position to take over the tower from us once we get it back on its feet until such time as it is declared a national monument. That is up to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys. We must apply to the Minister for that designation. I ask the Minister to be open to granting it.

Yeats’ scholars around the world are jubilant that we are reopening the tower. But for the support we received from around the world we would not have been able to reopen it. One of our benefactors is a man called Joseph Hassett. He has given us €31,000 to mount an exhibition. However, that will take time because we must ensure the building is dehumidified for example. We had an auction last Sunday week when we raised approximately €14,000. I do not have the final figure. One of the items that made the largest amount and became a national story was the autobiography of Maud Gonne. Interestingly, the lady who donated the biography was sitting in her bed reading The Irish Timeson a Saturday and heard we were looking for items. She had a letter from Maud Gonne to her aunt, who bought the book. The aunt had such admiration for Maud Gonne, who was so admired by Yeats. He proposed to her three times and she turned him down each time. She said she did not regret it for one minute because every time she turned him down his poetry became better as a result. The biography made €5,200. Another item at the auction was a first edition of a book by John Millington Synge which made €1,000. We are operating on a wing and a prayer in trying to keep Thoor Ballylee open. I urge the Minister, in honour of Yeats’ and this anniversary year, to let us spread the legacy around the country.As Senator Higgins said, we have an amazing legacy here.