The Lady Gregory Yeats Autumn Gathering returns this Friday 27 – Sunday 29 September 2024 packed full of events and screenings and tours and talks. Sunday 29 September takes place at Thoor Ballylee with Imelda May, Lelia Doolan and others, but a host of events begins from Friday at Duras House, Coole Park, and Thoor Ballylee, including:
Abbey Theatre Director Caitríona McLaughlin on Grania by Lady Gregory
Garry Hynes on Druid’s Lady Gregory productions
Imelda May on Lilly and Lolly Yeats: The Forgotten Sisters
New Autograph Tree planting
Tribute to the late Ronnie O’Gorman
Dramatic readings and talks on Raftery, Yeats, Gregory and others
Tours of Coole Park, Thoor Ballylee, and Duras House
Candle-lit dinner, barmbrack, lantern presentation, and more
The magic of the Autumn Gathering is to bring people together from all corners of the world – to listen and learn, laugh and share, with academics and artists, locals, historians and literary figures; to meet descendants of Lady Gregory and Yeats, renew friendships and make new friends – all enjoying and celebrating the prominent role of Lady Gregory in shaping the theatrical, poetic and cultural life which thrives today.
In Coole Park, Lady Gregory provided the space and support needed by the literary giants of the time to shape the nation’s artistic and literary response to the times, e.g. W. B. Yeats’ Easter 1916. Celebrated amidst the rich and unrivalled landscape of the trees and beauty of south Galway, the Gathering includes lectures, discussions, theatre, social events, a guided walk through Duras House Gardens on Friday where the Abbey Theatre was founded and the special experience of Thoor Ballylee, described by the late Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney, as ‘the most important public building in Ireland’. Within Coole Park’s historic walled garden, sits the famous ‘Autograph Tree’ where world-renowned authors such as Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Sean O’Casey, John Millington Synge and George Moore, carved their initials, marking Coole Park as the centre of the Irish Literary Revival in the 20th century.
Friday 27 September
As part of the Lady Gregory-Yeats Autumn Gathering 2024, step back in time with a visit to Duras House Gardens, former summer home of Count Florimond De Basterot. An old Bordeaux family, Count De Basterot divided the year between Duras (Kinvara), Paris, and Rome. A meeting place for literary celebrities, like Coole Park, Tulira and Renvyle, it was here on a wet Sunday afternoon, that Augusta, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn of Tulira Castle and W. B. Yeats, founded the Irish Literary Theatre. It was soon to become the Abbey Theatre. The house and gardens have been lovingly restored by John and Angela Donnellan who are welcoming guests to a visit of their private gardens on Friday 27 September 2024. A talk by John Donnellan and Jeff O’Connell, local historian and author, will take place in the Courtyard of Duras House.
Saturday 28 September
Jane Murray Brown, Great-Granddaughter of Lady Gregory, will formally open the Gathering in Coole Park on Saturday at 10.00. Melissa Sihra, Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre at Trinity College Dublin, will Chair the Gathering. Adrian Paterson, Lecturer in English, School of English and the Creative Arts University of Galway, will speak on ‘Music had driven their wits astray’: Raftery, Yeats, and Galway’s applied arts. Dr. Cecily O’Neill, writer and dramaturg and the author of several books on drama education, will present “No peace for my mind, no rest for my pen”. A dramatic reading of Lady Gregory’s last reflections on Coole with actor, Anna O’Donnell. Garry Hynes, Druid Theatre’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director,will talk about “DruidGregory: Words in the Coole air” and lead the Gathering to the Walled Garden for the inauguration of a New Autograph Tree and planting a sapling dedicated to Ronnie O’Gorman, the late Director of the Autumn Gathering.
The creative and ambitious response by the DruidGregory 2020 project to Covid, centred on the works of Lady Gregory and also included some of her poetry and other writings, as well as music, dance, and the work of her great friend, the poet WB Yeats. Following the launch at Coole Park itself, a barnstorming 15 venue, 4-week tour of Gregory’s beloved county Galway, from Portumna to Glenamaddy, Ballinasloe to Clifden, and many more communities in between, demonstrated the powerful and magic combination that is Druid, Garry Hynes and Lady Gregory! Garry Hynes will be in conversation with Melissa Sihra.
Sunday 29 September
In Thoor Ballylee on Sunday at 10.00, Lelia Doolan, Irish theatre & film director and producer, will host Caitríona McLaughlin, Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, to discuss her new production of Lady Gregory’s groundbreaking 1912 play Grania. Opening on September 27, this staging marks the first ever production of the play at the Abbey Theatre. Imelda May, Irish singer, songwriter, television presenter and multi-instrumentalist, will present a special screening of Lilly and Lolly Yeats: The Forgotten Sisters.
Imelda explains: “I came across them in 2017 when working on my 3Arena show wanting to project onstage the names of exceptional people, especially largely forgotten exceptional Irish women, who contributed hugely to our culture in Ireland. I was curious as to how I’d never heard of them and their artistic contribution to Irish culture and in business, through extraordinary textile craftwork and literature. I was delighted when my friend and wonderful producer Maggie Breathnach and Sky Arts agreed that we should collaborate to make a documentary telling their remarkable story.”
The film touches on their complicated relationships with their brothers, as well as each other, and explores their resilience in the face of lifelong illness, financial struggles and working as creatives.
There is also a special presentation celebrating the return of W.B. Yeats’s Stained Glass Lantern on behalf of Jan Kelly, Massachusetts, who notes “this is the lantern Yeats used to ascend & descend the Tower to write and reflect”.
Participants can continue to enjoy the Open Forum discussion, Candlelit Dinner plus entertainment and the famous Barm Brack! This year, the National Parks and Wildlife Service have partnered with Irish Natural Stone for a unique exhibition of carved limestone sculptures in Coole Park during the Gathering, with the opening presentation on Friday at 11:00.
For further information and booking, please go to:
www.eventbrite.ie/e/lady-gregory-yeats-autumn-gathering-2024-tickets-980046103277
email: monaleen@msn.com and www.autumngathering.com. Tel: 086-8053917.
You can also contact Marion Cox, 1 Kiltiernan East, Kilcolgan, Co. Galway H91 YH1F.
