Yeats Memorial Buildling

Walk around Sligo for any amount of time and you soon learn who their favorite son was. Yes, there are monuments and statues a-​plenty in the county paying homage to this sullen yet prolific writer. For this trip, I brought a book of Yeats and, honestly, I have yet to read another writer with such a dark, gloomy perspective of things. But I didn’t live in his time and, if I had, I might also be penning down verses of faeries luring us to better lives. Who knows? As it was, I stood over his grave and toasted with a wee pull from my purse flask to his honor, then moved on, like his final wish to the horsemen. And I saddled up and rode off in search of fun.

If you want to do a tour of Yeats country, then this is the place to start. Run by the volunteers of the Yeats Society, you will be initiated into the essence of Ireland’s famous poet laureate. See original manuscripts of his poems, rare and seminal photos of the poet, his relatives and his beloved Sligo. Feel your pulse racing to the heartbeat and hypnotic rhythm of his profound verse; feel the cream of the wordsmith’s rhymes inebriate you like the bubbling waterfalls of Glencar. I don’t know if Faeries exist or not, but you will now want to start exploring the icons of Yeat’s muse and see for yourself. Start your journey here and maybe the Faery will take you by the hand to the mythical Tir na Nog of ancient Ireland.