S2 Ep5: D2 YC Lissadell House

Lissadell House
GPS Location: 54.344031, -8.57777

Please note that Lissadell House has a limited opening season. Best to check the Lissadell website when planning your visit closer to the time.

One of the great coups for Lissadell is getting Leonard Cohen to play here in 2010. Thw riter was lucky enough to see the show and it was magnificent hearing him sing - and also quote Yeats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vYpWCbHsE

Lissadell is famous as the childhood home of Constance Markievicz, one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising; the first woman to be elected to Dáil Eireann, where she served as Minister for Labour, and also the first woman to be elected to Westminster Parliament in London.Her brother Josslyn created at Lissadell one of the premier horticultural estates in Europe. Yeats was friendly with the Gore Booths, and has immortalised Lissadell in his poetry.

In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth And Con Markiewicz

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
But a raving autumn shears
Blossom from the summer's wreath;
The older is condemned to death,
Pardoned, drags out lonely years
Conspiring among the ignorant.
I know not what the younger dreams –
Some vague Utopia – and she seems,
When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,
An image of such politics.
Many a time I think to seek
One or the other out and speak
Of that old Georgian mansion, mix
Pictures of the mind, recall
That table and the talk of youth,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.

Dear shadows, now you know it all,
All the folly of a fight
With a common wrong or right.
The innocent and the beautiful
Have no enemy but time;
Arise and bid me strike a match
And strike another till time catch;
Should the conflagration climb,
Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt;
Bid me strike a match and blow.

DIRECTIONS: After here, you'll be making your way back to Drumcliffe on the N15. Want to be brought to the car park of Drumcliffe church via Google Maps? Use these coordinates: 54.325334, -8.493741