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Yeats 150: Church of Ireland archives record key events of the poet’s life

Archive of the Month – June 2015

Detail from the baptismal entry for William Butler Yeats, from the Donnybrook baptismal register, RCB Library P246/2/1
Detail from the baptismal entry for William Butler Yeats, from the Donnybrook baptismal register, RCB Library P246/2/1

Yeats2015 (www.yeats2015.com) is a year–long event to celebrate nationally and internationally the life and work of William Butler Yeats, who was born 150 years ago on 13 June 1865. Entering into the spirit of this particular commemoration, the RCB Library in Dublin, which is the main record repository of the Church of Ireland, presents online significant evidence of the poet’s life and connection with places in Ireland (his baptism and burial) that may not have been viewed by the public before for the month of June’s Archive of the Month.

Early 20th century images of St Mary's Donnybrook and Drumcliffe county Sligo, parish churches, RCB Library collection
Early 20th century images of St Mary's Donnybrook and Drumcliffe county Sligo, parish churches, RCB Library collection


Both Yeats’ baptism in Donnybrook parish church, Dublin, a month after his birth, on 12 July 1865, and the re–internment of his remains at the graveyard in Drumcliffe, County Sligo, on 17 September 1948 (which took place some nine years after his death at Menton, France, on 28 January 1939) are underpinned by his Church of Ireland identity.

William Butler Yeats [WBY] was born into an extraordinarily talented artistic family: his father John Butler Yeats [JBY], a lawyer by profession, but whose real interest was the arts, and who gave up the law soon after being called to the bar in Dublin to devote himself to artistic studies, becoming a renowned portraitist. WBY’s sisters Susan (Lily), born in 1866, and Elizabeth (Lolly), born in 1868, would become innovative craftworkers and printers, while his brother Jack born in 1871 became one of Ireland’s most celebrated painters. Their mother Susan Mary (known as “Sarah”) Pollexfen was from the well–established business family of Pollexfens and Middletons in Sligo, who married JBY on 10 September 1863 in St John’s parish church, Sligo.

Drumcliffe church with Ben Bulben in the distance, Yeats's spiritual home in county Sligo
Drumcliffe church with Ben Bulben in the distance, Yeats's spiritual home in county Sligo


The family would move between Dublin, London and Sligo while Yeats was growing up but it was in Sligo where Yeats and his siblings would spend much of their youth – WBY regarding it as his spiritual home.

JBY was the son (and grandson) of a Church of Ireland rectory. His grandfather John Yeats (1775/6–1846) served most of his clerical career as rector of the county Sligo parish of Drumcliffe, in the diocese of Elphin from 1811 until his death in 1846.

Biographical entry for John Yeats, rector of Drumcliffe in James B. Leslie and David Crooks (eds), Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Biographical Succession Lists (2008), pp 926–927
Biographical entry for John Yeats, rector of Drumcliffe in James B. Leslie and David Crooks (eds), Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Biographical Succession Lists (2008), pp 926–927

Biographical entry for John Yeats, rector of Drumcliffe in James B. Leslie and David Crooks (eds), Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Biographical Succession Lists (2008), pp 926–927
Biographical entry for John Yeats, rector of Drumcliffe in James B. Leslie and David Crooks (eds), Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Biographical Succession Lists (2008), pp 926–927

John Yeats’ eldest son William (John Butler’s father) followed him into ordained ministry, serving as rector of the county Down parish of Tullylish in the diocese of Dromore for most of his career – between 1836 and his death in 1862.

Biographical entry for William Butler Yeats, rector of Tullylish, in Henry B. Swanzy, Succession Lists of the Diocese of Dromore (1933) p. 272
Biographical entry for William Butler Yeats, rector of Tullylish, in Henry B. Swanzy, Succession Lists of the Diocese of Dromore (1933) p. 272
~
The family’s connections with the Dublin suburb of Sandymount (and parish of Donnybrook) evolved from the Revd William Yeats’ marriage to Jane Corbet of Sandymount Castle, county Dublin, in 1835, which as he grew up JBY loved for the ‘comfortable, sociable and elegant life there’ (A. Norman Jeffares, ‘Yeats’s Birthplace’, in Yeats Annual 3, p. 177). He was particularly close to his uncle and cousin, and following his marriage to Sarah Pollexfen in 1863, with the onset of his legal studies, a house near his maternal family castle–home proved the ideal place to begin their married life.

They occupied a relatively newly–built house in a fashionable and new part of suburban Dublin, on Sandymount Avenue, at No. 1 George’s Ville. It would be this house where WBY was born on 13 June 1865 – probably the first child to have been born there. At the time this part of Sandymount was located in the newly–created parish of Donnybrook, where a month after his birth, JBY and Sarah brought their eldest son for Christian baptism as is recorded in the baptismal register, on Sunday 12 July 1865. The ceremony was performed by the incumbent of the parish, Revd Frederick Smith Fitzgerald.

Detail from the baptismal entry for William Butler Yeats, from the Donnybrook baptismal register, RCB Library P246/2/1
Detail from the baptismal entry for William Butler Yeats, from the Donnybrook baptismal register, RCB Library P246/2/1

Within a year of Yeats’s birth and baptism the family had moved to London, where JBY was free to pursue his artistic interests, having been successfully called to Irish Bar, although he never practised. This move explains why WBY alone of the four Yeats siblings was born and baptised in Dublin. Conversely, evidence of WBY’s marriage is not available in Ireland as he married Georgie Hyde Lees (1892–1968) in London in October 1917.

Further evidence of his Church of Ireland roots is later confirmed by the events that followed his death and initial burial in France in 1939. In the latter years of his life WBY, his wife and family spent a good deal of time in the south of France, where he died at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, on 28 January 1939. The local Anglican padre from Monte Carlo was summoned to recite prayers in the bedroom where he had died, and then his body was removed to the hilltop church of St Pancras at Roquebrune. As has been vividly recounted by Roy Foster in W.B. Yeats A Life 11: the Arch–Poet 2 pp 651–2, Yeats’s express wish was that should he die in France, he wanted to be buried quickly (and temporarily) with a minimum of fuss, so as to avoid any media or public spectacle, allegedly ordering: “If I die here bury me up there [at Roquebrune] and then in a year’s time when the newspapers have forgotten me, dig me up and plant me in Sligo”.

His widow Georgie acted swiftly to ensure these wishes would be carried out, but back in Ireland there was a natural outpouring of grief for the passing of Ireland’s greatest poet and Nobel Laureate. Initially public needs for mourning were met by a memorial service held in St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, held a week after his death on 7 February 1939, where large numbers of public figures attended along with his family and friends. The records of the cathedral, now housed at the RCB Library, include a copy of the simple memorial service which was held just over a week later which can be seen below.

Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3

Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3

Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Order of service for the memorial of W.B. Yeats, held in St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, a week after the poet's death, 6 February 1939, RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901–1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3


Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3

 

Accompanying press cuttings reveal the service was conducted by the dean of the cathedral, the Very Revd DFR Wilson, there were intoned prayers, while the choir sang two antiphons, and the anthem based on Tennyson’s poem ‘Crossing the Bar’ to music by the cathedral organist, Dr George Hewson, opening with the dramatic line: “Ten thousand times ten thousand in sparkling raiment bright”. The large congregation present sang Psalm 23 and a single hymn: ‘Sunset and Evening Star’. The archbishop of Armagh, and primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd Dr John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg pronounced the Benediction.

 

 

 

Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3
Press cuttings concerning the re-internment of W.B. Yeats in RCB Library St Patrick's Cathedral Scrapbook 1901-1945, RCB Library C2/1/28/2.3

There were further requests for a state funeral at a high level, while the authorities in the national cathedral also offered St Patrick’s as a final resting place, but these were politely but firmly turned down by the family, who wished to fulfil WBY’s choice. After a protracted period of almost a decade, complicated with the intervention of the Second World War, plans for the long–awaited re–internment were further delayed, and it was not until September 1948, that Yeats’ body was finally returned to Ireland and his spiritual home in Sligo. Although there were no state trappings, the Irish government did assist the family in securing the body back to Ireland. The coffin was removed in state from Roquebrune on 6 September 1948 and driven with a military guard of honour to Nice, covered by the national flag. At Villefranche it was placed on the Irish navy corvette Macha and shipped to Galway, where his widow, brother Jack and children Michael and Anne went on board to receive it. From Galway the cortege moved to Sligo where it was met by a military guard of honour in front of Sligo town hall. From there a large procession of people gathered and moved on to the graveyard of the little parish church at Drumcliff, where WBY’s great–grandfather had been rector, and here following a short service ‘the long–talked re–internment of the illustrious poet took place’ on Friday 17 September 1948.

Burial entry following the re–internment of the body of W.B. Yeats, as recorded in the Drumcliffe parish register, 17 September 1948, signed by no less than six senior clergy. This volume held in local custody and reproduced here with the kind co–operation of the Select Vestry of Drumcliffe.
Burial entry following the re–internment of the body of W.B. Yeats, as recorded in the Drumcliffe parish register, 17 September 1948, signed by no less than six senior clergy. This volume held in local custody and reproduced here with the kind co–operation of the Select Vestry of Drumcliffe.

The Church of Ireland burial service was conducted by the rector of the parish, the Revd James Wilson, assisted by the bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Rt Revd Albert Hughes and several senior diocesan clergy, all of whom signed the entry in the burial register where the re–internment is recorded, on 17 September 1948. This volume remains in the local custody of the parish at Drumcliffe, as does this wonderfully–vivid photograph of parishioner and gravedigger Willie Monds (who died last year well into his 90s) seen here completing the re–internment with Yeats family members, locals and others looking on.

Parishioner and gravedigger in Drumcliffe Willie Monds digging the grave for the re–internment of W.B. Yeats, 17 September 1948, reproduced here with the kind co–operation of the Select Vestry of Drumcliffe.
Parishioner and gravedigger in Drumcliffe Willie Monds digging the grave for the re–internment of W.B. Yeats, 17 September 1948, reproduced here with the kind co–operation of the Select Vestry of Drumcliffe.


Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Diocesan Gazette, December 1948, recording the events in Drumcliffe Union around the time of the re–internment, RCB Library collection.
Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Diocesan Gazette, December 1948, recording the events in Drumcliffe Union around the time of the re–internment, RCB Library collection.

The diocesan magazine later noted that two days after the service, the poet’s brother–in–law, the Venerable G. Hyde–Lees, attended Morning Prayer in the church and read the lessons.

The Dean of Elphin, Very Revd Arfon Williams with HRH Prince Charles at the grave of W.B. Yeats, May 2015.
The Dean of Elphin, Very Revd Arfon Williams with HRH Prince Charles at the grave of W.B. Yeats, May 2015.

During the recent reconciliatory visit of the HRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to Ireland, which included attendance at an ecumenical service for peace and reconciliation at St Columba’s Church, Drumcliffe, the royal party paid their respects at the poet’s grave following the service. Earlier in his historic speech delivered at the Model Arts Centre, Sligo, Prince Charles quoted Yeats from his poem the

Lake Isle of Innisfree (1892):

“And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow”.


For further information please contact:
Dr Susan Hood
RCB Library
Braemor Park
Churchtown
Dublin 14
Tel: 01–4923979
Fax: 01–4924770
E–mail: susan.hood@rcbcoi.org

 

 

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