Here at the Lough Gill Distillery, we’re proud of many things - of course, there’s our obsession to create Ireland’s most beautiful single malt whiskey, and our positioning on the stunning Wild Atlantic Way, but we’re also lucky enough to be immortalised in poetry, penned by one of Ireland’s most distinguished writers.

We’re lucky enough to call Hazelwood Estate and its beautiful surrounds and woodland our home, but long before our whiskey distillery, these very grounds formed the inspiration for one of WB Yeats’ most famed poems, inspired by his visits to Hazelwood. Now as Yeats day approaches, join us in raising a glass to the poet, who spent a lifetime capturing not just Hazelwood, but Sligo’s picture-perfect scenery and preserving them in his poetry...

The life of WB Yeats

WB Yeats is recognised as one of Ireland’s greatest poets, whose works are internationally renowned. He enjoyed an illustrious career as a poet, writing over 30 poetry collections during his life, and winning a Nobel Prize for his writing - becoming the first Irishman to ever be awarded the prize.

Born in Dublin in 1865, William Butler Yeats was destined to be creative - his father was John Butler Yeats - a renowned portraitist. And, he and his siblings all followed suit - his sisters Susan and Elizabeth became craftworkers and printers, and his brother Jack went on to be not only one of Ireland’s most famed painters, but also an Olympic medallist; not for his sporting abilities, but for his painting Swimming which received a silver medal in the Games’ arts and culture segment in 1924.

WB Yeats spent much of his childhood in Sligo, a place he came to think of as his spiritual home, and a place that inspired much of his poetry.

However, Yeats didn’t just write about the beauty of his surroundings - many of his poems were written about one woman, with whom he was infatuated. He met Maud Gonne in London in 1889, and he was overcome by her beauty. She became his muse, and the inspiration for many of his poems. However, this was unrequited love, and despite Yeats proposing marriage several times, she went on to marry Irish nationalist John MacBride. Despite her separation from Macbride in 1905, she and Yeats never did marry- although he continued to long for her and write about her for many years, even proposing to her again in 1916, which she once again rejected. He also proposed to her 21-year-old daughter, a proposal that also failed.

It was around this time, after these latest marriage proposals that Yeats decided he needed to find another suitor and have an heir. In 1917 he met 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees. He was 52 at the time, but the pair got engaged, and were married by October - just a month later. They went on to have two children, Anne and Michael, and remained married until Yeats’ death in

1939. George, as Yeats called her, was a prolific influence on his writing - not in the same was Maud Goode had been, but together they explored automatic writing (also known as spirit writing, or psychography, where a person is able to write subconsciously without awareness), and George encouraged his poetry, which began to incorporate influences from his fascination with George’s psychography.

In 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." During his acceptance speech, he said he was accepting the award on behalf of all who had worked with him in the Irish Literary Revival.

In the few years before his death, Yeats became acquainted with another form of media - the radio. He recorded ten of his poems for the BBC, reading each one with, in his own words “great emphasis upon their rhythm.”

Yeats died in 1939 in France, and at his request, was buried in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, where he was living. However, it had always been his wish to have his final resting place in Sligo - he suggested that once interest in his death had died down, that he be exhumed and his body moved to Ireland. In 1948, his wishes were realised, and his body was moved to the churchyard of St Columba's Church, Drumcliff, County Sligo, where he’s still buried to this day - a return to the place he’d always called his spiritual home.

Yeats Day

Yeats Day is celebrated on June 13th - the day of the poet’s birth. However, there’s often a whole week of jubilations taking place, with poetry, exhibitions and performances across Sligo. There’s even free birthday cake offered to travellers who want to toast one of Ireland’s most significant creatives.

Sligo might be the birthplace of Yeats Day, the location where the original festival takes place (and the place where you’ll find the free cake), but it’s not just Sligo who celebrates the life of Yeats each year. In fact, the celebrations are global. In 2015, to mark 150 years since the poet’s birth, huge events took place internationally. Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker and her actor husband Matthew Broderick even hosted a gala benefit in New York City to observe the occasion.

Yeats’ love for Sligo

Yeats’ love affair with Sligo was very much influenced by his father’s passion for the location. Jack Yeats, who visited a friend in Sligo (the sister of whom he later married and was the mother of WB Yeats), once said of Sligo “I never did a painting without putting a thought of Sligo in it."

These early connections planted the seed for WB Yeats - he spent many childhood years in Sligo, spending time with his grandparents, and the experiences he had and the places he visited inspired a lifetime of works for the poet.

Perhaps some of his most famed work is The Lake Isle of Innisfree, a poem he wrote about the uninhabited island on Lough Gill. The last verse of the poem speaks of his deep love for the place and the lasting impression it made on him:

“I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core shows .”

Hazelwood’s links to Yeats

We’re fortunate to be located in beautiful surroundings, many of which inspired Yeats’ works over the years. However, there’s one of his poems that holds a special place in our hearts - because it was influenced by Yeats’ love for Hazelwood and his visits here. That poem is The Song of Wandering Aengus, which was published in his collection The Wind Among the Reeds in 1988.

The poem begins: I went out to the hazel wood, because a fire was in my head and goes on to describe Yeats in his woodland surroundings before seeing a beautiful woman and striving to find her again.

This poem, and its significant connections to Lough Gill Distillery was made into a video to commemorate Yeats’ 150th birthday in 2015. Read here by actor Michael Gambon, watch as Yeats’ words come to life.

Happy Birthday, WB!