Yeats summer school 'more appreciated' abroad than at home

The Yeats International Summer School is more appreciated around the globe than it is in Ireland, according to the organisers.

The two-week Sligo-based school, which runs this year from July 31st to August 12th, gets no Arts Council or local authority funding and, according to Yeats Society president Michael Keohane, it barely manages to break even.

Part of the problem, he said, was that the school was perceived as being such a success story, given the calibre of the lecturers and academics it attracts.

Since 1960, when it was inaugurated, it has attracted literary heavyweights such as Frank O'Connor; British poet laureates Stephen Spender and Cecil Day Lewis; Ted Hughes and his the wife Sylvia Plath; poets Austin Clarke and Eavan Boland; Dame Ninette de Valois,director of the National Ballet in Britain; Richard Ellmann, Séamus Deane, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Peter Hall, Benedict Kiely, Thomas Kinsella, Derek Mahon, Seán MacBride, Francis Stuart, Augustine Martin and Micheál MacLiammoir.

"Sometimes we feel that we are more appreciated all over the world than we are at home," Mr Keohane said, adding that the school was looking for a major sponsor.

More than 125 students from around the world have registered so far for this year's school. Among those scheduled to give readings are Paul Muldoon, Sebastian Barry, Tom Paulin, Medbh McGuckian Andrew O'Hagan, Vona Groarke, Julie O'Callaghan, Dennis O'Driscoll and Leland Bardwell. The school will be officially opened by writer Marie Heaney.