Protest to save last Yeats house from demolition

Some 50 protesters gathered outside the final residence in Ireland of William Butler Yeats yesterday, hoping to save it from demolition.

A planning application is before South Dublin County Council from the developer, Begley Court, to demolish Riversdale House in Rathfarnham, Dublin. They hope to build 28 apartments on the four-acre site.

Yeats took a 13-year lease on the elegant 18th-century farmhouse in the countryside in 1932, living there with his wife, George, and two children, Anne and Michael.

He is said to have found final solace there after the death of Lady Gregory and the demise of Coole Park. Two of his later poems, What Then? and An Acre Of Grass, are about Riversdale.

The house was also the setting for the last meeting between Yeats and Maud Gonne in late summer 1938.

Since highlighting plans to demolish the house, The Irish Times has received correspondence opposing the demolition from France, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

The campaign against demolition was initiated by 18 of the State's leading writers and academics, including Mr Declan Kiberd, Mr Terence Brown and Ms Eilean Ni Chuilleannain.

Duchas, the Heritage Service and An Taisce have both taken an interest in the case, and representations have been made to the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera.

A decision on Begley Court's application is due on February 22nd.