Inspired by the article by Ray Burke, “Light Returns from Yeats’s ‘Winding Stair,’” in Weekend, Irish Times, Saturday January 11th, 2025

One of the longtime Western historians is de Lourdes Fahy, a Sister of Mercy, presently living in Saint Vincent’s Community in the heart of Galway City. De Lourdes spent most of her life in Gort, Co Galway having come originally from near Kiltartan. Her rich teaching life there led her to appreciate the invaluable literary life of the area, and to do much local research regarding the genealogy of the Irish diaspora, linked to local families.

Sr. de Lourdes Fahy

William Butler Yeats was what we might term nowadays a local celebrity in Kiltartan. The famous Thoor Ballylee is the ancient castle he bought from the Land Commission in 1916. He preferred the soft sound of the title, Thoor, to that of Castle, giving us the familiar Thoor Ballylee, the only house Yeats ever owned. He took on the arduous task of restoring the abandoned Norman castle.

While living in Thoor Ballylee, Yeats made many friends, some of whom helped him to make the Thoor habitable. Two of these friends were, John Kelly and his sister, Mary Kate. Mary Kate worked there as cook every summer, and John worked as the Yeats family gardener. Yeats moved from Thoor Ballylee in 1928, going to France for health reasons. When departing, he gave all the furniture and various household articles to the Kelly family. One of the present generation, Jan Kelly (John’s daughter), writes that, “Aunt Mary Kate took much of it by horse and wagon over to [her house] in Rathcosgrove.” Such was the care taken with the household goods that Yeats gifted to the Kelly family.

Another of the Kelly family, Anthony, salvaged a stone slab from the forsaken Thoor, telling some of the story of Yeats’s labour and motivation:

“I the poet William Yeats
With old millboards and
sea green slates
And smithy work from
the Gort forge
Restored this tower
for my wife George
And may these characters
Remain
When all is ruin once again.”

This accreditation is noted appropriately by Ray Burke in his article, as the work of Sister de Lourdes.

The Kelly family obviously minded their treasured legacy, always respectful of its origin. Some of them were among the many who left the Kiltartan area to seek their fortune across the Atlantic. Jan’s late father brought the precious lantern that had illuminated Yeats as he climbed his poetic “Winding Stair.” It was an important connection between Jan and her father, and had pride of place in her apartment in Massachusetts. However, Jan came to realise the importance of restoring it to Thoor Ballylee, where it really belonged. She has freed the lantern to return “to its source.” May it be a style of casting out of any remorse, to receive with the joy of laughter, a blessing on “everything.”

I am content to follow to its source
Every event in action or in thought;
Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!
When such as I cast out remorse
So great a sweetness flows into the breast
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
Everything we look upon is blest.

(William Butler Yeats, last verse of The Winding Stair)

De Lourdes brought her scholarly eye to this account and adds the following informative fact: “Parishes like Kiltartan are often referred to as half parishes. In this case the ancient parishes of Kilmacduagh and Kiltartan were amalgamated in 1854, due to population decline as a result of the Famine, to form the parish of Gort.” To its credit, Kiltartan is proud of and cares for its three heritage centres, namely Coole Park, Kiltartan  and Ballylee.

Each of these centres is well worth a visit. In fact, Ballylee was described by Seamus Heaney as “the most important building in Ireland”. Ray Burke has highlighted one of the hidden treasures of our literary country in his article. The voluntary work of people like Sister de Lourdes has revealed these priceless resources for all of us to enjoy.

To view the story of de Lourdes and her ministry as a historian, please click here.

Srs. Suzanne Ryder & de Lourdes Fahy
Western Province