Cultural centre mooted for Thoor Ballylee

 

Fáilte Ireland will not make any further investment in Yeats’ Tower at Thoor Ballylee, the Seanad was told in recent days, because the number of visitors looking for information when the house was open “was too small to justify spending scarce resources on reopening it as a tourist information office”.

The future of the historical landmark could be as part of a cultural and heritage centre, according to Senator Lorraine Higgins.

The Seanad was told that Minister Leo Varadkar raised this possibility with Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan.
Senator Higgins outlined to the Seanad details of the East Galway landmark and its importance from an historical, recreational and cultural perspective to the people of Kiltartan and Gort.

“In 1965 for the centenary of Yeats’ birth, Ballylee was fully restored by the Kiltartan Society replete with a collection of first editions and items of furniture. The adjoining cottage was a tea room and shop. However, following the flooding of the Cloon River in 2009 the Thoor was extensively damaged it was no longer open to the public thereafter. However, significant works have been undertaken by the Fáilte Ireland to protect the structure in recent times,” she explained.

“I believe the famed Tower, which Yeats purchased in 1917 and was used as a summer home by the poet and his family until he abandoned it in 1929, is critical to any tourism revival in East Galway,” the Labour Senator added.

“I’ve had meetings with Fáilte Ireland on a number of occasions, both in my own capacity and with a local tourism group, the Lady Gregory Yeats Heritage Group, of which I was a member and who have done a huge amount of work in promoting this area and its tourism potential,” Senator Higgins stated.

“Thoor Ballylee is steeped in connections with Yeats and should be just as important a tourist landmark as his grave in Drumcliffe in Sligo, where tens of thousands visit every year. South Galway badly needs a tourism boost and I feel the opening up of this tower, which I am on record for requesting in the past, is critical to the revival of the tourist sector in East Galway,” she claimed.

“I’d like to thank Fáilte Ireland, who is in charge of Thoor Ballylee, for their enthusiastic and positive response to my meetings with them on the matter and I look forward to hearing your response to my request to have the tower reopened to the public as a tourist attraction with all ancillary services,” Senator Higgins added.

The Seanad was told that it would not represent value for money for Fáilte Ireland to make any further investment in the tower house, as the number of visitors who sought tourist information when the house was open was too small to justify spending scarce resources on reopening it as a tourist information office.

Instead, Senator Higgins was told, Minister Deenihan is to look at the possibility of Thoor Ballylee being used as a cultural and heritage centre which could provide a viable future for the site.