Description
THE CONNAGHT TOAST.
HEALTH AND LONG LIFE TO YOU,
THE WOMAN OF YOUR CHOICE TO YOU,
LAND WITHOUT RENT TO YOU,
AND DEATH IN ERIN.
The County of Sligo in the provence of Connaught was a place that Yeats held in great affection for it was here that he and his brother, William, spent much of their summer holidays as children, staying with their Uncle, Henry Middleton, at Elisnore House. The house itself was built by the smuggler John Black or Black Jack and was said to be haunted by smugglers who would tap on the windows during the night. Jack’s grandfather had been a seaman, and he inspired in the young Yeats boys a great love for the sea and the people who lived by it. Yeats stated later in life that every painting he made had somewhere in it a thought of Sligo. William died in France and was buried there due to the outbreak of WWII . After the war, in 1948, his body was finally taken back to Sligo and reinterred in Drumcliff.
