A few minutes out of Dublin and the scenery changes dramatically. Rolling meadows demarcated by hedgerows and broken by clumps of tall trees hiding gabled houses rush past as the train thunders towards the West Coast. Every few minutes, a little village whizzes by and once in a while, a vast lake makes a grand appearance. There’s a certain picture-postcard quality to the sights and as the train slowly slips into Sligo, one can’t help feeling wistful that the moving scenery has come to an end.
But the dissatisfaction is short-lived. Just outside the railway station, on a grey wall, a portion of a poem by legendary Irish poet WB Yeats catches your eye and a whole new world opens up. Sligo is not too large a place and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides; especially famous is the Dartry range which is home to Ben Bulben, also known as the tabletop mountain. There are also thick forests, rivers, lakes, a rugged but stunning coastline and surreal Megalithic burial sites scattered all over the countryside. And it is in these beautiful surroundings that Yeats grew up, returned to often and is also buried.
Yeats is the leitmotif of in Sligo, especially this year as the town celebrates 150 years of the iconic poet’s life and work. The main road running through town crosses the river Garavogue and on the other side of the bridge, standing in front of Ulster Bank on Stephen Street is a stylized bronze statue of the poet inscribed with lines from his poems. Diagonally opposite is the Yeats Memorial Building, which is home to the Yeats Society, which organizes a variety of events such as poetry readings and exhibitions. One such exhibition is made up of black and white panoramic images by the landscape photographer Ciaran McHugh inspired by Yeats’s poetry. These include starkly beautiful pictures of Benbulben, Glencar falls and Rosses Point on the Atlantic coast.
In contrast to this visual feast, the Hargodans Brothers pub on O’Connell Street offers a more aural experience. A traditional Irish pub that was created almost when Yeats was born, it is all wood, rafters, old world pub furniture and filled with garrulous and good natured locals. For an entire year, to commemorate the Yeats anniversary, the pub holds poetry readings at 1 in the afternoon. Romanticism meets nostalgia as verses from the poet’s work are read out by people inspired, influenced and enamoured of Yeats.
To get beneath the lines of Yeats poetry, it is essential to head out into the rest of County Sligo, to what is lovingly called Yeats’ Country. Heading out of town, a winding road interspersed with pretty houses and cottages bounded by white picket fences leads to a summit from where a panoramic view of Lough (lake) Gille is visible, whose banks are home to Innisfree.
From here, the drive to Rosses Point, on the sea coast where Yeats and his family were frequent visitors, is again a journey through a rhyming past. So much so that a giant sculpture by brother Jack Yeats dominates the shore. Heading inland, the sight that greets the visitor is surreal. Dolmens—Megalithic burial sites—stand scattered all over the hillsides, in meadows and in between farms. Yeats’ experts surmise he would have wandered around these sites and was inspired by the desolate beauty of the landscape.
To end the trip, head west on the road that wraps itself around the picturesque Ben Bulben, possibly Ireland’s most distinctive mountain, which figures prominently in Yeats’s poems such as ‘The Celtic Twilight’. But more importantly, under the mountain’s shadow sits Drumcliffe Church, which the poet not only visited often but whose churchyard is also his resting place. Standing on a piece of raised land, the stone church with its towering spire, dominates the surrounding countryside. His last poem, titled ‘Under Ben Bulben’, reads almost like a summary of Yeats country. It ends with the immortal lines, “cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman pass by”. Yeats himself must have known his end was near, for these are the lines that form the epitaph on his grave’s headstone.
Know Your Credit Card When Travelling Abroad
Feel more secure with a bunch of credit cards in your pockets? It’s time to pay. Whoa! The benefits extended by the card companies apply to them rather than to the traveller because whatever you buy using cards while travelling abroad attracts levies, foreign landing fees, and other surcharges. Also, if you’re tempted to take a cash advance on your credit card, the interest meter will start ticking the moment the notes spill out of th ATM machine —the free interest period of 45-56 days will not apply. Hence use your credit card only in emergencies while travelling abroad.