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Coole Park ~
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Coole estate was purchased in 1768 by Robert
Gregory on his return to Ireland following service with the East India Company.
It remained with the Gregory family until 1927 when it was sold to the state.
Residing there at that time was
Lady Augusta Gregory,
already a legend in her lifetime as a dramatist, folklorist and co-founder of
the Abbey Theatre with W.B. Yeats and Edward Martyn. |
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Lady Gregory's love of Coole and its 'Seven
Woods', immortalised by Yeats, is manifested in her writings and those of her
literary guests.
"These woods have been well loved, well tended by some who came before me,
and my affection has been no less than theirs. The generations of trees have
been my care, my comforters. Their companionship has often brought me peace."
Lady Gregory, Coole, 1931
She was one of the most important figures in the Irish Literary Revival of the
early 20th century, not only because of her achievements as a playwright, but
also because of the way she transformed Coole into a focal point for those who
shaped that movement, making it a place they would return to time and time again
to talk, to plan, to derive inspiration.
But the woods and lakes at Coole were richer than Yeats divined. The 'Seven
Woods', which so enchanted Lady Gregory and her guests, held whispers of a more
ancient ancestry, of which the literary visitors were scarcely aware: remnants
of the earlier natural forest cover, and the disappearing lake and river are
part of the finest turlough complex not merely in Ireland but in all the world.
Lady Gregory died on 22nd May 1932. In one sense, the magic of Coole has been in
abeyance since the demolition of the house in 1941, a time when more immediate
concerns occupied the minds of most people. Coole-Garyland is now a statutory
Nature Reserve managed by the National Parks & Wildlife Service, whose aim is to
preserve its rich natural and cultural heritage. |
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