Dublin Marathon to present runners with medals featuring unsubstantiated Yeats quotation

Athletes who complete next month’s Dublin Marathon will be presented with medals featuring a quotation attributed to William Butler Yeats, despite the organisers conceding there is a lack of evidence that the words actually came from the poet.

The organisers of the marathon designed this year’s medal to pay tribute to Yeats on the 100th anniversary of his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. The medal will feature the phrase: “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met yet”, alongside a portrait of the Dublin-born poet.

Despite acknowledging the lack of evidence that Yeats ever said or wrote the line, race organisers said the medals have already been manufactured and will still be presented to runners who complete the marathon on October 29th.

This year’s marathon will have a capacity of 22,500 entrants, down from 25,000 last year.

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“The Dublin Marathon organisers reached out to the Yeats Society over the weekend and discussed the medal with them,” said a spokeswoman. “The Yeats Society are delighted with the sentiment of the medal playing tribute to Yeats.

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“The Dublin Marathon organisers have noted that while this quote is widely attributed to Yeats, it has never definitively been proven to be his quote. Nevertheless, it is a quote which reflects the values of the Dublin Marathon, which is known worldwide as the ‘friendly marathon.’”

Susan O’Keeffe, director of the Yeats Society Sligo, says that it’s “pretty certain” that the quotation in question did not belong to Yeats. “There’s been such academic scrutiny of the Yeats papers that have been archived,” she said.

“Many great poets are often misquoted, it’s often a sign of greatness.”

Despite the lack of evidence, Ms O’Keeffe said that the quotation is “apt” given the occasion of the marathon, and that the error will be a “nice, quirky oddity” of the centenary celebrations.

“If they [marathon organisers] they saw it and saw it more than once, and they thought it was apt, and it is very apt, then I can see why the decision arose.

“It’ll turn into one of the oddities of the centenary year and one of the oddities of the marathon itself. It’s not the world’s end, it’s a funny moment in the life and times of WB Yeats which have been long and interesting.”

Ms O’Keefe said that the Yeats Society Sligo is the “lead agency” for the centenary celebrations of Yeats’ Nobel Prize, and that the celebration marks the final event of the State’s decade of centenaries.

“It’s a great position to be in, to be closing the decade,” she said. “It’s good for the Dublin Marathon that they went outside their own realm. Yeats was born in Dublin, lived in Dublin, his associations with Dublin were strong. It’s a lovely touch for them to put Yeats on the medal, I take my hat off to them.

“If Yeats is looking down he might be smiling and saying ‘I wish I did say that’ because it’s such an appropriate quote for the occasion. There is so much passion on the streets of Dublin during the marathon, people do become friends.

“There’s a lovely sentiment and Yeats is in the mix.”