Sir, – The attempt in your editorial ("Yeats – his deep heart's core", July 23rd) to blame local French authorities in Roquebrune, where Yeats died in 1939, for the debacle concerning his exhumation and removal to Ireland is a bit rich. Yeats is correctly seen as an icon now but was not then seen as "an honoured guest". The facts are that Mrs Yeats thought she had bought a 10-year grave instead of a five-year one. The second World War intervened and the area was bombed. Graves were exhumed and cadavers were stored in the graveyard ossuary. There was plenty of contemporary information indicating the identity problem involved, but the Yeats family and the Irish authorities understandably and in retrospect correctly decided to proceed. Now thankfully we have a "trophy grave" at Drumcliffe.
I gave a lecture in Co Sligo some years back on this matter. The local paper headlined a piece “Who is Anthony Jordan and why is he trying to destroy our tourist industry?” I had to point out that all my information came from an exhibition at the Sligo Museum showing how contemporary newspapers and magazines had reported on the exhumation and burial. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY J JORDAN,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – If they do exhume the bones at Drumcliffe churchyard, I hope they don’t get the nasty surprise I did in my Leaving Cert, when I was expecting Yeats, and Kavanagh came up instead. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT O’SHEA,
Newcastle West,
Co Limerick.