The 2025 Conference of the International Yeats Society
W.B. YEATS: DUBLINER
30 October to 1 November | Trinity College Dublin
Reviewing Lady Wilde’s Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland in 1890, W. B. Yeats bemoaned that ‘around and northward of Dublin no small amount of gloom has blown from overseas’. Just outside the city in Howth, however, he noted that ‘the old life goes on but little changed’; the hospital patients of Sir William Wilde, drawn to Dublin from across Ireland, had also offered a rich source of folklore now being ‘quarried’ in his widow’s latest book. This review captures something of the complexity of the city’s culture, as well as its close yet fraught relationship with the rest of the country. Such complexity and contestation has been an under-regarded aspect of scholarly writing on Yeats’s work.
At different points in his life, the poet resided in many parts of Dublin and its environs. Significant parts of his education took place in the city. He was also formed by and an inveterate shaper of many of its cultural organisations and institutions. Important too was Dublin’s then vibrant and distinctive salon culture. A site of many close friendships and collaborations, the city was for periods the location of his father’s and brother’s studios, and his sisters’ Arts and Crafts enterprises. Through Dun Emer and Cuala, Yeats also had direct involvement in the local publishing of his and others’ writings. Furthermore, the city is a setting for many of his works – from the protagonist sat dreaming in a house in ‘the old parts of Dublin’ in the 1896 short story ‘Rosa Alchemica’ to the recollections of encounters on its streets that open ‘Easter 1916’. Whatever his stated antipathy to the city and its environs, including as a site of British-influenced urban modernity, the poet was very much a Dubliner.
Taking place in the heart of the city at Trinity College – an institution the poet condemned in 1892 for having ‘shut itself off from every kind of ardour, from every kind of fiery and exultant life’ – this conference offers an opportunity to reflect on Yeats’s working life in Dublin, and the place of the city and its cultures in his work.
The provisional programme for the conference is available here: Yeats Conference Programme 2025.
Sign-Up Sessions
As part of the programme on Thursday 30 October, 2–3.30 pm, we have organized three concurrent optional sessions, the details of which are outlined below. Numbers for these sessions are limited. Please follow the links below to book a place.
Drama Workshop: The Joys of Not Knowing – Discovering Yeats’s Unpublished Play
This practical session is led by Melinda Szuts from the Department of Drama at Trinity. It invites participants to approach a non-canonical Yeats text in an unusual way. The working material is his unfinished dance play, referred to as ‘Guardians of the Tower and Stream’, which provides exciting insight into Yeats’s thinking and working methods. Instead of focusing on interpreting the text on the page, participants will use their bodies and voices to discover Yeats’s dramatic vision in the making. The exercises engaged in will involve movement and voice work but are fully inclusive and do not require any previous theatrical experience.
Library Special Collections Visit: The Cuala Press Collection
In this session, delegates will get to see a selection of items from Trinity’s Cuala Press Business and Print Archives. Much of this archive was donated to the college in 1986 by Anne and Michael Yeats when the press ceased operation. The session will be led by Angela Griffith, from the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, leader of Trinity’s recent Cuala Press Project.
Visit the Yeats Room in the Provost’s House
The Yeats Room in the Provost’s House at Trinity contains a wonderful small collection of paintings by Jack B. Yeats. This collection is not on display to the general public, so this is a rare opportunity to see these paintings.
P.J. Mathews is Professor of Irish Literature, Drama and Culture at University College Dublin, where he is also the Director of the Creative Futures Academy. Together with Declan Kiberd, he co-edited Handbook of the Irish Revival, published by the Abbey Theatre Press and nominated for an Irish Book of the Year award in 2015. He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Synge (2009) and the author of Revival: The Abbey Theatre, Sinn Féin, The Gaelic League and the Co-operative Movement, which published by Field Day in 2003. He was Academic Director of the W. B. Yeats Winter School in Sligo from 2017 until 2020.
Emilie Morin is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of York. She is the author of Samuel Beckett and the Problem of Irishness (2009), Beckett's Political Imagination (2017), and Suzanne Dumesnil, Suzanne Beckett (2025). Her other publications include the anthology Early Radio: An Anthology of European Texts and Translations (2023). Her publications on Yeats include a special issue of International Yeats Studies on ‘Yeats and Mass Communications’, co-edited with David Dwan, and a forthcoming article on Yeats, Edward Gordon Craig and scenography in Modern Drama.
Accommodation in Dublin is, unfortunately, rather expensive. Moreover, as the conference is taking place during the academic year, we cannot offer any rooms in the college.
We have been offered a discounted rate on some rooms at a branch of the Travelodge hotel chain that is very near to our campus:
https://www.travelodge.ie/about-us/international-yeats-society-conference-2025/
Other than this, some possible nearby hotel options include:
Staycity apartment hotels can be relatively good value, especially if sharing with several other people, and they have some branches very near the college
The Premier Inn chain has several branches in the city, including one very near the college
The Leonardo chain has several branches in the city
https://www.leonardo-hotels.com/
The Maldron chain also has several branches in the city
Hostels near to Trinity include:
https://www.ashfieldhostel.com/
https://www.abigailshostel.com/
Please click below for information on the venue, transport, food & drink and things to do!
The full registration fee for attending the conference is €80.
The concessionary rate for students, early career researchers (who are within three years of having obtained their doctorate) and the unwaged is €30.
The registration fee includes the costs of the lunches, teas/coffees, and a drinks reception, as well as the various trips organised.
A conference dinner will take place on the evening of Saturday 1 November at the Italian restaurant Dunne and Crescenzi on South Frederick Street, near to Trinity College. The cost of the dinner will be €40. This will include a three-course meal and wine.
As well as the making the relevant payment via Paypal below, please also complete and email this form
Please register before 16 October. After this date it will not be possible to register for the conference dinner and the full registration fee will be €100 or €50 for the concessionary rate.
Please note that to present at the conference, you need to be a member of the International Yeats Society. Details on joining the Society can be found here.