Programme
This year our Gathering is exploring the theme of NATURE and how she inspired and impacted so many of the creative works by Lady Gregory, W.B. Yeats and their collaborators in the Irish Cultural Revival.
New for 2026: All coach transport, tea and meals are included with your ticketed event!
Friday
1:00 pm — Catch the Coach
Coach leaves promptly from the front of the Lady Gregory Hotel for Traught Beach.
1:30 pm — Seaweed Tour at Traught Beach
Speaker: Danny Burke, Wild Kitchen Tours
Trained as a botanist and archeologist, Danny will show us the different types of seaweeds to be found at Traught Beach. Learn how these seaweeds have traditionally been used and how they continue to be used locally and sustainably.
Danny is also an expert in shellfish, and share with us some of the various shellfish which can be collected in the area. After this workshop you will even know the correct techniques for locating and harvesting your own shellfish and seaweed!
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Lady Gregory often collected folklore from seaside harvesters all around Galway Bay, including Traught Beach, a quick stroll from her dear friend Count de Basterot’s Doorus House, where she and Yeats and Edward Martyn conjured the beginnings of the Irish Literary Theatre, forerunner of the Abbey Theatre.
3:00 pm — Coach to Tea
Coach leaves promptly for Wild Living Cafe & Wine Bar (Kinvara).
3:30 pm — Tea & Oysters
Location: Wild Living Cafe & Wine Bar
Time to tuck into a delicious tea with freshly baked yummies in the newly opened Wild Living Wine Bar, above Wild Bean Cafe.
Gathering Director Ella Swift Redding will also be shucking fresh local oysters for those looking for a taste of one of Lady Gregory’s favorite power snacks.
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Oysters were Gregory’s preferred street food while bustling about on busy errands in London. (According to her diaries, on some days it was nearly all she ate… besides tea!)
Surely many oysters and other local seafood specialities were also consumed while entertaining family and friends (Yeats included) at nearby Mount Vernon, her Flaggy Shore summer retreat, later gifted to her son, Robert Gregory, as a wedding gift.
4:30 pm — Coach to Gort
Coach leaves promptly for Lady Gregory Hotel (Gort).
Saturday
9:00 am — Catch the Coach
Coach leaves promptly from the front of the Lady Gregory Hotel for Coole Park.
9:30 am — Registration Check-Ins + Rare Book Sale
Location: Coole Park Interpretive Centre
The Gathering wraps up with final ticket sales (if available), Charlie Byrne’s rare book sale, new children’s art activities, & connecting with friends old and new as we officially kick things off!
10:00 am — Welcomes + Cutting of the Brack
Speakers:
Ella Swift Redding (Exec. Director, Autumn Gathering)
William Cormacan (Coole Park Nature Preserve, NPWS)
We open this year’s Gathering with the welcomes from our Directors, NPWS (sponsor!), and our Event Chair.
The Gathering is officially opened with the traditional Cutting of the Gort Barm Brack (still made by O’Connor’s Bakery!) by a descendant of Lady Gregory.
10:30 am — “When what is natural touches what is natural” - Environment and Ecology in Lady Gregory’s Writings
Speaker: Patrick Lonergan, Theatre & Drama, University of Galway
Patrick will discuss Lady Gregory’s fascination with the natural world, from the landscapes, trees and animals of south Galway to her depictions of nature in her non-fiction and plays. The talk will explore how Gregory’s writings offer a strikingly ecological way of seeing the world — and why that vision speaks to us today.
11:15 am — Tea & Barm Brack
We break for tea and coffee alongside hearty slices of the Barm Brack (slathered with fresh butter if you like).
11:45 am — Under the Rocks & Stones, There is Water Underground: the Lure of the Do-Over
Speaker: Tiernan Henry, Earth & Ocean Sciences, University of Galway
The landscape in south Galway reflects the ever-anastomosing stories of geology and hydrology – water changing rock and rock changing water – stretching back more than 400 million years. We are part of this landscape and an intimate part of this story; water stories, land stories – these are our stories.
Among these stories Tiernan will guide us along the river’s path Gregory’s dissociating consciousness followed — from Roxborough to Coole to the Sea — during her final breast cancer surgery, as detailed in her later diaries (2 Sept., 1926).
12:45 pm — Lunch
Location: Cobblestone (Coole Park)
Time to nourish and recharge with a delicious meal prepared by the talented new-to-Coole chefs of Cobblestone restaurant!
Pre-orders will be offered in advance.
2:00 pm — Gaeilge: teanga ceannasach na tíre / Irish: sovereign language of the land
Speaker: Siobhán de Paor, Filé, Writer, Gaelgóir, Co-Founder of Wild Irish
We step outside in the afternoon to enjoy the magic of Coole’s grounds with two wonderful speakers, starting with Siobhán’s dynamic workshop on Irish language, Lady Gregory’s deep work within the language, and connecting with one’s own voice.
Lady Gregory and her colleagues with the Gaelic League considered Irish to be essential to Ireland’s success in struggling for sovereign nationhood. Siobhán will explore their reasoning, the liberation philosophy inherent in Irish the language, and the implications of speaking Irish in the contemporary world.
Siobhán will also guide us through the ancient roots of the Irish language, sounding the seed syllables of the Ogham tree calendar as a means to connect with both teanga and tìr (language and land).
3:15 pm — Wild Hurling & Play
Speaker: Diarmuid Lyng, Facilitator, Hurler, Co-Founder of Wild Irish
During the golden era of Coole Park’s influence on the Celtic Cultural Revival, its cricket and hurling matches on the front lawns became legendary.
On the lawn of the walled garden, we will follow Lady Gregory's invite to physicality with a game of Wild Hurling, a version of the game that makes it accessible to anyone who holds within them a desire to PLAY.
Much like the cultural conditions within which Lady Gregory was working, we are leaning on inaccurate stories about our physical capabilities in relation to play.
And so it is the folktale we follow to the garden, our own internal Cúchulainn or Queen Maebh story, we boldly put ourselves forward as 'Gods and Fighting Men' to remind ourselves of the immense beauty of our physical aliveness.
(Sideline spectators also welcome!)
4:30 pm — Coach to Gort
Coach leaves promptly for Lady Gregory Hotel (Gort).
Candlelight Dinner
A cherished annual tradition, our after-hours candlelight dinner on Saturday night in Coole’s Cobblestone restaurant features live performances, music, delicious food and drink, and the warmth of a private evening shared with our Autumn Gathering family and friends, old and new, in the profound quiet of Coole Park after dark.
* Note our dinner together is a separate ticketed event from the Saturday daytime events. Purchasing the all-inclusive Full Weekend Pass gives you a bundled discounted price, Candlelight Dinner included!
6:40 pm — Catch the Coach
Coach leaves promptly from the front of the Lady Gregory Hotel for Coole Park.
7:00 pm — Candlelight Dinner
Location: Cobblestone (Coole Park)
Our gala event of the Gathering, we come together for a delicious three-course meals on our last evening together. Wine and drink are included with your ticket, along with live performances and traditional music. Wear your dancing shoes!
Pre-orders will be taken in advance of this evening event.
10:00pm? — Coach to Gort
Coach leaves… less promptly for Lady Gregory Hotel (Gort)… but we will all leave together as our evening winds down.
Sunday
9:30 am — Catch the Coach
Coach leaves promptly from the front of the Lady Gregory Hotel for Thoor Ballylee — W.B. Yeats’ “Tower.”
“I like to think of that building as a permanent symbol of my work plainly visible to the passer-by. As you know, all my art theories depend upon just this — rooting of mythology in the earth"
— W.B. Yeats to T. Sturge Moore (LTSM 114)
9:45 am — Check-In
Location: Thoor Ballylee
The Gathering wraps up with our final Sunday ticket sales (if available). You may also check out our new children’s art activities in the Studio, plus the wonderful selection of rare books and local art available in the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society’s gift area!
10:00 am — Welcomes & Updates
We open our final day of this year’s Gathering with the welcomes and updates from our Directors and Event Chair.
10:10 am — Yeats’ World of Objects
Speaker: Belinda McKeon, Novelist, Creative Writing, Maynooth University
Belinda explores with us how Yeats’ sense of place and possessions interplayed within his life and work.
11:00 am — Tea & Barm Brack
We break for tea and coffee alongside more hearty slices of the Barm Brack (legendary for feeding cast and crew on opening nights at The Abbey Theatre for a reason!).
11:30 am — Nature & the Early Abbey Theatre
Speaker: Mairéad Delaney, Archivist, The Abbey Theatre
Mairead brings the Abbey Theatre’s archives to life, sharing how Nature inspired dramatic expression in the early years of the theatre.
12:15 pm — Donation of Yeats Candlesticks
Speaker: Ed Maggs, Administrator, The Estate of Warwick Gould & Deirdre Toomey
We honor the donation of W.B. Yeats’ candlesticks from dedicated Yeats scholars Warwick Gould and Deirdre Toomey.
During Sotheby's 2017 sale of material from the Yeats family, Warwick purchased lot 96 — two candlesticks — which he later asked his friend Ed Maggs to donate to Thoor Ballylee on his behalf.
12:45 pm — Lunch
Location: Thoor Ballylee
A wide variety of hearty sandwiches (thank you Sullivan’s!) by the hearth fire included for guests as part of their registration to Sunday’s events at Thoor Ballylee.
2:00 pm — Play: Caitlín Ní Uallacháin
Performers: Na Cleasaithe
We are thrilled to offer a production of Gregory & Yeats’ most famous collaboration — Cathleen ni Houlihan — performed for the first time at the Gathering as Gaeilge / in Irish (with English subtitles) by Irish language theatre group Na Cleasaithe, including actor and 2025 Lady Gregory Student Award recipient Trease Ní Argáin as Caitlín. Additionally there two poetry pieces performed by members of Na Cleasaithe.
3:00 pm — Spoken Word Poetry
Performers: The Poetry Kiln Collective
In partnership with the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society and in honour of Gregory & Yeats’ devotion to the spoken word, our final offering of the weekend will be a brilliant spoken word performance by The Poetry Kiln Collective of Dublin.
A Public Open Mic will follow — put your name in the basket for a chance to let your own poetry ring within the walls of Yeats’ Tower!
4:30 pm — Close of the Gathering
Our directors and event chair offer our closing remarks and appreciations.
Then it’s time for us all to share our goodbyes until next year!
5:00 pm — Coach to Gort
Coach leaves for Lady Gregory Hotel (Gort), with a brief stop in town centre for anyone trying to catch a bus or train home further afield.
Full Weekend Pass
Relax deep into the magic of the Gathering with this all-inclusive weekend pass!
Your ticket to the full Autumn Gathering includes everything included in our other ticket options:
Shuttle from/to Lady Gregory Hotel (Gort) for all activities
Friday’s Seaweed Tour & Tea + Oysters
Saturday’s Coole Park Lectures, Workshops, Tea & Lunch
Saturday’s magical Candlelight Dinner held after-hours in Coole Park’s Cobblestone restaurant, including live music
Saturday & Sunday mornings’ Children’s Art Activities at Coole and Thoor Ballylee (ages 6+)
Sunday’s events at Thoor Ballylee: Lectures, Tea, Lunch, Spoken Word Poetry and Cathleen ni Houlihan in Irish / asGaeilge (w/ English subtitles)
This is our most popular ticket for a reason. Indulge and fully slip into the magic of the Gathering. It only happens once a year!
** Limited Weekend Passes available
** Early Bird pricing ends 12 Sept., unless tickets sell out first
