Understandably, what with him turning out to be a bad ‘un, the good people of Innisrush do not like to boast about the fact that the poet, William Butler Yeats, spent much of his early life in the village’s Latin Quarter.
Such was the animosity which grew up between WB and the village he called home, that shortly before his death, he edited all of his verses which made any reference to the area.
Among the altered pieces were ‘Black Saturday, 1912’ ‘The Stolen Arch’ ‘A Footstick of Incense’ ‘A Northern Irish Airman foresees The Coach is closed and goes to The Hawthorn instead’ and the seminal, ‘The Lake Lyle near Innisrush’.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisrush
And a small cabin rent there, preferably with reinforced glass
Nine miles of bunting I will have there and heavy grease for the street lamp posts
And live alone with the old bean, Loudon McGlade.
Coincidentally, James Clarence Mangan never lived in Innisrush and as far as we can ascertain, was not even aware of its existence.
Portglenone 