W.B Yeats. Gone a bit over the top in Sligo?

Carson10

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree. Even Yeats himself was sick of this poem, and I am starting to feel the same.

As a Sligo resident, this year especially I'm feeling the whole W.B Yeats thing is gone a bit over the top? Its Yeats this, Yeats that, Yeats Cafe, Yeats Building, Yeats Hotel, Yeats Menu and so on.....

I feel its got to the point where Sligo has commercialised Yeats, and for that I'm now sick of hearing about him. I even feel that Yeats is the current 'Trend' with people going to events just to be seen at them, and probably do not know more than a few mere words of his poems or care less. A photo opportunity at every call for some.

Iam fully aware of how this 'hype' over Yeats has generated big tourism and revenue for Sligo which is certainly a good thing, but my appreciation for Yeats is starting to dwindle. I recently saw Yeats grave on a quick 'pass by', and would be disappointed if I had travelled far. Perhaps I was not swayed by the cakes & coffee on sale near by like many?

What do you think.?

galljga1

I will arise and go now, and go to feed the ducks, and if i cannot find them, I could not give two fcuks.

mountainy man

I agree Carson10, we have so much more than him and his mostly miserable verse. We have some of the best scenery, beaches and historical sites in the country.

Bonedigger

Carson10 wrote: »

.........big tourism and revenue for Sligo..............

It sounds cynical, but this is what it's all about these days!

However, those who "fumble in a greasy till" can never spoil the beautiful legacy that is his poetry.:)

Bonedigger

mountainy man wrote: »

We have some of the best scenery, beaches and historical sites in the country.

Was it not the above that helped inspire the man's poetry in the first place?

il gatto

How much revenue has it created? Most tourists spend an hour or so in town, visit his grave and leave. Sligo has fixated on Yeats but realistically, poetry is a niche art form, Yeats a niche of poetry.
Sligo gets very little tourists relative to Kerry, Clare, Galway, Cork etc. Banging on about Yeats won't change that. Tourists want history, scenery, hospitality etc. Sligo has all that but only markets itself as Yeats county. It's pathetic as a marketing strategy IMO.

butterfly28

It would be wonderful to have regular market stalls in town selling clothing and jewellery etc. and not just out in Strandhill!! Too many restaurants and not enough activity for tourists......I really don't know why they even bother. Like Dire Straits sang 'Money for nothing,but here your kicks aren't free!!' ðŸ˜

il gatto

butterfly28 wrote: »

It would be wonderful to have regular market stalls in town selling clothing and jewellery etc. and not just out in Strandhill!! Too many restaurants and not enough activity for tourists......I really don't know why they even bother. Like Dire Straits sang 'Money for nothing,but here your kicks aren't free!!' ðŸ˜

You need a realistic expectation of trade to put money into a business. "Build it and they will come" is fine in a Kevin Costner movie but for people to invest in a business, they need to know the potential trade is there. If Sligo suddenly had 1500 tourists a night, business' would appear to service them. Marketing the town and county has to come first. There's more than enough to see and do already to build on. The rest would follow.
Your average American tourist doesn't know who Yeats was or care particularly. Probably even less from non English speaking countries. It's a deeply flawed policy that Sligo tourism has hung it's hat on.

fillefatale

butterfly28 wrote: »

It would be wonderful to have regular market stalls in town selling clothing and jewellery etc. and not just out in Strandhill!! Too many restaurants and not enough activity for tourists......I really don't know why they even bother. Like Dire Straits sang 'Money for nothing,but here your kicks aren't free!!' ðŸ˜

I ran the Sligo Flea Market in The Model and it was a struggle to get people there on the regular, even with all the posters and marketing.

All the Yeatsian named cafes... its a bit naff imo. I don't think I've even been in any of them, I'd prefer a cafe on its own merits, not the novelty of a name.

Carson10

fillefatale wrote: »

I ran the Sligo Flea Market in The Model and it was a struggle to get people there on the regular, even with all the posters and marketing.

All the Yeatsian named cafes... its a bit naff imo. I don't think I've even been in any of them, I'd prefer a cafe on its own merits, not the novelty of a name.

Heard about the Flea Market and seen pics on FB but never got the chance to go visit. Really good concept and not getting the credit it deserves. I think Sligo needs a dedicated craft/fair street. Something similar to Tobergal lane, but not as 'naff' as calling it the Italian Quarter

galljga1

Carson10 wrote: »

Heard about the Flea Market and seen pics on FB but never got the chance to go visit. Really good concept and not getting the credit it deserves. I think Sligo needs a dedicated craft/fair street. Something similar to Tobergal lane, but not as 'naff' as calling it the Italian Quarter

A novel idea: how about calling it "The Yeats County Craft Fair"?

Carson10

galljga1 wrote: »

A novel idea: how about calling it "The Yeats County Craft Fair"?

Great idea, I wonder would Susan O'Keefe cut the ribbon? Champion Pic opportunity? Or even better 'Yeats Street Féte'? It would sound along the lines of the Italian Quarter.

phelixoflaherty

Flann o'brien often wondered if anyone misspelled his name as
WB Yeast

Kettleson

The Yeats theme is a narrow enough audience target. How many 18-30 year olds are going to rush to Sligo because of its connection with WB? Not many I reckon. How many families with young children are going to rush to Sligo because of the WB connection?

The American tour buses stopped coming to Sligo many years ago. It's just pure lazy to jump on the Yeats band wagon.

I'm not a fan. I'll be shot down for this, but a lot of his stuff I feel is very contrived. Starting off with mates in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub to see who could come up with the cleverest, enigmatic rhyme. But sure I'm a philistine.

TireeTerror

Ive only lived in Sligo for 6 weeks and Im sick of hearing about him too. I was tempted to pull down the last "For Yeats Sake" style sign post which was telling me what not to do all over the place. Annoying to say the least. Maybe if poetry was my thing I would like it, but I find it utterly boring.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

Kettleson wrote: »

The Yeats theme is a narrow enough audience target. How many 18-30 year olds are going to rush to Sligo because of its connection with WB? Not many I reckon. How many families with young children are going to rush to Sligo because of the WB connection?

The American tour buses stopped coming to Sligo many years ago. It's just pure lazy to jump on the Yeats band wagon.

I'm not a fan. I'll be shot down for this, but a lot of his stuff I feel is very contrived. Starting off with mates in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub to see who could come up with the cleverest, enigmatic rhyme. But sure I'm a philistine.

Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams

il gatto

TireeTerror wrote: »

Ive only lived in Sligo for 6 weeks and Im sick of hearing about him too. I was tempted to pull down the last "For Yeats Sake" style sign post which was telling me what not to do all over the place. Annoying to say the least. Maybe if poetry was my thing I would like it, but I find it utterly boring.

Even if you liked poetry, you might not like Yeats' poetry. And even if you did, you might not be bothered seeing Sligo. Like I said on another thread, I think, if the person/people making these decisions see Yeats as Sligo's only selling point, they should probably move elsewhere.

TireeTerror

il gatto wrote: »

Even if you liked poetry, you might not like Yeats' poetry. And even if you did, you might not be bothered seeing Sligo. Like I said on another thread, I think, if the person/people making these decisions see Yeats as Sligo's only selling point, they should probably move elsewhere.

If they stopped shoving Yeats down peoples faces people might have a moment to actually see the rest of the things the county has to offer. It could do with a lot more shops, and a marina or harbour buzzing with excitement. I really like it here though, and there are so many other great places to visit within a 2 hour drive.

I had never seen nor heard much about Yeats until I got here and I saw his name plastered everywhere. Read that garbage on the wall next to the bus station and cringed if thats the main thing being used to try and attract visitors. A minority isnt small enough to describe how many people who would actually bother their arse to come to Sligo to see it because of Yeats.

il gatto

TireeTerror wrote: »

If they stopped shoving Yeats down peoples faces people might have a moment to actually see the rest of the things the county has to offer. It could do with a lot more shops, and a marina or harbour buzzing with excitement. I really like it here though, and there are so many other great places to visit within a 2 hour drive.

I had never seen nor heard much about Yeats until I got here and I saw his name plastered everywhere. Read that garbage on the wall next to the bus station and cringed if thats the main thing being used to try and attract visitors. A minority isnt small enough to describe how many people who would actually bother their arse to come to Sligo to see it because of Yeats.

The whole Quay Street area should have been developed like along the river/Tobergal Lane. Planners (again) missed a trick. The town doesn't make use of it's coastal location/seafaring history. You could forget it's a port. Unlike Galway, Cork etc.
I'm a fan of Steinbeck. I would love to visit California, but seeing Steinbeck country would be a diversion, not the sole reason for going there.
Winning a Nobel prize is nothing to be sniffed at, and I'm not questioning the man's contribution to poetry, but millions of people go to Florida each year because of an animated mouse. I think the people who market Sligo need to step back and weigh up if they're going about things in the right way (clue: they're not).
The likes of Go Strandhill on Facebook do more for tourism in Sligo than the people payed to do it.

redarmyblues

il gatto wrote: »

The whole Quay Street area should have been developed like along the river/Tobergal Lane. Planners (again) missed a trick. The town doesn't make use of it's coastal location/seafaring history. You could forget it's a port. Unlike Galway, Cork etc.
I'm a fan of Steinbeck. I would love to visit California, but seeing Steinbeck country would be a diversion, not the sole reason for going there.
Winning a Nobel prize is nothing to be sniffed at, and I'm not questioning the man's contribution to poetry, but millions of people go to Florida each year because of an animated mouse. I think the people who market Sligo need to step back and weigh up if they're going about things in the right way (clue: they're not).
The likes of Go Strandhill on Facebook do more for tourism in Sligo than the people payed to do it.

There was a proposal to build the access road to Sligo along the quays, this was contingent on the construction of the W2 Western Bypass Option, however
this had the potential to interfere with the ability of a CoC member to sell sandwiches to bus passengers and it never happened. The quays too have Yeats connections, the Poxfellens and Middletons, relations on their maternal side were ship owners and merchants, Jack Yeats in particular later recalled spending many childhood days on the docks of Sligo, the influence of these visits are apparent in his paintings of pilots, sailors and dock workers, though of course the influence of Sligo was not restricted to the quays, he himself wrote ‘From the beginning of my painting life every painting which I have made has somewhere in it a thought of Sligo’.

Vlove

You don't hear Bran stokers mother (who was born in sligo) or Father Teds Pauline Flynn being mentioned in the town.

fillefatale

Vlove wrote: »

You don't hear Bran stokers mother (who was born in sligo) or Father Teds Pauline Flynn being mentioned in the town.

Well there was the rather sloppily organised Dracula festival a couple of years ago that was a result of the Stoker connection.

https://www.facebook.com/BramStokerExperienceGetSuckedIntoSligo

Vlove

Vlove wrote: »

You don't hear Bran stokers mother (who was born in sligo) or Father Teds Pauline Flynn being mentioned in the town.

or Spike Milligans fathers home in Holborn Street!

Buford T Justice

Vlove wrote: »

You don't hear Bran stokers mother (who was born in sligo) or Father Teds Pauline Flynn being mentioned in the town.

You mean Pauline McLynn right?

Vlove

fillefatale wrote: »

Well there was the rather sloppily organised Dracula festival a couple of years ago that was a result of the Stoker connection.

https://www.facebook.com/BramStokerExperienceGetSuckedIntoSligo

That's right it wasn't mentioned much really

il gatto

Vlove wrote: »

That's right it wasn't mentioned much really

It's a bit spurious. Author famous for one book's mother. Should've got Neil Jordan from Rosses Point and "Interview with the Vampire" in somehow.

promethius

fillefatale wrote: »

Well there was the rather sloppily organised Dracula festival a couple of years ago that was a result of the Stoker connection.

https://www.facebook.com/BramStokerExperienceGetSuckedIntoSligo

Why do you think it was sloppily organised?

I was at the evening function, live theatre, food, everyone dressed as vampires, dancing in the old chapel in the clarion and then a few hundred kids gather up in the IT the next day all dressed as vampires.

Done on a voluntary basis as a college project. hats off to the organisers in my opinion and other people who have the guts to try something a bit different.

red sean

I don't understand this thread. Yeats himself was the greatest ever advertisement for Sligo and Leitrim having constantly mentioned them in his works. Thats now being commercially exploited similar to how Stratford upon Avon exploits its connection with Shakespeare.
I'm no acedemic but I actually like a lot of Yeats's work.
The links with Bram Stoker and Spike Milligan are more tenuous as neither ever mentioned Sligo or their connection to it until it was researched by someone else.

il gatto

red sean wrote: »

I don't understand this thread. Yeats himself was the greatest ever advertisement for Sligo and Leitrim having constantly mentioned them in his works. Thats now being commercially exploited similar to how Stratford upon Avon exploits its connection with Shakespeare.
I'm no acedemic but I actually like a lot of Yeats's work.
The links with Bram Stoker and Spike Milligan are more tenuous as neither ever mentioned Sligo or their connection to it until it was researched by someone else.

Yeats is not Shakespeare. No comparison. I'm not having a dig at his work but Shakespeare's fame is in a whole different league.
I think you do misunderstand the thread slightly. Nobody is saying not to use Yeats to bring tourism. They're saying it shouldn't be the almost sole focus. It's insufficient and it's getting unseemly. Every new Yeats scheme has diminishing returns as his pulling power is limited.
And Spike Milligan actually set a novel in Sligo, "Puckoon" about the eponymous village "several and a half miles North East of Sligo". He also spoke about Sligo in interviews and was an Irish citizen.

fillefatale

promethius wrote: »

Why do you think it was sloppily organised?

I was at the evening function, live theatre, food, everyone dressed as vampires, dancing in the old chapel in the clarion and then a few hundred kids gather up in the IT the next day all dressed as vampires.

Done on a voluntary basis as a college project. hats off to the organisers in my opinion and other people who have the guts to try something a bit different.

Poorly marketed imo, but as you say it was a voluntary project. It was built up as something bigger than it was initially. Not sure how all the vampy stuff makes the most of the Stoker/Sligo connection. But there are my feelings on it.

Vlove

It would've been better if they advertised it more like posters in the town