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festivals · Tuesday 14 July 2026 · Various 
Yeats International Summer School
At Sligo Town Centre venues · Sligo Town, Co. Sligo
At Sligo Town Centre venues · Sligo Town, Co. Sligo
The Yeats International Summer School is the longest-running literary summer school in the world, and it takes place exactly where it should - in Sligo, the county that shaped W.B. Yeats more than any other place on earth. Now in its 67th year, this nine-day event draws scholars, poets, writers and enthusiastic readers from across Ireland and beyond, all gathering to read, discuss and argue about one of the great poets of the twentieth century. If you have ever wanted to read Yeats in the landscape that made him, this is the week to do it.
The school runs a structured daily programme that mixes rigorous academic work with more informal cultural events. Mornings are given over to lectures delivered by internationally recognised academics and writers - people who have spent careers thinking seriously about Yeats, Irish modernism and the broader literary tradition the poet drew from and transformed. Afternoons move into smaller week-long seminars and drama workshops, where participants can dig deeper into specific texts or themes.
Beyond the lecture hall, the programme extends into the streets and countryside. Guided literary tours take participants to the Sligo locations that fed Yeats’s imagination - Lough Gill and the Lake Isle of Innisfree, the shadow of Ben Bulben to the north, and the poet’s grave at Drumcliff. Evenings bring poetry readings, music and performances, turning the school into a genuinely social occasion rather than a purely academic one.
The base for most events is the Yeats Building on Hyde Bridge - a building donated to the Yeats Society by AIB in 1973 as a memorial to the Yeats family. It sits on the banks of the Garavogue River and holds a permanent Yeats exhibition alongside the Hyde Bridge Gallery.
The school is open to both academics and general readers. No prior academic credentials are required, and a good number of attendees come simply because they love the poetry.
Sligo Town is about 2.5 hours from Dublin by road, following the N4 west. Bus Eireann runs several services daily from Dublin Busaras to Sligo Bus Station, which is a short walk from the town centre venues. From Galway, the N17 brings you up through south Sligo in roughly 1.5 hours. Sligo also has a train station with regular services from Dublin Connolly (about 3 hours). If you are driving, on-street parking and multi-storey parking are available in the town centre, and the Yeats Building on Hyde Bridge is easy to reach on foot from most of them.
Sligo is an unusually good base for a week - compact enough to walk most of it, with a strong music and arts scene alongside the literary heritage. The coastline west of town, including Strandhill and Rosses Point, is close enough for an evening drive. There is more to see in Sligo and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Sligo Town Centre venues in Sligo? Sligo has plenty more to see. Read the Sligo area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.