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heritage · Wednesday 22 July 2026 · Various 
67th Yeats International Summer School
At Multiple venues in Sligo · Sligo Town, Co. Sligo
At Multiple venues in Sligo · Sligo Town, Co. Sligo
The 67th Yeats International Summer School is one of those rare events that draws people back year after year - not for obligation, but for the genuine pleasure of immersing yourself in serious literary conversation in a place that shaped the poet entirely. Running from 22 to 31 July 2026, it is the longest-running literary school in the world, launched in Sligo in 1960. Around 100 participants typically attend, arriving from Ireland, the United States, Europe, and further afield. The mix of academics, writers, students, and readers who simply love Yeats makes for an atmosphere more like a gathering of like-minded people than a formal conference.
Each day follows a broad rhythm: morning lectures begin at 9am and cover wide-ranging territory - past sessions have explored topics as varied as the Cuala Press, Irish resistance history, and the relationship between Yeats and his contemporaries. Afternoons move into smaller, week-long seminars where students choose a focus that suits them, such as Young Yeats, Late Yeats, or Irish poetry from Yeats through to Heaney and Eavan Boland. Cultural events fill the evenings - poetry readings, music sessions, and occasional drama workshops. There are guided walks into the landscape that fed Yeats’s imagination: out to Lough Gill, into local woodlands, and through Sligo town itself. Traditional music nights in old pubs round things out. The full programme for 2026 will be published on the Yeats Society website in the lead-up to July.
Sligo is well connected by public transport. Bus Eireann runs regular services from Dublin (roughly 3 hours), Galway, and other major towns. Irish Rail serves Sligo via the Western Rail Corridor from Dublin Connolly, with the journey taking around 3 hours. By road, Sligo is on the N4 from Dublin and the N17 from Galway. Town-centre parking is available at a number of surface car parks near the main streets. The summer school venues are distributed across Sligo town and can largely be reached on foot.
Sligo has more of Yeats’s world within easy reach than almost anywhere else in Ireland - Drumcliff churchyard where he is buried, Lissadell House, and Benbulben rising over everything. There is more to see in Sligo and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Multiple venues in Sligo 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.