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black and white pen and ink drawing of Lady Gregory standing on a globe with a book to her left
Lady Gregory sighing for new worlds to Kiltartanise
Black and white photo of Lady Gregory standing in a field, wearing all black

Section 8: Blessed Bridget O'Coole

In her 70s, Gregory continued to make Coole a creative center, welcoming old friends and fostering new writers such as Sean O'Casey, who referred to her in his memoirs as ''Blessed Bridget O'Coole," thus comparing her to the much-revered sixth-century Irish saint. The property was sold to the Forestry Department in 1927, but she remained living there under a lease agreement, writing Coole, a farewell to the house and its woods and a celebration of Coole's share in Irish history. Characteristically, she also looked ahead as well as behind, taking greatest pleasure in the progress of her beloved grandchildren, ''the chicks." Her journal records her long and indomitable fight against the breast cancer that finally killed her. Yeats spent most of Gregory's last year with her at Coole and composed the elegies that must have both comforted her and made her ever more sure of the lasting renown of their friendship and collaborations and of her own achievements. Coole was demolished in 1941, but the lands of the estate remained undeveloped and are now a nature reserve.

Items in Section 8: Blessed Bridget O'Coole

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  • Black and white photo of Lady Gregory standing in a field, wearing all black

    Section 8: Blessed Bridget O'Coole Introduction

  • black and white pen and ink drawing of Lady Gregory standing on a globe with a book to her left

    Lady Gregory sighing for new worlds to Kiltartanise

  • black and white photograph of three young children in front of a mantle and fireplace

    The chicks

  • typed journal entry with some handwritten corrections

    "the theatres may tremble”

  • Typescript journal entry with manuscript edits

    Cancer

  • typed draft of poem with handwritten corrections

    "Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931"

  • title page of book with illustration of tree

    Coole

  • Black and white photo of Lady Gregory standing in a field, wearing all black

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