Belinda McKeon Delivers the 2024 Joseph Hassett Yeats Lecture

This year’s lecture, titled “Yeats and the Objects of Home,” was delivered by acclaimed novelist Belinda McKeon, who is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Maynooth University.

The talk examined Yeats’s relationship with everyday objects—his furnishings, possessions and the significance they held in his life and work. McKeon used Yeats’ personal letters, such as one to Lady Gregory in April 1916, in which he discussed everyday topics like improvements to his London apartment, to illustrate how these concerns reflected his broader ideas of home, identity and belonging. McKeon also highlighted several items from Yeats’ own homes to show a link between the poet’s domestic life and his literary creations.

The National Library’s recently opened Joly Lecture Theatre was filled with attendees eager to celebrate Yeats’s legacy and explore the intimate aspects of his life through McKeon’s expert eye and storytelling.

The Joseph Hassett Annual Lecture, generously supported by Joseph Hassett, a lawyer, literary scholar and philanthropist, is an annual event commemorating the birth of WB Yeats. The lecture continues to be inspired by the National Library of Ireland’s long-running exhibition, “The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats,” which features the world’s largest collection of Yeats material, including his Nobel Prize medal.

For those interested in learning more, we invite you to visit our ongoing exhibition Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats.