Drumcliffe

Drumcliff Droim Chliabh
—  Village  —
Drumcliff Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 54°20′00″N 8°30′00″W / 54.3333°N 8.5000°W / 54.3333; -8.5000Coordinates: 54°20′00″N 8°30′00″W / 54.3333°N 8.5000°W / 54.3333; -8.5000
Country	Ireland
Province	Connacht
County	County Sligo
Elevation	8 m (26 ft)
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference	G675428

Drumcliffe, officially Drumcliff^[1] (Irish: Droim Chliabh, meaning "ridge of the baskets"), is a village in County Sligo, Ireland. It is 8 km north of Sligo town on the N15 road between Ben Bulben and the sea.

History

The village is shown on Ptolemy's map of Ireland as Magnata and was once a thriving town, as John Butler Yeats remarked in a letter to his son W B Y in 1913: "My father, tho' a low Churchman, hated Presbyterianism and Presbyterians. Why? Because he knew like members of his own family the Catholic peasants of Drumcliffe. In his time there were forty houses between the rectory gate and the round tower, now there is only one. In my grandfather's time he & the parish priest were friends. Maynooth did not exist, and the priest was educated in the liberal atmosphere of a French College, and possibly both of them read Voltaire and Gibbon. One of the peasants told me he remembered the priest getting up a bonfire to celebrate my grandfather's return to the parish from a protracted sojourn in Dublin".

The round tower in Drumcliffe

The village is best known for its round tower dating from the 10th or 11th century and as the final resting place of the poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), who is buried in the graveyard of St. Columba's Church of Ireland church. W B Yeats died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France in January 1939, his last wish was to be re-interred in Drumcliffe within a year or two of his death. WW 11 intervened and his remains were returned to Ireland by the Irish Naval Service and re-interred at Drumcliffe in 1948 in the presence of a large number of local people and dignitaries which included the Minister for External Affairs, Seán MacBride, who represented the [[Government of Ireland|Government]. The graveside oration was made by Yeats's friend the author Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) ].^[2]

St. Colmcille founded a monastery in Drumcliffe in about 575^{[citation needed]} and the village is also famous for its Irish High Cross dating to the 9th century,^{[citation needed]} which stands in the grounds of the former abbey. In this monastery occurred the incident which led to the Battle of the Books. Across the road is the stump of a Round Tower, which was struck by lightning in 1396."Celtic High Cross at Drumcliff". http://www.a-wee-bit-of-ireland.com/eire_2007/drumcliff_cross_2.html. 

Current affairs

In March 2009, Mac Aviation, a company having its address at Cloonmull House, Drumcliffe was charged by the US Justice Department with illegally (according to US law) exporting aircraft parts and engines to Iran. Among the alleged recipients of these parts was an Iranian military firm that US authorities claim is involved in a disputed nuclear and ballistic missile programme.^[3]

Celtic High Cross in Drumcliffe Cemetery

The grave of W. B. Yeats in Drumcliffe Cemetery

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

1. ^ Placenames Database of Ireland
2. ^ Foster, Roy (2003). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818465-4.. 
3. ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/world/irish-business-trio-accused-by-us--of-illegal-trade-with-iran-1684883.html

External links

• Drumcliffe group of parishes (Church of Ireland)
• 360 Panorama Tour of Drumcliffe