William Butler Yeats

By Kerry Bolton

This mini biography was first published in the now out of print book "Thinkers of the Right"

The rise of industrialism and capitalism during the 19th century brought with it social dislocation, an urban proletariat on the ruins of rural life, and the rise of commercial interests. Smashed asunder were the traditional, organic bonds of family, village, rootedness to the earth through generations of ones' offspring and to the cycles of nature. With the ascendancy of materialism, came certain economic doctrines, both Free Trade Capitalism and Marxism, and the new faith in rationalism and science over faith. The forces of money had defeated everything of the spirit. Yeats supported General EoinO'Duffy and the Irish Blueshirts. The Blueshirts became a mass movement in Ireland which almost caused a civil war between them and the IRA. In his work entitled The Old Stone Cross Yeats writes:

A statesman is an easy man
He tells his lies by rote,
A journalist makes up his lies
And takes you by the throat;
So stay at home and drink your beer
And let the neighbours vote.