The Yeats Sisters
Image courtesy of Trinity College Dublin, Digital Collections, Cuala Press Collection.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, two exceptional Irish women made a significant contribution to a fledgling Irish Arts & Crafts Movement, the Literary Revival and its aesthetic imprint.
Susan and Elizabeth Yeats, fondly known within the family as ‘Lily & Lollie’, respectively, were notable artists, skilled crafts people and courageous cultural and entrepreneurial innovators, who advanced the emancipation of women through training and education.
A commemoration project
We established an annual event, beginning with an inaugural symposium July 2023, to:
- Celebrate the aesthetic and cultural portfolio of the Yeats sisters, their entrepreneurship and contribution to female empowerment.
- Promote the Yeats’ sisters and their family’s forty years of association with Churchtown & Dundrum, county Dublin, and
- Reconnect the relevance of their pioneering achievements to a modern Ireland, and encourage scholarly research.
Advisory Group
This project is being advised by a working group:
- Sally Hewetson, committee member of the Irish Guild of Embroiderers
- Damien Brennan: Yeatsian and former President of Yeats Society Sligo.
- Mary Doherty: Founder of brand design agency, Red Dog, and former President of the Institute of Designers of Ireland.
- Madeleine Mulrennan: Public Policy Consultant and former President of St Catherine’s College of Education, Sion Hill.
- Alex White: Senior Counsel and former government Minister.
We acknowledge the collaborative support of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Heritage & Libraries; the Cuala Press Project, Schooner Foundation, Trinity College Dublin; the Irish Guild of Embroiderers; National Print Museum; Dublin City Library & Archives, and Yeats Society Sligo.
Contact: Eunan McKinney, Project Director,
at: theyeatssisters@gmail.com M: +353 87 2568692
“the Cuala Press and the Cuala Industries were and are unique and prodigious achievements”
— Gifford Lewis, ‘The Yeats Sisters and the Cuala’.
The Yeats Sisters
celebrating the lives and work of Susan & Elizabeth Yeats
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The Yeats Sisters 