Grave doubts
Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by!
Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo
WB Yeats' enigmatic epitaph Horseman Pass By has been given a fresh twist with a claim that the remains buried "under bare Ben Bulben" in Sligo are not those of the poet, and that you might indeed be better off passing by.
Recently discovered documents have cast doubt on the authenticity of the final resting place of WB.
William Butler Yeats, a man whose name even sounds like a line of poetry, died in Roquefort in France in 1939. He asked to be buried in a temporary grave before being repatriated to Ireland.
But on the outbreak of World War II the move was delayed until 1948.
William Butler Yeats — has been called the 20th century's greatest poet. He may even deserve the title
French documents suggest Yeats's remains were mixed up with the bones of others before the exhumation.
The details are, apparently, contained in personal correspondence between French diplomats who were involved in the repatriation. This correspondence was only handed over to the Irish Embassy in Paris in 2015.
But the suspicion has been around for many years.
The bones of the story are as follows: in 1948 the Irish Navy corvette Macha left Dun Laoghaire bound for Menton in the south of France to collect the body of the poet. Yeats had left specific instructions that he wanted to be buried ‘under bare Ben Bulben’s head’ and the Dáil were anxious to carry out his wishes.
However, it is almost certain the French had long forgotten where WB was buried. But being a kindly race they were loath to disappoint the Irish, so solemnly gave the funeral delegation the bones of a French pauper. And that is who, in all probability, is buried today in Drumcliff cemetery.
So, tourist pass by — the poet isn’t there at all.
Regrettably there's more. Similar doubts exist over the grave of Sir Roger Casement, executed by the British in 1916. Casement, whose remains were brought back to Ireland in 1965, was hanged in Brixton Prison — the very same jail that housed Dr Crippen. It was, and still is, widely believed that in a petty move, the British prison authorities decided to do a spot of body swapping and that the remains entombed in Glasnevin cemetery are none other than the infamous murderer.