A special birthday tribute was paid to the poet WB Yeats at the National Library in Dublin. In front of a large audience, the poet's work was read aloud by Bono and actors Sinéad Cusack and Jeremy Irons.
The event was organised by writer Josephine Hart, who for the past four years has been organising similar events at the British Library in London,
Reading it on the page is not quite always what the poet had intended. So tonight, with the cast from heaven, we have Bono, and we have Jeremy Irons and Sineád Cusack...and they’re going to sound out, if you like, the marvellous music of Yeats.
The event is part of a month-long celebration of the poet's work and is run in conjunction with the permanent Yeats exhibition at the library.
There is a long association between the Yeats family and the National Library of Ireland, and according to Director Aonghus Ó hAonghusa,
The family have been very generous in terms of donating material to us, they’ve supported our exhibition, so we’re very keen to celebrate Yeats in any way we can.
An RTÉ News Report broadcast on 13 June 2007. The reporter is Sinéad Crowley.
