Willie Yeats and the Gonne-MacBrides

the long version

This book examines the letters between Maud Gonne and WB Yeats focussing on the issue of Major John MacBride and the divorce case in Paris in 1905. Maud used Yeats as her second and confidant during the case. She wrote in detail to Willie who was so happhy at the prospect of regaining her from her estranged husband. Yeats propounded Maud's criticisms of John to all and sundry and in his poetry. the author argues that after John's execution Maud went as far as she could in saying sorry to her husband without incriminating herself. She wrote movingly about him to Yeats and rejected Yeat's 'Easter 1916' as being unworthy of the sacrifice of her husband and the others. Maud wrote that she would pray for and to her husband.