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Scott writes: >The Protestants are certainly not all members of the >ruling classs. My Ulster Protestant forebears, for >example, were potato farmers! >The issue really though is not that Yeats was or was >not a hypocrite but that Yeats helped perpetuate a >pretty crummy regime in Ireland. I really don't follow this at all. Which "crummy regime" are you talking about? Presumably you don't mean rule from Westminster. If you mean Yeats's involvement in the politics of the Irish Free State, then you are doubtless aware of Yeats's stand, as a senator, against such collusions of (Roman Catholic) Church and State as the banning of divorce. On a less important level, the Republic should also be grateful to him for being instrumental in the design of the Irish coinage--without W. B., £ s & d would have been adorned with ghastly saints rather than paganistic animals. Both Wallace Stevens and Pound were envious of Yeats's public position as a senator, in which, despite some silly pronoucements, he would appear to have aquitted himself rather well. One should recall this practical side to Yeats when one lambastes him for his deliberately provocative statements in, say, _On the Boiler_. And as for "the fascist Green Shirts," they actually wore Blue Shirts (as did Yeats, who, yes, briefly flirted with the ideas of the absurd wannabe Il Duce, O'Duffy, though this did not dictate his choice of shirt-colour, I believe!). Best Alex %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%