What Katie Ate's Second Cookbook comes out in just under a month! 

 

Since I am currently working my way through Gulliver's Travels, it seems fitting to share this famous Irish author's bio today.  (Had you caught on to the theme yet?  If not, I just gave it away - Happy Irish month!  I figure what better time than this to learn a bit more about the great men and women who have truly lived with Irish blood flowing through their veins.)

Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. He attended, Kilkenny School, and Trinity College, received an M.A. from Oxford, and became the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral. He was very politically involved, writing for both the Whigs and the Tories. "Gulliver's Travels," his best known work, was published in 1726 without Swift's name.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1923

PC: wikipedia

William Butler Yeats


William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin. His father was a lawyer and a well-known portrait painter. Yeats was educated in London and in Dublin, but he spent his summers in the west of Ireland in the family's summer house at Connaught. The young Yeats was very much part of the fin de siècle in London; at the same time he was active in societies that attempted an Irish literary revival. His first volume of verse appeared in 1887, but in his earlier period his dramatic production outweighed his poetry both in bulk and in import. Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to become the Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright until the movement was joined by John Synge. His plays usually treat Irish legends; they also reflect his fascination with mysticism and spiritualism. The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The King's Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907) are among the best known.

After 1910, Yeats's dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical, static, and esoteric style. His later plays were written for small audiences; they experiment with masks, dance, and music, and were profoundly influenced by the Japanese Noh plays. Although a convinced patriot, Yeats deplored the hatred and the bigotry of the Nationalist movement, and his poetry is full of moving protests against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. Yeats is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after the award of the Nobel Prize. Whereas he received the Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his lyric achievement. His poetry, especially the volumes The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English. His recurrent themes are the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of life (the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and ceremony contrasting with the hubbub of modern life.

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.


William Butler Yeats died on January 28, 1939.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1923

Source: NobelPrize.org

Actor. Born Pierce Brendan Brosnan on May 16, 1953, in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. After an unsettled childhood, he moved to London, where he joined an experimental theater group and studied at the Drama Centre. After several stage roles in London, he moved to Los Angeles, where he was offered the lead in the detective series Remington Steele, which debuted in 1982. He won over American television audiences with his good looks and charm. They tuned in to catch the show??s latest mystery and watch the sparks fly between the two lead characters played by Brosnan and his co-star Stephanie Zimbalist. Offered the role of the famous fictional British spy, James Bond, in 1986, Brosnan tried to get out of his contract for the show, but failed. The series ended the next year.

After Remington Steele, Brosnan acted in several television and film projects, including the television miniseries Around the World in 80 Days (1989), and the hit comedy film Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). In 1995, Brosnan finally took on the legendary film role of James Bond in Goldeneye, following in the footsteps of such actors as Sean Connery and Roger Moore. He played Bond three more times: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002). In 2006, Daniel Craig took over the part for the remake of the first Bond picture, Casino Royale.
Besides playing the smooth, but deadly superspy, Brosnan has tackled numerous dramatic and comedic roles, including The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) with Rene Russo, Laws of Attraction (2004) with Julianne Moore, and The Matador (2005) with Greg Kinnear. He is also reportedly slated to appear in a sequel to the comedy smash Mrs. Doubtfire.

Brosnan has been married twice. His first marriage to actress Cassandra Harris lasted from 1980 until her death in 1991. Brosnan adopted her two children Charlotte and Christopher and the couple had a son, Sean. In 2001, he married Keely Shaye. They have two children together, Paris and Dylan.
...

© 2012 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.
Source: Bio.



Oh so tempting...

one day (soon).

Ireland. I think I'm about ready for you. At least today, I don't feel like waiting for my travel buddy. My heart feels adventure-starved, I know travelling is just a cheap fix, but I'd welcome the distraction. If only I could get my literary muse to stir, I could climb aboard that Dawn Treader and ride it somewhere, somewhere closer to you. 

Someday... I will visit Ireland. 

Someday soon perhaps.

I don't even know if these really are Ireland...I just decide that every picture of rolling green, rainy hills with cobblestone fences and cute old cottages must be of Ireland.  :)

Dreams.  Sometimes they are grand things with bold lines and bright colors. Sometimes they come in the details of grassy hills, stark cliffs and dusty pub stools. I sometimes dream about travelling Ireland with my husband, and staying at a perfectly common little B&B, taking hundreds more photos than the normal person would permit. Touring archaeological and historical sites, book stores, and pubs with live music. Just meeting people and stumbling into what we may. Drifting and dreaming and laughing - just being us, whoever that may be. Living a dream in a completely un-dreamlike way.

LBL has me renting a car for his daughter for her upcoming visit. I saw a link at the bottom of the Enterprise page and decided just for fun.... to just see if..

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I made the mistake of watching Letters to Juliet and baking traditional "Irish" food last night. The outcome? I'm craving some travels to my favorite country I've ever been (and favorite language) and my favorite country I've never been. The ongoing issue. While 'waiting' an international adventure sounds lovely - give me something to pour my excitement and attention into, something to keep my life from feeling mundane. And if I were to purchase a ticket anywhere, I'd go to Italy and/or Ireland. However, I want to go both places with my husband. See the conundrum? So I keep waiting... for my favorite travel buddy to arrive.
Wouldn't it be terrible (and yet remarkably funny), if A.) he hated travelling, or B.) he tells me one day all about his great travels to Ireland and Italy that he took, oh, during the Spring of 2011?