The Yeats Sisters and the Cuala

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The Yeats sisters have long been overshadowed by their famous brothers - Jack and William.Nevertheless they themselves made a significant contribution to the cultural life of Ireland through their involvement with the Cuala industries.The 'Cuala', as it was popularly known, was an Irish female craft co-operative on the English Arts and Crafts model, founded and managed by the sisters. Elizabeth ran the printing department with William as editor to the Press, while Lily, who was trained in the Morris workshops, ran the embroidery department.Contrary to appearances, the Yeats sisters were not typical middle-class philanthropists but poor spinsters, thrown onto their own resources, who supported themselves and their family. They funded their self-absorbed and improvident father until his death in New York in 1922.The Yeats children carried through their lives resentments from their painful childhood; the two sisters were incompatible; W.B.'s opinion of his sisters was rather blinkered and patronising.The lives of Elizabeth and Lily deserve separate notice freed from his great shadow and from his disparagement.