Though the quote is widely attributed to Yeats online, there is no record of him having ever written or said the line, said Susan O’Keeffe, the director of the Yeats Society Sligo in Sligo, Ireland.
“The thing about Yeats that’s worth bearing in mind is that an awful lot of his letters and his articles and his essays were kept,” Ms. O’Keeffe said.
The organizers “set out to do a good thing, and they have done a good thing,” she said.
The organizers of the Dublin Marathon, which was established in 1980 and is sold out this year with 22,500 runners, have over the years used the medal design as a way to commemorate prominent figures who have contributed to Irish society.
Some of the commentary this year has centered on “the view that this quote has never definitively been proven to be Yeats,” said Sinéad Galvin, a spokeswoman for the marathon.
Persons:
Yeats, Susan O’Keeffe, Ms, O’Keeffe, “, ”, Sinéad Galvin
Organizations:
Yeats Society Sligo, Dublin Marathon
Locations:
Sligo, Ireland