Portrait of William Butler Yeats, half length, in a blue tie, white shirt and black coat

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was the eldest brother of the painter Jack Butler Yeats. He was a poet and dramatist and with the help of Augusta, Lady Gregory from Coole Park, Co. Galway (the setting for one of his most famous poems, 'The Wild Swans at Coole') and the writer John Millington Synge, they founded the Irish National Theatre in the Mechanic's Institute in Abbey Street, Dublin, which later became known as The Abbey. In 1922 President Cosgrave appointed him to the senate of the newly-established Irish Free State, in recognition of his services to Ireland. The following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.