Ann Marie Hourihane

Mr. Yeats & the Beastly Coins

In 1926, ten years after the Easter Rising, the Irish government decided to create a new coinage for the Free State. They invited the most famous poet in the world, W.B. Yeats, to chair the design committee. Behind-the-scenes battles were fought before the new coins became one of the most enduring success stories of the new Irish state.