George William Russell was a seer and mystic as well as gifted painter and poet. In addition to these things, he was also a vocal Irish Nationalist and prolific writer who has left a lasting legacy for the world. Russell was born in the grey town of Lurgan (Irish “an Lorgain”) in County Armagh, Ireland on the 10th of April 1867. At the age of eleven his family moved southbound to Dublin. A few years later as a young man, he developed enduring friendships with W. B. Yeats and Art O’Murnaghan.
Somewhat similarly to Annie Besant, Russell devoted much of his life to political, co-operative and labour causes. He worked for a number of years for the co-operative, the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. Willie Yeats played a pivotal role in suggested to the co-operative’s founder Horace Plunkett that Russell should become its Assistant Secretary. In this role Russell succeeded in helping to create a host of credit societies and co-operative banks which gave working people a level of unprecedented financial security and comfort.
During the fraught time of the 1913 Dublin Lock-out, Russell wrote an powerfully worded open letter to the Irish Times newspaper fiercely criticizing the employers’ bullish attitude. Not being content with progress he then spoke up about the lock-out in England and was hugely contributory towards ending the crisis.
Russell continued with his political career by becoming an independent delegate to the 1917-18 Irish Convention where he articulately opposed John Redmond’s poorly thought through compromise on Irish Home Rule.
He often used the pseudonym and nom de plume "AE", or more correctly, "Æ". This derived from an earlier name he had explored, "Æ'on", which symbolised the eternal spiritual quest of humanity, subsequently abbreviated.
His first collection of poetry, “Homeward: Songs by the Way” (1894), established him fairly and squarely in what was to become known as the Irish Literary Revival. His collected poems were published during 1913, with a second edition being distributed later in 1926.
Along his way in 1902 Æ met a young James Joyce and played a key networking role for Joyce, introducing him to many other important Irish characters including Yeats. It’s interesting to wonder whether Joyce’s literary career would have taken a different turn without these early introductions.
Russell’s house in Dublin’s Rathgar Avenue became a productive hive for artistic and thinking minds. Anyone was welcome there who wished to shine their light on the social, economic, political and artistic future of Ireland.
