Winfred Mabel Letts was a poet, playwright and children’s author. Her children’s books , including, The Story-Spinner (1907) and Naughty Sophia (1912) were very popular and were regularly adapted for Children’s Hour, the BBC Radio show. She was the second woman, after Lady Gregory, to have her plays dramatised by the Abbey Theatre. She worked as a nurse and a masseuse during the First World War and the publication of her war poetry including Hallow-e'en and Poems of War (1916) and The Spires of Oxford and Other Poems (1917) predate those of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. She is buried in the Verschoyle family (to which she married into) plot in Rathcoole cemetery.

On the 50th anniversary of her death, South Dublin Libraries will host a symposium exploring her life and works. All welcome. Booking advised.

The symposium will feature the below speakers:

2.00pm: Bairbre O'Hogan: I Met a Poet: A glimpse into the life of W.M. Letts

2.50pm: Jane Clarke, poet: Gorse turned gold: W.M. Letts and the poetry of nature

3:30pm: Tea & Coffee

3:45pm: Edel Hanley, Phd student: "When the Bugles Sounded War": W.M. Letts, women and the First World War

4:35pm: Shirley-Anne Godfrey, Phd student: Retracing the Golden Thread: W.M. Letts, women playwrights and theatre-making at the early Abbey Theatre

This project is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 initiative.