28th October 2023 marked the momentous launch of the Æ George Russell Society in the United Arts Club in Dublin. This was a most appropriate setting, as Æ had been one of the club’s founders in 1907.
The launch brought together Æ followers from across Ireland, Britain and beyond. A presentation by Jim Conway and Michael McKernan was followed by the election of officers and committee members and the drawing up of the Society’s constitution.
A number of messages from well-wishers were read out: one from Æ’s closest living relative, George Liam Russell from Cumberland, Maine USA, and another from Susan O’Keefe, Director of the Yeats Society in Sligo. Attendees also took the opportunity to read their favourite poems selected from Michael McKernan’s anthology of Æ poems ‘And the Old Enchantment Lingers’.
