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Private company

Cuala Press

Irish publishing business (1908–1946, 1970s)

The Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century. Originally Dun Emer Press, from 1908 until the late 1940s it functioned as Cuala Press, publicising the works of such writers as W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Padraic Colum, John Millington Synge, and Oliver St. John Gogarty.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1908Founded1
  • Industrypublishing1
  • HeadquartersDublin1

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Elizabeth Yeats
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century. Originally Dun Emer Press, from 1908 until the late 1940s it functioned as Cuala Press, publicising the works of such writers as W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Padraic Colum, John Millington Synge, and Oliver St. John Gogarty.2

The story

At the suggestion of Emery Walker, Elizabeth Yeats trained as a printer at the Women's Printing Society in London. In 1902, Elizabeth Yeats and her sister Lily joined their friend Evelyn Gleeson in the establishment of a craft studio near Dublin which they named Dun Emer. Dun Emer became a focus of the burgeoning Irish Arts and Crafts Movement, specialising in printing, embroidery, and rug and tapestry-making. Elizabeth ran the printing operation, and Lily managed the needlework department.

In 1904, the operation was reorganised into two parts, the Dun Emer Guild run by Gleeson and Dun Emer Industries under the direction of the Yeats sisters, and in 1908 the groups separated completely. Gleeson retained the Dun Emer name, and the Yeats sisters established Cuala Industries at nearby Churchtown, which ran the Cuala Press and an embroidery workshop. The sisters' cousin Ruth Pollexfen served as an apprentice to Lily and gave embroidery lessons at the workshop. Cuala (or Cualu) was the name of the Gaelic territory covering south Dublin before the Norman conquest of Ireland.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cuala Press, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

It was intended that the new press would produce work by writers associated with the Irish Literary Revival. They ended up publishing over 70 titles in total, including 48 by W. B. Yeats. The press closed in 1946.

The Cuala was unusual in that it was the only Arts and Crafts press to be run and staffed by women and the only one that published new work rather than established classics. In addition to Yeats, Cuala published works by Ezra Pound, Jack B. Yeats, Padraic Colum, Robin Flower, Elizabeth Bowen, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde, Lionel Johnson, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, John Masefield, Frank O'Connor, John Millington Synge, John Butler Yeats, Rabindranath Tagore and others.

After Elizabeth Yeats died in 1940, the work of the press was carried on by two of her long-time assistants, Esther Ryan and Mollie Gill under the management of Georgie Hyde-Lees. The final Cuala title was Stranger in Aran by Elizabeth Rivers, which was published on 31 July 1946.

In 1969 the press was taken up by W. B. Yeats' children, Michael and Anne Yeats, with Liam Miller. Some titles were run in the 1970s, and archives are still held by the press.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cuala Press, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1908Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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