8 May in literature

8 May 1899 saw the opening at the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin of William Butler Yeats The Countess Cathleen. It was the theatre's inaugural performance. 

Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the more prominent figures of 20th century literature, both within the Irish and British literary establishments. In his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms.

In 1923 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation."

He lived between 1865 and 1939.