Yeats hit by drunken, vainglorious lout

The Irish Times:

Statue of Yeats in Sligo is felled by car
Paddy Clancy

A car which failed to stop after gardaí flagged it down drove off at speed in Sligo town yesterday morning and crashed into a statue of WB Yeats, smashing it in three places. No one was injured in the incident which happened about 4am outside the Ulster Bank in the town's Stephen Street. The £20,000 work, commissioned by the Ulster Bank and the people of Sligo to mark the 50th anniversary of Yeats's death, was erected in May 1990. The dandy-like pose of the poet, with lines from his work engraved on the bronze, created controversy in the early years.