An exhumation of the remains of the Yeats grave in Drumcliffe is thought highly unlikely as revelations emerged this week that the Nobel Prize winning poet, who died in France in 1939 had been disinterred in 1946 and his remains mixed with others there in an ossuary, a communal tomb for skeletal remains.

Reports emerged from French diplomatic correspondence from the 1940s that the remains removed from the Riviera village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin for transportation to Sligo were assembled from an ossuary. However, the news has been greeted with little surprise in Sligo with many knowing of the situation and saying it won't put a dent in the 150th birthday celebrations of the poet. Yeats Society President Martin Enright said:the latest documents did not say "that there wasn't some part of Yeats buried in the grave."

Sligo Champion