Bryan Cooper (politician)

Bryan Ricco Cooper (17 June 1884 – 5 July 1930) was an Irish politician, writer and landowner from Markree Castle, County Sligo.

In 1900, his father died during the war of typhoid fever and Bryan inherited Markree from his grandfather Edward Henry Cooper.

Cooper joined the British Army and, following his father's advice, trained as a gunner at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (1902–1903).

In his spare time, he wrote poetry strongly influenced by Celtic imagery and W. B. Yeats (whom he was later to befriend), and started work on a novel.

During his election campaign he got to know a young lady of Irish ancestry from Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, a Miss Handcock, whom he married shortly afterwards.

[6] W. B. Yeats was one of his chief supporters (of whom Cooper wrote: "since I was a boy his writings have been one of the strongest influences on me, and helped to make me the good Irishman I hope I am.").