Michael Butler Yeats was born on August 22, 1921 in Thame, Oxfordshire, England, to W.B. (William Butler) Yeats and Georgie (Hyde-Lees) Yeats. He was educated at St. Columba's College, Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated in 1943 with a degree in history. At a meeting of Trinity's Cumann Gaelach (Gaelic Society), Yeats met Gráinne Dill Ní Éigeartaigh (1925–2013), a harpist and singer. They married on May 14, 1949, lived in County Dublin, and had three daughters and a son.
During the 1943 general election campaign, Yeats attended a Fianna Fáil public meeting and was invited to join the party. Yeats was first nominated for election to Dáil Éireann at the 1948 general election and came in fourth. In 1951, Fianna Fáil won the election, and Yeats was nominated to the seventh Seanad Éireann by the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera. After de Valera won the presidential election of 1959, Yeats wrote his election address. From 1961 to 1980, Yeats served as a member of Seanad in multiple roles. In 1973, he was nominated as a Fianna Fáil representative to the European parliament, and in 1975, he became a vice-president of the parliament.
In March 1980, Yeats resigned from the Seanad, and, in April, became a director of the EEC Council of Ministers (now the Council of the European Union), a post he held until his retirement in 1986. Yeats also served as a patron of the Yeats International Summer School, and as chair, secretary, and director of the Cuala Press, which he and his sister Anne Yeats revived in 1969. He died on January 4, 2007, in County Dublin.
