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Jenny Farrell<\/strong> introduces a short series of poems and commentary to mark the Easter Rising 1916<\/em><\/p>\n Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ireland will for the first time in its history be unable to publicly remember the Easter Rising of 1916, its aspirations for an independent socialist Republic, and its heroic leaders.<\/p>\n As a number of these leaders were poets and writers, this is an opportunity to look at one or two of their poems, to see what kind of people they were, how their emotions live on in the poetry and how it speaks to us today.<\/p>\n For this Easter, I am going to look at four poems by three of the leaders, P\u00e1draig Pearse, who wrote the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic, and his comrades and signatories Thomas MacDonagh and James Plunkett.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll begin with the most famous poem, Mise \u00c9ire\/ I am Ireland, written by P\u00e1draig Pearse in 1912.<\/p>\n Mise \u00c9ire \/ I am Ireland\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by P\u00e1draig Pearse<\/em><\/p>\n I am Ireland: Great my glory: Great my shame: Great my pain: Great my sorrow I am Ireland: P\u00e1draig Pearse wrote this poem in Irish. The title is a bold statement of identification with Ireland. At the same time, it is Ireland herself speaking.<\/p>\n The \u201cold woman\u201d, in the original \u201ccailleach Bheara\u201d, is a mysterious figure in Irish myth and folklore. Cailleach in Old Gaelic means \u2018veiled one\u2019, suggesting ancient origins of the wise-women or female Druids of pre-Christian, possibly pre-Celtic times. The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare<\/em> is regarded one of finest surviving examples of early Irish verse. She was famed to be mother and foster mother to at least 50 children who went on to found tribes. Pearse makes that connection and echoes the tone of this\u00a0 9th c lament \u2013 speaking as a female\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019, like in the Lament \u2013 only this<\/em> I is older, she is Ireland.<\/p>\n The tone is reminiscent of an incantation: \u201cGreat is my\u201d will be repeated four time. The first time Ireland refers to her \u201cglory\u201d, because she gave birth to Cuchulainn, champion of the early 1st c Ulster Cycle<\/em>, celtic foundations myths about the heroes of the kingdom of Ulster. These legends had been all but forgotten by the 7th c when bard, Sechan Torpeist, revived them.<\/p>\n Ireland is placed in the context of a wondrous past that is past \u2013 of having once had a flowering and vibrant culture. An example of this culture is the great saga of C\u00fa Chulainn<\/em>.\u00a0Pearse makes a statement which contradicts the British colonial narrative of Irish cultural inferiority; Irish literature\u00a0is the oldest vernacular literature\u00a0in Western Europe.<\/p>\n The rhetorically powerful repetition \u201cGreat my\u201d next presents the polar opposite to \u201cglory\u201d \u2013 \u201cshame\u201d. Ireland\u2019s glory lies in the past, conflicting with her \u201cshame\u201d, referring to more recent times. The contrast is continued in the parallel between Cuchulainn and \u201cMy own children who sold their mother\u201d. The verb \u201csold\u201d underlines that these are not ancient but modern times. This contrast highlights the shameful reality of Pearse\u2019s time, of a nation on its knees, ashamed of itself and accepting its conquerors\u2019 narrative.<\/p>\n The children who sold their mother refers to the new Irish establishment, which accepted its inferior place in the British scheme of things \u2013 the people now known as Redmondites. They strove for Catholic rights, not Irish nationhood.\u00a0 They wanted the Catholic middle class to have an equal access to power and influence, but within the safe harbour of Britishness.<\/p>\n The third repetition \u201cGreat my\u201d \u2013 expands on \u201cshame\u201d, intensifying it. While shame is opposite of pride\/glory, it hurts emotionally, pain hurts physically. The enemy, with whom no peace is possible, dominates and inflicts injury in this woman\u2019s own place<\/p>\n The final repetition of \u201cGreat my\u201d refers to \u201csorrow\u201d, which follows this pain. The old woman\/ Ireland has suffered betrayal by \u201cThat crowd, in whom I placed my trust\u201d: The Redmondite politicians who took over from Parnell, who pretended to be the champions of national freedom but worked to keep Ireland part of the Empire.<\/p>\n The speaker finally returns to opening statement, with a change from \u201colder\u201d to \u201clonelier\u201d, resulting from her experience, as revealed this poem. The cailleach Bh\u00e9ara ended her days in loneliness because she was left alone, lamenting the disappearance of her glorious past.\u00a0 In Pearse\u2019s poem Ireland had no one to turn to after her leaders (Redmond\u2019s crowd) betrayed her. However, the fact that the Pearse wrote this lament on behalf of Ireland is a call for new leaders to take on the cause of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jenny Farrell introduces a short series of poems and commentary to mark the Easter Rising 1916 Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ireland will for the first time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":456,"featured_media":13278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I am older than the old woman of Beara.<\/p>\n
I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave.<\/p>\n
My own children who sold their mother.<\/p>\n
My irreconcilable enemy who harrasses me continually\u2026<\/p>\n
That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.<\/p>\n
I am lonelier than the old woman of Beara.<\/p>\n