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Jenny Farrell<\/strong>\u00a0introduces Maeve Cavanagh and presents one of her poems<\/em><\/p>\n Last Easter, we published some poems written by three leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. They were P\u00e1draig Pearse, who wrote the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic, and his comrades and signatories Thomas MacDonagh and James Plunkett, accessing through their verse their revolutionary aspirations. All three were executed following the defeat of the rebellion.<\/p>\n Among the rebels were a significant number of women, who were not executed, including some poets. This Easter, I wish to introduce one of these, Maeve Cavanagh, who had been a member and secretary for some years of Cumman na mB\u00e1n, the Gaelic League, and Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army. She was also involved in the cultural and educational activities held in Liberty Hall. So hurry up and take the \u2018bob\u2019<\/em> Maeve\u2019s brother Ernest was a cartoon artist whose anti-war work featured in Irish Worker, Fianna and Irish Freedom. Ernest, who worked at the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), was shot dead by British troops on the steps of Liberty Hall during the Rising.<\/p>\n Maeve Cavanagh herself was much involved in the preparations for the Rising and was well acquainted with James Connolly. Connolly called her \u201cthe poetess of the revolution\u201d and published one of her poems in The Workers\u2019 Republic. She also wrote a play about the Rising, \u201cThe Test: a play of 1916\u201d and was active in trying to secure a reprieve for Roger Casement. All these, alongside her eye-witness accounts of the uprising, are now held in the National Library of Ireland. Her poetry, unfortunately, does not feature in the Irish public’s literary consciousness.<\/p>\n Eastertide, 1916<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Maeve Cavanagh<\/em><\/p>\n The warring nations maz\u00e9d heard The hours were told – her time had come – And Connaught o\u2019er broad Shannon \u2018s tide, What tho our fairest, dearest fall? Written on the hoisting of the Irish Republican Flag over the G.P.O. – Dublin, 24\/4\/1916<\/em><\/p>\n
Part of Maeve Cavanagh\u2019s aspiration was to make the ordinary working people of Dublin more politically aware. For example, she spent considerable effort trying to dissuade men from joining the British Army in the first world war. In her 1914 poetry collection Sheaves of Revolt, she describes the brutality and horror of war and its aftermath:<\/p>\n
The Butcher cannot wait,<\/em>
The German guns are talking,<\/em>
At a most terrific rate.<\/em>
And if you should crawl back,<\/em>
Minus arm or minus leg,<\/em>
You\u2019ll get leave to roam your city<\/em>
To sell matches \u2013 or to beg.<\/em><\/p>\n
The slogan cry of Eire ring,
And they who in her fain hope shared
Exultant watched her gallant spring-
The wolf-dog stood at bay once more,
And heard unmoved the Lion\u2019s roar.<\/p>\n
At noontide on an April day,
She bore the Truth – and Lie struck dumb
In all her glorious, deathless way.
Ere to his couch the sun sank down
Her flag flew over Dublin town.<\/p>\n
Her noble challenge swiftly sends,
True as of yore from Slaney\u2019s side
Brave Wexford\u2019s thrilling answer wends –
And history stoops to write to-day
The fairest page she\u2019ll pen for aye.<\/p>\n
We shall not grudge the awful price
To-day we stand in freedom\u2019s hall,
And Freely make our sacrifice.
We\u2019ve seen our Goddess face to face
All times cannot this hour efface.<\/p>\n