Cathleen Ni Houlihan, one of the names for Ireland conceived of as a feminine entity adopted by the Jacobite poets of the 18th cent. Other names were Síle Ní Ghadhra, Róisín Dubh [see ‘My Dark Rosaleen’ and folksong], the Sean Bhean Bhocht, Móirín Ní Cheallacháin, and Gráinne Mhaol. ‘Caitlín Ní Uallacháin’ is a Jacobite poem by Liam Dall Ó hIfearnáin which identifies her with the sovereignty of Ireland [see Irish mythology and kingship] and with the Blessed Virgin. In Cathleen Ní Houlihan, written by W. B. Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory and set in Killala during the Rebellion of the United Irishmen, Michael Gillane is preparing to be married when Cathleen arrives at the house and inspires him to join the French invading army. Maud Gonne played Cathleen in 1902 in the Irish Literary Theatre [see Abbey Theatre].
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
| Irish Literature Companion: Cathleen Ni Houlihan |
| Wikipedia: Cathleen Ní Houlihan |
| Cathleen Ní Houlihan | |
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 Scene from a production c. 1912. |
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| Written by | William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory |
| Date premiered | 2 April 1902 |
| Place premiered | Dublin |
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine Cathleen Ní Houlihan, who represents an independent and separate Irish state. The title character first appears as an old woman, at the door of a family celebrating their son's wedding. She describes her four "beautiful green fields," representing the four provinces, that have been unjustly taken from her. With little subtlety, she requests a blood sacrifice, declaring that "many a child will be born and there will be no father at the christening". When the youth agrees and leaves the safety of his home to fight for her, she appears as an image of youth with "the walk of a queen," professing that of those who fight for her: "They shall be remembered forever, They shall be alive forever, They shall be speaking forever, The people shall hear them forever."[1] This call to immortality through martyrdom is not unique to the Irish struggle for independence.
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References
- ^ W. B. Yeats, Nine One-Act Plays (1937), p. 36
External links
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 | Caitlín |
| Maud Gonne |
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