#OTD in 1902 – Premiere of W.B. Yeats' Cathleen ni Houlihan starring Maud Gonne. The play is about the failed rebellion of 1798, with a woman representing the ideal of an independent Irish republic.

Stair na hÉireann

April 2

Cathleen ni Houlihan is a one-act play written by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1902. It was first performed on 2 April of that year and first published in October on Samhain. The play centers on the 1798 Rebellion. The play is startlingly nationalistic, in its last pages encouraging young men to sacrifice their lives for the heroine Cathleen ni 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 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.'

Image | Scene From Cathleen Ni Houlihan | Project Gutenberg eText 19028