September 1913

Protect Our Irish Heritage

Restore Irish Language Lettering

Should the GAA return the All Ireland to September?

When Will Ireland Be United?

September 1913

What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave;
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were,
In all their loneliness and pain
You'd cry 'some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son':
They weighed so lightly what they gave,
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.

WB Yeats

Article originally published on: Monday 8th September 1913

If you'd like to help with producing further articles, please sign up here!
More articles can be found here.

An Claíomh Solais means "The Sword of Light", and is named after an Irish newspaper originally published around the beginning of the twentieth century. This project is opening a window to that time, not so long ago, and sharing the hopes, dreams and visions of the men and women who founded the modern Irish Republic.

The project will follow in their footsteps along the path laid down by Hyde, O'Conaire, MacNeill, Cusack and many others through sharing news, ideas, articles of Irish cultural interest and more, as well as helping to support Irish language and cultural initiatives. You can find out more about An Claíomh Solais by clicking on the buttons below, or join our team as we begin the great Gaelic restoration!

Restore Irish Language Lettering

Revive the Feiseanna

When Will Ireland Be United?

Do you feel politically represented?

A marvellous description by Liam Bulfin

A marvellous description by Liam Bulfin in United Irishman ar 21 Aibreán 1906. Give us ten such men and English will be a second language in a generation!

“This is Pádraig Ó Dálaigh, General Secretary, a southerner. He can work 12 and 15 hours a day. He has a perfect constitution. With care he may live to eat square meals in the 21st century. He seems to have lived a long time already although his face is under the 30 limit. It is his brain that is old. His heart and all the rest of him are young ...

Under my personal observation he has
Read more...

Mionn

I n-ainm Dé,
Dar Críost a Aon-Ṁac,
Dar Muire a Ċaoṁ-Ṁáṫair,
Dar Pádraic Apstal Gaeḋeal,
Dar dílseaċt Ċuilm Ċille,
Dar clú ar gciniḋ,
Dar crú ar sinnsear,
Dar dúnṁarḃaḋ Aoḋa Ruaiḋ,
Dar bás truaiġṁéileaċ Aoḋa Uí Néill,
Dar oiḋeaḋ Eoġan Ruaiḋ,
Dar mian an tSáirséalaiġ le huċt a ḃáis,
Dar osna éagcoṁlainn an Ġearaltaiġ,
Dar créaċtaiḃ cróil
Read more...

Collapse of the Terror

British Rule's Last Stages

What the Elections Meant

We have seen how in ancient Ireland the people were themselves the guardians of their land, doing all for themselves according to their own laws and customs, as interpreted by the Brehons, which gave them security, prosperity, and national greatness, and how this was upset by the English determination to blot out Irish ways, when came poverty, demoralisation and a false respect for English standards and habits.

The English power to do this rested on military occupation and on econ
Read more...

The Parting of Goll From His Wife

When they are shut up by Fionn on a sea-girt rock, without chance of escape.

A Dialogue

(Goll speaks)
The end is come; upon this narrow rock
To-morrow I must die;
Wife of the ruddy cheeks and hair of flame,
Leave me to-night and fly.
Seek out the camp of Fionn and of his men
Upon the westward side;
Take there, in time to come, another mate.
Here I abide.

(Goll's wife replies)
Which way, O Goll, is my way, and thou perished?
Alas! few friends have I!
Small praise that woman
Read more...

The Great Lamentation of Deirdre for the Sons of Usna

"As to Deirdre, she was a year in the household of Conchobar, after the death of the Sons of Usna. And though it might be a little thing to raise her head or to bring a smile over her lip, never once did she do it through all that space of time.... She took not sufficiency of food or sleep, nor lifted her head from her knee. When people of amusement were sent to her, she would break out into lamentation:—

Splendid in your eyes may be the impetuous champions
Who resort to Emain after a foray;
More brilliant yet was the return
Of Usna's h
Read more...

Coolock and the Union Jack

In recent days there's been an uproar over the appearance of the Irish tricolour, symbol and standard of the Republic, waving alongside the Union Jack during protest marches in Belfast. Outrage has been expressed in the halls of power from Dáíl Éireann to Stormount to Westminster. And in fairness it is quite a picture – not something you'd see every day.

But what do we really see when we look at this picture? Should we take it at face value or should we have a conversation about the cause and context of this undoubtedly historical event? Not a hi
Read more...