''Mise Éire'' (,
Irish for "I
mIreland") is a
1912
Events January
* January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established.
* January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
* January 6 ...
Irish-language poem by the
Irish poet and
Republican revolutionary leader
Patrick Pearse.
Background
''Mise Éire is'' a
1912
Events January
* January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established.
* January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
* January 6 ...
Irish-language poem by the
Irish poet and
Republican revolutionary leader
Patrick Pearse.
Political relevance
In the poem, Pearse personifies Ireland as an old woman whose glory is past and who has been sold by her children.
Later use
Described as both a literary and historical text, it was regularly used by Republican prisoners in
Long Kesh
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
as a means of learning and teaching
Irish.
''Is Mise'' continues to be relevant in post-
partition
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
Ireland, suggest scholars, as illustrating of the difficulties in identifying "Irishness" in
Northern Ireland.
Counter view
The title of the poem was used as a title for a 1959 documentary film by
George Morrison, which dealt with key figures and events in Irish Nationalism between the 1890s and the 1910s, including Pearse himself.
Seán Ó Riada wrote a
soundtrack for the film, also titled 'Mise Éire'.
A poem of the same name by
Eavan Boland was written as a counter to Pearse's poem, and its treatment of Ireland and her children. Pearse had already written optimistically on the fate of Ireland's strong sons' martyrdom in his poem "The Mother"; ''Is Mise'' takes the opposite, more pessimistic view of the sacrifice.
In the words of Boss, Nordin and Orlinder, Boland "opposes and corrects Pearse's view on Ireland...No longer, as in the earlier poem, is the personification of the country 'older than the Old Woman of Beare' but 'a sloven’s mix'. The glory of having born 'Cuchulain
the valiant’ is turned into the picture of the woman ‘holding her half-dead baby to her'.
Cultural usage
In 2016, the poem was set to music composed by
Patrick Cassidy and performed by the,
RTÉ Concert Orchestra for the score of the
PBS documentary series 1916: An Irish Rebellion, curated by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
In 2021, Patrick Cassidy's song Mise Éire was recorded and released as a single by the Irish all female group
Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman is an all-female Irish musical ensemble conceived and created by David Kavanagh, Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show ''Riverdance.'' In 2004, Downes recruited five Irish female music ...
as part of their upcoming album, Postcards from Ireland.
The text
Irish (direct translation)
See also
*
Kathleen Ni Houlihan
Kathleen Ni Houlihan ( ga, Caitlín Ní Uallacháin, literally, "Kathleen, daughter of Houlihan") is a mythical symbol and emblem of Irish nationalism found in literature and art, sometimes representing Ireland as a personified woman. The f ...
*
Róisín Dubh (song)
"Róisín Dubh" (; "Dark Rosaleen" or "Little Dark Rose"), written in the 16th century, is one of Ireland's most famous political songs. It is based on an older love-lyric which referred to the poet's beloved rather than, as here, being a metap ...
*
The Sean-Bhean bhocht
"The Sean-Bhean bhocht" (; Irish for "Poor old woman"), often spelled phonetically as "Shan Van Vocht", is a traditional Irish song from the period of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and dating in particular to the lead up to a French expedition to ...
*
Hibernia (personification)
Hibernia as a national personification representing Ireland appeared in numerous cartoons and drawings, especially in the nineteenth century.
As depicted in frequent cartoons in ''Punch'', a magazine outspokenly hostile to Irish nationalism, Hi ...
*
Four Green Fields
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mise Eire
Irish poetry
Irish language
Personifications of Ireland