Cathleen ni Hoolihan: A Play in One Act and in Prose

1902

Brasch PR5904 C37

London: A. H. Bullen

A leading figure in the Irish Literary Revival, Yeats made new material drawn from Irish myth and folklore. In Cathleen ni Hoolihan, Yeats uses an allegorical figure from Jacobite poetry: Cathleen ni Hoolihan as Ireland. She first appears as ‘The Poor Old Woman,’ who complains that her land has been taken from her, and she wants it back. While any man who helps her sacrifices everything, he ‘shall be remembered forever.’ Leaving the cottage, she is transformed into ‘a young girl’ with ‘the walk of a queen.’