The poem "The O'Rahilly"

Yeats wrote a number of Republican poems just after the Rising, notably "Easter, 1916", and then nothing until c.1936/7, just before he died, when he wrote one about The O'Rahilly.

SING of The O'Rahilly, Do not deny his right; Sing a "The" before his name; Allow that he, despite All those learned historians, Established it for good; He wrote out that word himself, He christened himself with blood. How goes the weather? Sing of The O'Rahilly That had such little sense He told Pearse and Connolly He'd gone to great expense Keeping all the Kerry men Out of that crazy fight; That he might be there himself Had travelled half the night. How goes the weather? "Am I such a craven that I should not get the word But for what some travelling man Had heard I had not heard?" Then on Pearse and Connolly He fixed a bitter look: "Because I helped to wind the clock I come to hear it strike." How goes the weather? What remains to sing about But of the death he met Stretched under a doorway Somewhere off Henry Street; They that found him found upon The door above his head "Here died The O'Rahilly. R.I.P." writ in blood. How goes the weather?

The O'Rahilly. See full size.

The O'Rahilly. See full size.

The O'Rahilly.
From display at Finucane's pub, Ballylongford.
See full size.

Portrait of The O'Rahilly. See full size.

The O'Rahilly (towards bottom left), on print of "The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and its martyrs".
Image courtesy of Cork Multitext Project, UCC (see here). Used with permission.

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