Kathleen Ni Houlihan
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Kathleen Ni Houlihan (
As a literary figure, Kathleen Ni Houlihan was featured by
General features and Yeats and Gregory's treatment
Kathleen Ni Houlihan is generally portrayed as an old woman without a home. Frequently it is hinted that this is because she has been dispossessed of her home which comprised a farmhouse and "four green fields" (symbolising the four
Sacrificial aspects of the myth
Richard Kearney (1988, p. 218) suggests that the Kathleen Ni Houlihan myth represents the view that the blood
Selected literary treatments of the myth
The figure of Kathleen Ni Houlihan has appeared in several folk songs and poems. Ethna Carbery's "The Passing of the Gael" (1906), which was a sentimental treatment of the Irish diaspora during the 19th century (partly because of the Great Famine of that period), suggested that Irish emigrants longed for their homeland. Carbery refers to Kathleen Ni Houlihan by name as the personification of Ireland that the emigrants miss.
Seán O'Casey's The Shadow of the Gunman (1923) quotes the last line of Carbery's "The Passing of the Gael," as the character Seumas Shields complains about various aspects of Irish culture. O'Casey's treatment of the myth is generally viewed as ironic or sardonic.
Irish poet Seamus Heaney has suggested that the character of Sarah in Brian Friel's Translations (1980) can be seen as a Kathleen Ni Houlihan-like figure desperately trying to regain her voice and identity.
Arnold Bax's classical tone poem, influenced from his time in Ireland also assumes the name Cathleen-Ni-Houlihan.
See Tommy Makem's Celtic/folk song, "Four Green Fields.
In James Joyce's Dubliners (1914) the selection "A Mother" contains the character Kathleen whose mother "determined to take advantage of her daughter's name" during the Celtic Revival.
See also
- Mise Éire
- Róisín Dubh (song)
- The Sean-Bhean bhocht
- Hibernia (personification)
- Four Green Fields
- Irish folklore
- Irish literature
- List of Ireland-related topics
References
- ^ The Last Word: The Walk of a Queen, By James Flannery, Contributor, August/September 2011, Irish America
Sources
- Lady Augusta Gregory, Cathleen Ni Houlihan (1902).
- Richard Kearney, Transitions: Narratives in Modern Irish Culture (Manchester, UK: ISBN 0-7190-1926-5
- ISBN 0-571-11742-2
- Times Literary Supplement(1981).
- Ethna Carbery, "The Passing of the Gael,” The Four Winds of Eirinn: Poems by Ethna Carbery, 1906, A Celebration of Women Writers, ed. Seumas MacManus and Mary Mark Ockerbloom, 2003, University of Pennsylvania, 21 March 2005.
- ISBN 0-571-19552-0