Kathleen Ni Houlihan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kathleen Ni Houlihan is a myth

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

ical symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

and emblem

Emblem

An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...

of Irish nationalism

Irish nationalism

Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

found in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

and art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, sometimes representing Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

as a personified woman. The figure of Kathleen Ni Houlihan has also been invoked in nationalist Irish politics. Kathleen Ni Houlihan is sometimes spelled as Cathleen Ni Houlihan, and the figure is also sometimes referred to as the Sean-Bhean Bhocht (pron. Shan Van Vocht), the Poor Old Woman, and similar appellations. Kathleen Ni Houlihan is generally depicted as an old woman who needs the help of young Irish men willing to fight and die to free Ireland from colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

rule, usually resulting in the young men becoming martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

s for this cause. In the days before the Anglo-Irish War, the "colonial" power was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. After the Anglo-Irish War, Kathleen Ni Houlihan was a figure more associated with the Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army

The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...

in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, especially during the Troubles.

As a literary figure, Kathleen Ni Houlihan was perhaps most famously used by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

and Lady Augusta Gregory in their play Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...

. Other authors that have used Kathleen Ni Houlihan in some way include Seán O'Casey

Seán O'Casey

Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...

(especially in The Shadow of the Gunman) and James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

who introduces characters named Kathleen and Mr Holohan in his story "A Mother" (in Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....

) to illustrate the ideological shallowness of an Irish revival festival.

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 provinces of Ireland

Provinces of Ireland

Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...

). In Yeats and Gregory's Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...

(1902), she arrives at an Irish family's home as they are making preparations for the marriage of their oldest son. In Yeats and Gregory's play, Kathleen Ni Houlihan tells the family her sad tale, interspersed with songs about famous Irish hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

es that had given their life for her. She ultimately lures the young groom away to join in the failed Irish Rebellion of 1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...

against the British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

during the French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars

The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

. After the groom makes his decision and leaves, one character notes that the old woman has become a beautiful young woman with the walk of a queen. Yeats and Gregory's treatment of Kathleen Ni Houlihan is fairly typical of this myth. The groom's choice — and eventual death in the failed rebellion — rejuvenates Kathleen Ni Houlihan to some degree.

Sacrificial aspects of the myth

Richard Kearney (1988, p. 218) suggests that the Kathleen Ni Houlihan myth represents the view that the blood sacrifice

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

of hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

es is needed to free and redeem Ireland. At the same time, these heroic sacrificial martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

s are rewarded by being "remembered for ever" (Kearney, p. 218). This nationalist

Irish nationalism

sacrificial mythology can be tied to pagan

Paganism

Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

concepts of "seasonal rejuvenation" and the sacrificial aspects of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

in the Crucifixion

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...

and tradition of martyrdom (Kearney, p. 220). This use of sacrificial martyrdom can also be seen in various hunger strike used by Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army

prisoners in the 1980s and other periods (Kearney, ch. 11).

Selected literary treatments of the myth

The figure of Kathleen Ni Houlihan has appeared in several folk song

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

s and poem

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

s. Ethna Carbery

Ethna Carbery

Ethna Carbery was an Irish journalist, writer and poet. She is best-known for the ballad Roddy McCorley and the Song of Ciabhán; the latter was set to music by Ivor Gurney. Along with Alice Milligan she published two Irish nationalist magazines.-Life:Anna Johnston was born in Ballymena, County...

's "The Passing of the Gael" (1906), which was a sentimental treatment of the Irish diaspora

Irish diaspora

thumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...

during the 19th century (partly because of the Irish Potato Famine), suggested that Irish emigrants

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

longed for their homeland. Carbery refers to Kathleen Ni Houlihan by name as the personification of Ireland that the emigrants miss.

Seán O'Casey

Seán O'Casey

Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...

'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

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

or sardonic.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

has suggested that the character of Sarah in Brian Friel

Brian Friel

Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...

's Translations
Translations
Translations is a three-act play by Irish playwright Brian Friel written in 1980. It is set in Baile Beag , a small village at the heart of 19th century agricultural Ireland...

(1980) can be seen as a Kathleen Ni Houlihan-like figure desperately trying to regain her voice and identity.

See Tommy Makem

Tommy Makem

Thomas "Tommy" Makem was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, guitar, tin whistle, and bagpipes, and sang in a distinctive baritone...

's Celtic/folk song, "Four Green Fields

Four Green Fields

Four Green Fields is a 1967 folk song by Irish musician Tommy Makem, described in the New York Times as a "hallowed Irish leave-us-alone-with-our-beauty ballad." Of Makem's many compositions, it has become the most familiar, and is part of the common repertoire of Irish folk musicians.-Content and...

."

In James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

's Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....

the selection "A Mother

A Mother

"A Mother" is a short story by James Joyce published in his 1914 collection Dubliners.-Plot summary:The story commences with a brief description of Mr. Holohan, who works for an Irish cultural society and has been arranging a series of concerts. Holohan’s bad leg is a prominent feature. We are then...

" contains the character Kathleen whose mother "determined to take advantage of her daughter's name" during the Celtic Revival

Celtic Revival

Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art, or in fact more often what art historians call Insular art...

General features and Yeats and Gregory's treatment

Sacrificial aspects of the myth

Selected literary treatments of the myth

See also