Easter, 1916 Easter, 1916 Easter, 1916 is a poem by W. B. Yeats describing the poet's torn emotions regarding the events of the Easter Rising staged in Ireland against British rule on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. The uprising was unsuccessful, and most of the Irish republican leaders involved were executed for treason. The poem was written between May and September 1916, but first published in 1921 in the collection "Michael Robartes and the Dancer". Even though a committed nationalist, Yeats usually rejected violence as a means to secure Irish independence, and as a result had strained relations with some of the
Earl of Drogheda of his brother-in-law, Henry Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil. In a feast of egotism, he built and named Henry Street, Moore Street, Earl Street, Of (or Off) Lane (now Henry Place, and an important escape route for the volunteers fleeing the GPO during the Easter Rising in 1916), and Drogheda Street (part of what is now O'Connell Street). The third Earl was succeeded by his grandson Henry, the fourth Earl. The latter died without surviving children at an early age and was succeeded by his younger brother, Edward, the fifth Earl, who had previously represented Dunleer in the Irish Parliament.