Easter, 1916 of the poem resumes the first person narrative of the first and second stanzas. The stanza returns to the image of the stony heart: "Too long a sacrifice/ Can make a stone of the heart" (57–8), Yeats wrote, putting the determined struggle of Irish republicans in the Easter Rising in the context of the long, turbulent history of British colonialism in Ireland, as well as alluding to the immense psychological costs of the long struggle for independence. Indeed, the narrator cries, "O when may it suffice?", and answering his own question with the line, "That is heaven's part" (making an
Robert Brennan (journalist) also active in the republican movement and had her sworn into the IRB. She was with him in Wexford for the 1916 Easter Rising. He commanded the insurgents in Wexford during the 1916 Easter Rising and, along with other leaders Seamus Rafter and Seán Etchingham, was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to penal servitude. His continuing political activity resulted in further imprisonments in 1917 and afterwards. His daughter Maeve Brennan was born while he was in prison. In April 1918 he was placed in charge of a newly formed Sinn Féin Department of Propaganda/Publicity. However, in November 1918