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
The Boys of the Old Brigade The Boys of the Old Brigade "For the English slow march, see The Old Brigade" The Boys of the Old Brigade is an Irish rebel song written by Paddy McGuigan about the Irish Republican Army of the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), and the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The song describes a veteran of the Easter Rising telling a young man about his old comrades in the Irish Republican Army. Each chorus ends with the Irish language phrase ""a ghrá mo chroí" (love of my heart), I long to see, the Boys of the Old Brigade". Oh, father