William Butler Yeats Quotes
Was it for this the wild geese spread The gray wing upon every tide; For this that all that blood was shed, For this. Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, All that delirium of the brave? Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Yeats, W. B. "September 1913." Responsibilities, Macmillan, 1914, p. 17.
Executed by the English for his part in the Easter Uprising.
The 69th Regiment, the first and original division of the Irish Brigade, has been one of the most decorated and successful American battle units since the Civil War. It was originally formed with Irish Immigrant Volunteers by the authority of the Secretary of War. The Irishmen designed their own regimental battle flag which not only was composed of Irish motifs such as the Harp of Erin, but this was the only text in the red banner but it was in Gaelic. The battle flag could be an Irish Army regimental flag as there is nothing on the flag to identify it with America. Although the flag did not, the brigade did with their blood left on the battlefield of every American war up to today. Ironically, this may be the only national military unit in history who operated with a slogan extolling another country.
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.
