Mise Éire

I am Ireland
The sixth chapter of 'Centenary is 'Mise éire', a new composition of Pearse's poem performed by Sibéal Ní Chasaide se more...

The sixth chapter of ‘Centenary is ‘Mise éire’, a new composition of Pearse’s poem performed by Sibéal Ní Chasaide set to a score by Patrick Cassidy.

Mise Éire is a 1912 Irish-language poem by the Irish poet and Republican revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse. In the poem, Pearse personifies Ireland as an old woman whose glory is past and who has been sold by her children. The title of the poem was used as a title for a 1959 documentary film by George Morrison, which dealt with key figures and events in Irish Nationalism between the 1890s and the 1910s, including Pearse himself. A poem of the same name by Eavan Boland was written as a counter to Pearse’s poem, and its treatment of Ireland and her children.

In 2016, the poem was translated to song for the score of the PBS documentary series 1916: An Irish Rebellion, curated by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The song, also titled Mise Éire, was composed by Patrick Cassidy and performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra with vocals by Sibéal Ní Chasaide.

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Irish

English

I am Ireland:
I am older than the Hag of Beara.

I am Ireland:
I am lonelier than the Hag of Beara.

Great my glory:
I who bore brave Cúchulainn.

Great my shame:
My own children that sold their mother.

Great my sorrow:
That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, decayed.

I am Ireland:
I am older than the Hag of Beara.

I am Ireland:
I am lonelier than the Hag of Beara.

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