Like O’Casey, Yeats was also a cultural nationalist and this ensured politics assumed major importance in his work during 1913. Through much of the year, he was engaged in a cultural war on behalf of Sir Hugh Lane, an art collector and dealer in paintings who felt Dublin needed a modern gallery. When this proved a contentious issue, Lane withdrew his offer of a collection of French paintings. This insult to Lane so incensed the poet that he embarked on a satiric assault on his enemies, demanding that enlightened aristocracy and wealth should act with proper regard for its responsibilities to leadership. Yeats’s primary target was rich businessmen and newspaper magnate, William Martin Murphy, the tramways owner who instigated the Lockout.
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Within it, “The blind and ignorant town” is a reference to the Irish Independent, a newspaper owned by Murphy which consistently attacked Lane. Moreover, in his notes accompanying Responsibilities, Yeats confirms his belief that “religious” and “political” Ireland were both stronger forty years before the rise of the Catholic middle-class who show Irish “minds are without culture”. Yeats’s most powerful and possibly greatest ever poem, ‘September 1913’, implicates this new Catholic middle-class further. Originally entitled ‘Romance in Ireland’, he accuses them of fumbling in a “greasy till”, and in doing so, they put material value first at the expense of culture. However, the most powerful line is “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” John O’Leary was an Irish separatist whose political stance was much less self-interested than many of his contemporaries, focusing on the good of the people rather than personal profit. It is clear that Yeats admires this and wishes for a return to the less egotistical and self-driven politics of a bygone …show more content…
He largely kept these views private, however, from his poetry, it is clear that they were fermenting for some time and the Lockout brought to a head this abhorrence for the rising Catholic middle-class. The events of the Lockout certainly aroused strong emotions for Yeats and in October he sent a letter to the Irish Worker. In this letter, appearing under the heading ‘Dublin Fanaticism’ on 1 November, he objected strongly to the police failing to protect the rights of citizens when the AOH besieged Dublin, preventing men and women from the leaving the country. Moreover, he charges the “Dublin Nationalist newspapers” - the foremost being the Irish Independent - with the deliberate arousal of “religious passion to break up the organisation of the workingman”. He also accuses the “Unionist Press” of “conniving at this conspiracy”. Like O’Casey, this is certainly a response to the Archbishops condemnation of the Lockout, however, his motive behind ‘Dublin Fanaticism’ has been subjected to a considerable amount of scrutiny. For example, Conor Cruise O’Brien explains that Yeats’s letter was “little more than an incident in something like a personal feud,” referring to the rivalry with Murphy. However, Elizabeth Cullingford’s views are strongly at variance with those of O’Brien, contending: “he is wrong to ignore the
Within it, “The blind and ignorant town” is a reference to the Irish Independent, a newspaper owned by Murphy which consistently attacked Lane. Moreover, in his notes accompanying Responsibilities, Yeats confirms his belief that “religious” and “political” Ireland were both stronger forty years before the rise of the Catholic middle-class who show Irish “minds are without culture”. Yeats’s most powerful and possibly greatest ever poem, ‘September 1913’, implicates this new Catholic middle-class further. Originally entitled ‘Romance in Ireland’, he accuses them of fumbling in a “greasy till”, and in doing so, they put material value first at the expense of culture. However, the most powerful line is “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” John O’Leary was an Irish separatist whose political stance was much less self-interested than many of his contemporaries, focusing on the good of the people rather than personal profit. It is clear that Yeats admires this and wishes for a return to the less egotistical and self-driven politics of a bygone …show more content…
He largely kept these views private, however, from his poetry, it is clear that they were fermenting for some time and the Lockout brought to a head this abhorrence for the rising Catholic middle-class. The events of the Lockout certainly aroused strong emotions for Yeats and in October he sent a letter to the Irish Worker. In this letter, appearing under the heading ‘Dublin Fanaticism’ on 1 November, he objected strongly to the police failing to protect the rights of citizens when the AOH besieged Dublin, preventing men and women from the leaving the country. Moreover, he charges the “Dublin Nationalist newspapers” - the foremost being the Irish Independent - with the deliberate arousal of “religious passion to break up the organisation of the workingman”. He also accuses the “Unionist Press” of “conniving at this conspiracy”. Like O’Casey, this is certainly a response to the Archbishops condemnation of the Lockout, however, his motive behind ‘Dublin Fanaticism’ has been subjected to a considerable amount of scrutiny. For example, Conor Cruise O’Brien explains that Yeats’s letter was “little more than an incident in something like a personal feud,” referring to the rivalry with Murphy. However, Elizabeth Cullingford’s views are strongly at variance with those of O’Brien, contending: “he is wrong to ignore the