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Archive on 4: Rising Voices

Rising Voices

23/04/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Rising Voices

Fergal Keane explores the cultural landscape of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Using archive recordings of those who fought in the Easter Rising, Fergal Keane explores the cultural revival which preceded the insurrection, and the cultural reaction it inspired.

On Easter Monday 1916, the teacher and poet Patrick Pearse stood on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin and delivered the Proclamation of the Irish Republic to a bemused public. It was a moment prepared for not just through military drills and revolutionary conspiracy. From late in the previous century a cultural revival was underway in Ireland.

For Archive on 4, renowned journalist and broadcaster Fergal Keane explores the roots of a cultural revival which stoked the fires of revolutionary fervour among a small group of poets, musicians, and political activists, many of whom went on to lead and fight in the Rising.

Using rarely broadcast archive of men and women who witnessed and fought in the Rising, Fergal examines the sources of their revolutionary ambitions. 

He discovers a Dublin bristling with ideas, where a new passion for Irish language, music and mythology sat alongside the literary revival of W.B Yeats and Lady Gregory. Fiery plays like Cathleen Ni Houlihan evoked emotions of noble sacrifice. The city crackled with debates on feminism, pacifism and equality.

Fergal explores the work of the men known as the Rising's Poets - Pearse, Plunkett, MacDonagh - and uncovers themes of blood sacrifice, Celtic mythology and Catholic mysticism. He examines the seismic shift in Ireland after the Rising, immortalised in W.B Yeats' poem 'Easter 1916' and Sean O'Casey's play 'The Plough and the Stars', which challenged notions of romantic idealism and led to riots.

With contributions from Prof Declan Kiberd, Dr Lucy Collins and Prof Roy Foster, and archive recordings from the BBC and the Irish National Bureau of Military History, Fergal demonstrates how language, poetry, drama and song helped to shape both the Rising and its legacy.

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