The O'Rahilly

Subject: The O'Rahilly
From: leprechaun
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:22 AM

In two books about the 1916 Easter Rebellion I've read about a person referred to as The O'Rahilly. Why was he The? Are there any songs about him?

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 10:50 AM

What books are you reading?
His real first name was Michael; he was called The O'Rahilly because he was the head of that clan-- or at least claimed to be.
I don't know any songs about him. W.B. Yeats wrote a poem about him which you can find in a few minutes Web surfing; I'm pretty sure it's #305 in the Collected Works. But the poem does take the most dramatic thing he ever said --"well, I've helped wind up the clock. Might as well hear it strike" and turn it into
Then on Pierce and Connolly
He fixed a bitter look
Because I helped to wind the clock
I come to hear it strike
According to Amazon.com, his son's biography of him is out of print again.
Does anybody know if this poem got set to music?

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: Áine
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:16 PM

Dear leprechaun,

The O'Rahilly was Michael Joseph O'Rahilly. On the Friday morning after the General Post Office had been taken, the building was being bombarded by the English troops and was burning down around the men inside. The O'Rahilly led an assault in Moore Street to establish a position to cover the evacuation of the GPO, and was killed in the process. Only a few small groups made it out of the GPO, before the building was surrendered.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: mousethief
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:45 PM

Aine, how does one pronounce O'Rahilly? I've got about five guesses but have no idea which is correct (if any!).

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: Áine
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:48 PM

Dear Alex,

I think you'll be fine if you put the emphasis on the second syllable - 'Ra'. Just say it with feeling, and I'm sure you'll be OK. ;-)

-- Áine

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: mousethief
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:58 PM

I feel better already. *BG*

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: leprechaun
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 11:16 PM

You folks are great!

As far as the books I'm reading -

Currently, A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle.

The first one I think, was The Easter Rebellion, or something like that, but I read it and loaned it to my brother, so I can't say for sure if that's the name or who's the author. I snagged it up because it mentioned a Captain McCormack, who apparently also perished. I'd really be after knowin' more about him because my grandfather's name was McCormack. He changed it slightly to throw the English off his tail before he emigrated.

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: leprechaun
Date: 24 Sep 00 - 06:20 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson at work
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 09:42 AM

I'll have to look up A Star called Henry. If you haven't seen Morgan LLewellyn's 1916, that is of course fiction but having read Rebels and Max Caulfield's The Easter Rebellion, I can see where a lot of teh stories came from. (Of course she probably went to the primary sources cited in those books)
I think the name was probably pronounced as if it were the more conventinal O'Reilly and my reason for believing this is via James Joyce-- a Leprechaun probably knows that the hero of Finnegans Wake was one Humphrey C. Earwicker. At least one of the reasons that Joyce chose that name is that ear-wicker translates into French as pers-orielle and sure enough one of the characters in the Wake eventually sings the ballad of Pearse and O'Rahilly (names of course mangled as can only happen in a dream) Circumstantial evidence only, and maybe misleading, but I'll believe it till something better comes along. There's a picture of him somewhere in Rebels-- he didn't look at all like I expected him to! (neither did Tom Clarke)

Subject: RE: The O'Rahilly
From: leprechaun
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 10:45 PM

Anytime you get the French and the Irish combined you're bound to get some mangled pronunciation.