ABSTRACT
Yeats and the Celtic Revival looked to myth for a story of continuity which history denied them. They invoked narratives whose prehistoric integrity might compensate for the ruptures of Irish history and resolve its endless quarrels. Here-as noted in the preceding chapter-were timeless creatures from an antique world, healing memories older than the scars of conflict, a heritage of ‘national sovereignty’ for all the tribes of Erin. In this manner, myth was often deployed as emblem for a new Ireland proudly restored to pristine wholeness. As has been argued at some length in Chapter 7, Yeats and other revivalists believed that myths were prime movers of history. And this belief was confirmed, first, by leaders of the 1916 rebellion who identified with the mythological heroes of blood sacrifice, and, second, by the patrons of the new Irish state who erected a statue of Cuchulain in the GPO in Dublin at the very place where Pearse had proclaimed a free Ireland.1
