Kathleen Ni Houlihan by W.B. Yeats.

Scene from the first production of Kathleen Ni Houlihan by W.B.Yeats with Maud Gonne playing the role of Kathleen on extreme right, 2nd April 1902. In later Abbey Theatre programmes W.B. Yeats set out his inspiration for the play. 'One night I had a dream, almost as distinct as a vision, of a cottage where there was well-being, and firelight, and talk of a marriage, and into the midst of that cottage there came an old woman, in a long cloak. She was Ireland herself, that Kathleen Ni Houlihan, for whom so many songs have been sung, and about whom so many stories have been told and for whose sake so many have gone to their death. I thought if I could write this out as a little play I could make others see my dream as I had seen it.’'