Cathleen ni Houlihan
In Irish literature Cathleen ni Houlihan is generally depicted as an old woman (Sean-Bhean Bhocht; Poor Old Woman) who needs assistance from young Irish men to fight and free Ireland from tyranny. As a symbol of Irish nationalism, she is depicted in the play Cathleen ni Houlihan, a collaborative venture written by Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1901. It is set in a peasant cottage in the Irish village of Killala on August 22, 1798, the exact date and place where French troops landed to support the United Irishmen's revolution against England. Indicative of the symbiotic relationship between literature and politics, it was performed just before the 1916 Easter Rising.