What Is The Meaning Of Act Of Union By Seamus Heaney

The British have reigned over the Irish so long and so cruelly that they have left Ireland in “state of dependence” psychologically, politically, and economically. In other words, the “ideology of Protestant consumption” has “actually eroded” the self-confidence and sense of worth of the Irish so badly that it has left Ireland a nation unable to sustain itself (Mahoney). England is eating up Ireland. But this tribulation cannot be blamed solely on the British. Swift cleverly condemns the British aristocracy for their mistreatment of the Irish people while also criticizing the Irish people for allowing this exploitation.

This culminated in the Rebellion of 1798, lead by Wolfe Tone and the Society of United Irishmen, in which Hugh and Jimmy participated: “The road to Sligo. A spring morning. 1798. Going into battle” (445). But, as these characters soon discovered, the rebellion failed resulting in large executions and the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. This piece of legislation, effective from 1 January 1801, brought Ireland under the direct rule of the British Crown.

The poet addresses issues of the child observing an unhealthy and abusive relationship between his/her father and mother in the third stanza. The eighth line states, “Do we forgive our Fathers for marrying or not marrying our Mothers?” These words insinuate that the father treated the child’s mother badly or was abusive to her and that she deserved better. This is so considering the only reason to forgive someone for marrying another implies they treated that person improperly. Likewise, having to forgive someone for not marrying another simply displays how the other person never received what he or she

Although, when explaining how the half man half ox came to be, the man having relations with the ox was not subject to dishonor, but instead it was said to just be “a particular vice of that people”(74). Here, Gerald suggests that although it was a man that acted dishonorably something beautiful came out of it, while the children of the bestial women are not spoken of most likely because they were so wretched. Gerald seems to be relating cultural hybridity to the act of interspecies crossbreeding, ultimately allowing the reader to relate it to filth. By showing different forms of miscegenation, Gerald makes each variation seem negative to his readers, which makes Ireland as a whole look like a place for hybrid “mongrels”.

Additionally, the woman mentioned in the poem is being berated for being in loved, the most incorruptible and pleasurable feelings one could experience. Because fraternizing with the British is seen as a crime, women do not have any control of their own lives. By witnessing the young girl's moments before death, Heaney illustrates how the Irish rebellion affected many people.

First element that Heaney uses is diction, it is simple but effective. Diction is word choice, or the style of speaking that a writer, speaker, or character uses. For instance at the end of the poem he says “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests. / I’ll dig with it” (Heaney 29-31). The diction he uses is simple but it is effective in proving his point of view that he won’t dig with a shovel but instead he’ll use a pen.

When Swift is describing the use of children as commodities, it is ironic because his intentions are to actually explain that the English view the whole Irish population as commodities. The English landlords are the ones responsible for Ireland’s poverty. The essay shows, through sarcasm, that the English have purposely took everything from the Irish because they view them as commodities. One example of sarcasm used to portray that idea is that the utilization of infants will be “proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (804). It is very apparent that Swift blames the English for Ireland’s problems. He also blames the Irish Catholics that allowed English policy to break down Ireland.

In this quotation, I believe he was referring to the children as ingredients for making good foods that should be sold out to people without the care from their parents or the government. He is using this writing to make a mockery of the landowners and the government of Ireland, it is because of their inability to take care of the poor women and their children that made the mothers to take their children to the market and sold as food. We all know it is not possible to use your own children to make food. It is very frustrating to see this child be put on the market for sale.

Daniel Hoffheins from UC Davis says in his literary analysis says “Heaney slyly adds at the end of the second and third stanzas that the corpses’ rosaries act as shackles, fettering their “obediently sloped” wrists. Such intentional observations echo Heaney’s initial qualifying statement and lace his “courteous admiration” with a hint of sarcasm, lending the tableau of the hovering women around the open coffins a bathetic quality, like moths hovering around an open flame.”. Hoffheins makes the same point that their religion and their sympathies make them slaves to the idea of a united Catholic Ireland. Heaney

The setting for “The Fatal Sisters” is an eleventh century, war-ridden Ireland.  The nation’s fate appears to rest upon the shoulders of a few bloodthirsty

All of these dualities in his poetry, his art, can be linked to his biography. The tense social and political atmosphere he was raised in, the local verses and scholarly education he received, the emotional fluctuations caused by IRA bombings and peace protests all contribute to the “splitness” in his poetry.

The historical link into the present is further explored in the eighth stanza where Heaney presumably addresses the bog girl directly. As a reader however, one can feel a shift in tense, as though the bog girl’s body and her punishment have travelled through time to the present day, both physically and metaphorically. This shift is established through the direct addressing of the bog girl in first person, but also through the literal change in time from past to present. As this shift occurs, the reader realizes Heaney may not be speaking solely of the bog girl anymore, but about a much more recent case of female punishment. This case involved an Irish lady who was tarred and feathered during The Troubles as punishment for her relationship with a British soldier.

The Irish had suffered long before in the hands of the English when Cromwell had been in control and had taken away land held by the catholic majority of the country to members of the protestant minority. This created a large tension among the population with the oppressed majority and the rather entitled minority who by Trevelyan’s snooty tone did indeed see themselves as the superior people in the country. (Trevelyan’s tone is probably the most dismissive when in discussion of the Irish, mayhaps showing his own true dislike.) (Trevelyan, p. 116-

Both poems have alliteration. Some of the first lines have alliteration. “Light like a green

The Act of Union of 1707 brought together the two independent nations of Scotland and England to create a new United Kingdom. This new Kingdom in the opinion of the English ensured political and military stability on the Island of Great Britain, neutralizing the Scottish MP’s by absorbing them into the Westminster system.