perspective from the person who is directly affected to the mother, suffering from the loss of her son.

In his interpretation of A Mother Speaks, Alexander claims that Pearses identification of his mother with Mary is also an identification of himself with the Christ of the Passion (37). So, according to Alexander, Pearse compares his own death to the death of Jesus, who innocently sacrificed his life for a greater cause. Using this theme Pearse implicitly depicts his own death as sacrifice for the greater good, with him heroically sacrificing his life as Jesus did. Apart from its literary value, A Mother Speaks has a unique history; for decades it was hidden away and nobody knew about its existence. The poem was only discovered in 1965, when it was found among . . . papers in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. (ODoherty 18)

The next poem discussed, To My Brother, Pearse wrote on May 1, 1916, two days before his execution. In To My Brother Pearse is neither fearful nor does he get lost in self-pity; he praises his brother instead. Pearse acts very much according to Mark Twains statement: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. (qtd. in Atkins 6). According to Moran, the poem recognizes that his younger brother had indeed lived in a subordinate position . . . It also admitted of the common heritage and maternal origins of the two brothers. (Moran 170). The poem also shows how close the brothers were. The death theme is inexplicitly and subtly present, but still very much tangible through the deeply perceptible graveness and finality of the poems undertone.

Many of Pearses poems show that he was deeply religious, e.g. with Christs Coming (Pearse 328) Pearse dedicated a poem to the birth of Jesus Christ. Also in A Mother Speaks Pearse explicitly refers to Jesus and Mary: Dear Mary, that didst see
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thy first-born Son (l. 1). In The Mother Pearse has the mother commune with God, expressing her faith and devotion. Pearse also expresses his faith implicitly when addressing death in many of his poems.

5 Conclusion
Patrick Pearse lived a short life, but, as Abraham Lincoln pointed out, in the end, its not the years in your life that count. Its the life in your years. (qtd. in Johnson 76). Pearse not only earned the respect of his fellow republicans, but also of the very man who sentenced him to death, Major General Charles Blackader, who expressed his paramount respect for Patrick Pearse, while at the same time questioning the British involvement in Irish affairs: I have just done one of the hardest tasks I have ever had to do. I have had to condemn to death one of the finest characters I have ever come across. There must be something very wrong in the state of things that makes a man like that a rebel. (Cosgrove).

Death in Patrick Pearses poems is depicted in manifold ways. In The Rebel Pearse highlights that death is not to be feared and that the desire to be free (Pearse: 339) has to be stronger than even death. In Long to me Thy coming and Why do ye torture me? Pearse stresses the aspect of death as being an escape and release of all pain and sorrow, freeing him from all distress and sleeplessness (Pearse 315), while in O Little Bird Pearse brings out deaths mercilessness (Pearse 314). Pearse also points out that death, eventually, does not eradicate the admirable qualities of men and their connected memories (Wikisource).

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His own death Pearse compares to the death of Jesus (Alexander 37), declaring that he is dying the death of a martyr, preparing the way for future generations. In his address to his court martial Pearse proclaimed: We seem to have lost. We have not lost, to refuse to fight would have been to lose; to fight is to win . . . If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom, then our children will win it by a better deed. (Moran 169). History reveals that Patrick Pearses devoting his life to an effort to free my country (qtd. in Moran 169) did make a difference, and that his sacrifice did indeed bring Ireland a step closer to freedom. About 80 years after Pearses execution, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 laid the groundwork for Patrick Pearses vision of a free Ireland to be within reach, eventually.

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6 Works Cited
Alexander, Yonah. Ireland's Terrorist Dilemma (International Studies on Terrorism, Vol 2). Berlin: Springer, 1986. Print.

Atkins, Peter. Life Is Short And So Is This Book: Brief Thoughts On Making The Most Of Your Life. Oxford: Peter Atkins, 2011. Print.

BBC Home. The Executions. Accessed 8 June 2013. Web.

Colum, Padraic, ed. Poems of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood: Thomas Macdonagh, P. H. Pearse, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Sir Roger Casement. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2007. Print.

Cosgrove Neil F. Padraig Pearse. Accessed 8 June 2013. Web.

Finn, Michael J. Patrick Pearse. Accessed 9 June 2013. Web.

Johnson, Lloyd Albert. A Toolbox for Humanity: More than 9000 Years of Thought. Bloomington: Trafford Publishing, 2006. Print.

Joy, Maurice, et al. The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its Martyrs: Erin's Tragic Easter. New York: Devin-Adair, 1916. Print.

McGarry, Fearghal. 3 Mar. 2011.The Easter Rising of 1916. Accessed 8 June 2013. Web.

Moran, Sean Farrell. Patrick Pearse and the Politics of Redemption: The Mind of the Easter Rising, 1916. Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1998. Print.

ODoherty, Shane Paul. The Volunteer: A Former IRA Man's True Story. New York: Strategic Book Publishing, 2013. Print.
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Pearse, Padraic. Plays Stories Poems. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1966. Print.

Ryan, Desmond. The man called Pearse. Charleston: Nabu Press, 2010. Print.

Sisson, Elaine. Pearse's Patriots: St. Enda's and the Cult of Boyhood. Cork: Cork University Press, 2004. Print.

Wikisource. To My Mother (Pearse). Accessed 12 June 2013. Web.

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