Classics and Irish politics: Greece and Rome in the roots of Irish identities Irish writers, clerics and revolutionaries have long explored links with Greece and Rome Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 05:55 Isabelle Torrance and Donncha O’Rourke Imperial buildings have largely been divested of their colonial symbolism, most obviously in the case of the GPO which, as the headquarters for the 1916 Rising, is arguably the symbol of Irish independence
What have classical Greece and Rome to do with Ireland and its politics? Readers will be familiar with the many Irish literary artists who have drawn from the well of classical literature, both those whose pens have been laid to rest (writers such as Eavan Boland, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Derek Mahon, WB Yeats), and those who show the ongoing vitality of this tradition through their internationally acclaimed work (Marina Carr, Peter Fallon, Michael Longley, Frank McGuinness, Colm Tóibín among others).