Alice Furlong - Poet and Political Activist (1875-1946)

Written by Ben Kesp

During the late 1800’s and early 1900s, Alice Furlong was one of the most prominent female poets of the time as well as a political activist who was very passionate about Irish literature, the language, and nationalism. 

Alice Furlong

Born near the then village of Tallaght, in Dublin she was no stranger to the world of literature, with her home being a meeting place for great figures at the time, like W.B. Yeats and writer, Katherine Tynan. On one occasion, Katherine describes Alice and her sisters as “wild, leggy young things, with manes of black hair, like mountain ponies, chattering about poetry and things that made poetry, at the top of their young voices”.

Her first publication was at the age of sixteen to the Irish Monthly, an Irish Catholic Magazine, which she often contributed to, along with other magazines like the Weekly Freeman and the Chambers Journal. Alice had her first book of poetry published in 1899, titled “Roses and Rue” and this was followed by “Tales of Fairy Folk and Queens and Heroes” in 1907.

In 1900, Alice was one of the founding members of Inghinidhe na Éireann (Daughters of Ireland), a radical Irish nationalist women’s organisation, along with W.B. Yeats and Maud Gonne. She also served as vice-president of the organisation. Alice along with Annie Egan, Ethan Carbery and Sinéad O’Flangan were among the many writers of Inghinidhe na Éireann.

The Betrayal 

When you were weary, roaming the wide world, over,

I gave my fickle heart to a new lover.

Now they tell me that you are lying dead:

O mountains fall on me and hide my head!

When you lay burning in the throes of fever,

He vowed me love by the willow-margined river:

Death smote you there—here was your trust betrayed,

O darkness, cover me, I am afraid! 

I will Forget

I will forget 

The moaning of the sea about Aran; 

Green beaches wet, 

And grey rocks barren – 

The sea-moan, against rocks that hinder and let! 

(I said, and in my saying, remembered yet.) 

Alice Furlong