I recently found this spoken-word record of famous Irish nationalist speeches and poems by Micheál Mac Liammóir (1899-1978) in a second-hand bookshop in Pittsburgh.

Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore) was the co-founder of the Gate Theatre in Dublin and an actor with a remarkable gift for self-promotion and self-invention.

Recorded in 1959, each of the speeches on this record has a short introduction by Mac Liammóir, partly to place each piece in its historical context but also to set up his own (slightly melodramatic) performances. The recordings are almost all in English, with some of the Pearse speeches and poems performed in Irish also.

I had the record transferred to digital audio files and have posted each individual track below:

Robert Emmet’s Speech Before His Execution:

Patrick H. Pearse’s Oration over the Grave of O’Donovan Rossa:

“The Fool” – “The Rebel” – “Renunciation” – Patrick H. Pearse:

Proclamation of the Irish Republic – “I am Ireland” – Patrick H. Pearse:

“Red Hanrahan’s Song About Ireland” – “Easter 1916” – “The Rose Tree” – William Butler Yeats: