Reviving “Eva” of The Nation?: Eva O’Doherty’s Young Ireland Newspaper Poetry

Eva O’Doherty, or “Eva of the Nation,” played a significant role in the mid-nineteenth-century Young Ireland movement as a frequent contributor to the radical Irish nationalist press. Through poetry and letters to the editor, she responded to the crisis of the Great Famine and urged unity among fellow nationalists in her call for violent revolution. Later in her life, O’Doherty’s poetry was republished, but her most militant verse was either revised or excluded from collections. Thus, we must examine her work in its original newspaper context to gain a clearer understanding of her role as a radical poet.