Conway Mill Trust

During the time of the Penal Laws, it was forbidden to use the word “Ireland” in poems or songs so love songs were re-written with new, patriotic meanings implied.  The name of the woman in the song would become the emblem for Ireland.  “Roisin Dubh”  (black rose) became universally accepted as a symbol for Ireland.  In Wm. Butler Yeat’s poem, ‘The Rose Tree,’ the withered rose tree is Ireland and only the blood of the Irish heroes can make it bloom again.  And Aubrey de Vere’s ‘The Little Black Rose Shall Be Red At Last,’ where the rose is black in winter but when summer comes the rose will become red (when Ireland is free).