Why have so many Irish, loyal to the country they love subjected themselves to self-consuming hunger strikes? Perhaps Yeats answers that question in his play Cathleen ni Houlihan, a play in which Cathleen ni Houlihan  personifies Ireland: 

        If anyone would give me himself, he must give me all .... They that 
        have red cheeks will have pale cheeks for my sake. ... They shall be
        remembered forever/ The people shall hear them forever.