‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.’

William Butler Yeats , The Second Coming

I first heard this poem many years ago but it was just a poem then. It was written in 1919 at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence when Ireland sought to free itself from English rule. However, this was not happening in a vacuum, Europe had just been through the First World War and there was still plenty going on as you can see below.