This book details the Irish socialistic tracks pursued by Bernard Shaw and Sean O’Casey, mostly after 1916, that were arguably impacted by the executed James Connolly. The historical context is carefully unearthed, stretching from its 1894 roots via W. B. Yeats’ dream of Shaw as a menacing, yet grinning sewing machine, to Shaw’s and O’Casey’s 1928 masterworks. In the process, Shaw’s War Issues for Irishmen, Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress, The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman, Saint Joan, The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, and O’Casey’s The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, and The Silver Tassie are reconsidered, revealing previously undiscovered textures to the masterworks. All of which provides a rethinking, a reconsideration of Ireland’s great drama of the 1920s, as well as furthering the knowledge of Shaw, O’Casey, and Connolly.
Author(s): Nelson O’Ceallaigh Ritschel
Series: Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 286
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
1 Introduction
References
2 Shaw, O’Casey, Connolly: Stitching the Foundation, 1890s–1915
Enter O’Casey
Lockout
O’Casey and the ICA
War
ITGWU Maneuvering
Labour Theatre
Connolly, the ICA, Anti-Recruitment
Shaw, O’Flaherty, V. C.
References
3 Revolutions 1916/1917: Lynd, War Issues, the ITGWU
Revolution I
Remembering Connolly
Revolution: II
Irish Repercussions
References
4 Shaw’s Elderly Gentleman, O’Casey’s Trilogy Begins: Larkin/O’Brien
1919
1920s
Burrin Pier
War for Independence
Yeats
Changing Flags
The Trilogy Begins
References
5 Shaw’s Saint Joan: Martyred Vision
History
The Play
The Irish Element
Rehabilitation
References
6 The Plough and the Stars: The Lost Workers’ Republic
The Play
Acts III and IV
The Opening Run’s Epilogue
References
7 The Intelligent Woman’s Guide, The Silver Tassie, and The Re-Conquest
The Guide
Revolution, Government, and International Socialism
Trade Unions
Women
The Silver Tassie
Rejection
References
Epilogue
Index
