Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

working classes.

Early life

O'Casey was born at 85 Upper Dorset Street,

, as John Casey, the son of Michael Casey, a mercantile clerk (who worked for the

Irish Church Missions The Irish Church Missions (ICM) is a conservative and semi-autonomous Anglican mission. It was founded in 1849 as The Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics chiefly by English Anglicans though with the backing and support of Church of Irelan ...

), and Susan Archer. His parents were Protestants and he was a member of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

, baptised on 28 July 1880 in St. Mary's parish, confirmed at St John the Baptist Church in Clontarf, and an active member of St. Barnabas' Church on Sheriff Street until his mid-20s, when he drifted away from the church. There is a church called 'Saint Burnupus' in his play '' Red Roses For Me''. O'Casey's father died when Seán was just six years of age, leaving a family of thirteen. The family lived a peripatetic life thereafter, moving from house to house around north Dublin. As a child, he suffered from poor eyesight, which interfered somewhat with his early education, but O'Casey taught himself to read and write by the age of thirteen. He left school at fourteen and worked at a variety of jobs, including a nine-year period as a railwayman on the GNR. O'Casey worked in Eason's for a short while, in the newspaper distribution business, but was sacked for not taking off his cap when collecting his wage packet. From the early 1890s, O'Casey and his elder brother, Archie, put on performances of plays by

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

and

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

in the family home. He also got a small part in Boucicault's ''The Shaughraun'' in the

Mechanics' Theatre The Mechanics' Hall, also known as the Hibernian Theatre of Varieties, was a theatre and music hall in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. It stood at the site of the current Abbey Theatre at 26 Lower Abbey Street. A theatre or circus has stood on this ...

, which stood on the site of what was to be the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the p ...

Politics

As his interest in the

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

cause grew, O'Casey joined the

Gaelic League (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...

in 1906 and learned the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

. At this time, he Gaelicised his name from John Casey to Seán Ó Cathasaigh. He also learned to play the

Uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from thei ...

and was a founder and secretary of the St. Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band. He joined the

Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...

, and became involved in the

Irish Transport and General Workers Union The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), was a trade union representing workers, initially mainly labourers, in Ireland. History The union was founded by James Larkin in January 1909 as a general union. Initially drawing its mem ...

, which had been established by

Jim Larkin James Larkin (28 January 1874 – 30 January 1947), sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party along with James Connolly and Willia ...

to represent the interests of the unskilled labourers who inhabited the Dublin tenements. He participated in the

Dublin lock-out The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in Ireland's capital and largest city, Dublin. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often vi ...

but was blacklisted and could not find steady work for some time. In March 1914, he became General Secretary of Larkin's

Irish Citizen Army The Irish Citizen Army (), or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin M ...

, which would soon be run by

James Connolly James Connolly ( ga, Séamas Ó Conghaile; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the a ...

. On 24 July 1914 he resigned from the ICA, after his proposal to ban dual membership in both the ICA and the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

was rejected. One of his first satirical ballads, "The Grand Oul' Dame Britannia", was published in ''The Workers' Republic'' on 15 January 1916 under his penname An Gall Fada.

After the Easter Rising

In 1917, his friend

Thomas Ashe Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

died in a hunger strike and it inspired him to write. He wrote two laments: one in verse and a longer one in prose. Ballads authored around this time by O'Casey featured in the two editions of ''Songs of the Wren'', published in 1918; these included "The Man from the Daily Mail", which, along with "The Grand Oul' Dame Britannia", became

Irish rebel music Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

staples. A common theme was opposition to Irish conscription into the British Army during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He spent the next five years writing plays. In 1918, when both his sister and mother died (in January and September, respectively), the St Laurence O'Toole National Club commissioned him to write the play ''The Frost in the Flower''. He had been in the St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band and played on the

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

team. The club declined to put the play on out of fear that its satirical treatment of several parishioners would cause resentment. O'Casey then submitted the play to the Abbey Theatre, which also rejected it but encouraged him to continue writing. Eventually, O'Casey expanded the play to three acts and retitled it ''The Harvest Festival''.

Abbey Theatre

O'Casey's first accepted play, ''

The Shadow of a Gunman ''The Shadow of a Gunman'' is a 1923 tragicomedy play by Seán O'Casey set during the Irish War of Independence. It centres on the mistaken identity of a building tenant who is thought to be an IRA assassin. It is the first in O'Casey's "Dublin ...

'', was performed at the

in 1923. This was the beginning of a relationship that was to be fruitful for both theatre and dramatist but which ended in some bitterness. The play deals with the impact of revolutionary politics on Dublin's slums and their inhabitants, and is understood to be set in

Mountjoy Square Mountjoy Square () is a Georgian garden square in Dublin, Ireland, on the Northside of the city just under a kilometre from the River Liffey. One of five Georgian squares in Dublin, it was planned and developed in the late 18th century by Lu ...

, where he lived during the 1916

Easter Rising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the a ...

. It was followed by '' Juno and the Paycock'' (1924) and ''

The Plough and the Stars ''The Plough and the Stars'' is a four-act play by the Irish writer Seán O'Casey that was first performed on 8 February 1926 at the Abbey Theatre. It is set in Dublin and addresses the 1916 Easter Rising. The play's title references the Sta ...

'' (1926). The former deals with the effect of the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

on the working class poor of the city, while the latter is set in Dublin in 1916 around the

. Both plays deal realistically with the rhetoric and dangers of Irish patriotism, with tenement life, self-deception, and survival; they are tragi-comedies in which violent death throws into relief the blustering masculine bravado of characters such as Jack Boyle and Joxer Daly in ''Juno and the Paycock'' and the heroic resilience of Juno herself or of Bessie Burgess in ''The Plough and the Stars''. ''Juno and the Paycock'' became a film directed by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

. ''The Plough and the Stars'' was not well received by the Abbey audience and resulted in scenes reminiscent of the riots that greeted

J. M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly r ...

's ''

The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...

'' in 1907. There was a riot reported on the fourth night of the show. His depiction of sex and religion offended even some of the actors, who refused to speak their lines. The full-scale riot occurred partly because the play was thought to be an attack on the men in the rising and partly in protest in opposition to the animated appearance of a prostitute in Act 2.

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

got onto the stage and roared at the audience: "You have disgraced yourselves again." The takings of the play were substantial compared with the previous week. O'Casey gave up his job and became a full-time writer. After the incident, even though the play was well liked by most of the Abbey goers,

Liam O'Flaherty Liam O'Flaherty ( ; 28 August 1896 – 7 September 1984) was an Irish novelist and short-story writer, and one of the foremost socialist writers in the first part of the 20th century, writing about the common people's experience and from their ...

, Austin Clarke and F. R. Higgins launched an attack against it in the press. O'Casey believed it was an attack on Yeats, that they were using O'Casey's play to berate Yeats. In 1952 he appeared in a play by Irish playwright

Teresa Deevy Teresa Deevy (21 January 1894 – 19 January 1963) was an Irish dramatist and writer, who was deaf from the age of 19. Best known for her works for theatre, she was also a short story writer, and writer for radio. Early life Teresa Deevy w ...

, ''The Wild Goose'', in which he played the part of Father Ryan. O'Casey was involved in numerous productions with the Abbey; these can be found in the Abbey Archives.

England

While in London to receive the Hawthornden Prize and supervise the West End production of ''Juno and the Paycock'', O'Casey fell in love with Eileen Carey. The couple were married in 1927 and remained in London until 1938, when they moved to

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...

. In 1928, W. B. Yeats rejected O'Casey's fourth play, '' The Silver Tassie'' for the Abbey. It was an attack on imperialist wars and the suffering they cause. The Abbey refused to perform it. The premier production was funded by Charles B. Cochran, who took only eighteen months to put it on stage. It was put on at the

Apollo Theatre The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.

but lasted for only twenty-six performances. It was directed by Raymond Massey, starred Charles Laughton and with an Act II set design by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarge ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and

Lady Gregory Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (''née'' Persse; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932) was an Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, ...

had a favourable opinion of the show.

Denis Johnston (William) Denis Johnston (18 June 1901 – 8 August 1984) was an Irish writer. Born in Dublin, he wrote mostly plays, but also works of literary criticism, a book-length biographical essay of Jonathan Swift, a memoir and an eccentric work on co ...

, who knew O'Casey and spent time with him in London in the 1920s, is certain that the Abbey was right not to stage ''The Silver Tassie'': "Its expressionist second act was at that time far beyond the scope of the Abbey Theatre." A year later Johnston's own ''The Old Lady Says "No!"'' was similarly rejected, for the same reason. Nevertheless O'Casey's resentment over this persisted for many years. Sean O'Casey by Reginald Gray

The plays O'Casey wrote after this included the darkly allegorical ''Within the Gates'' (1934), which is set within the gates of a busy city park based on London's

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

. Although it was highly controversial,

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

responded positively to it. The play was originally going to be a film script for

. O'Casey's widow described it in her memoir, ''Sean'' (1971):

Originally he had imagined it as a film in which everything, from flower-beds to uniforms, would be stylised. Beginning at dawn and ending at midnight, to the soft chime of
Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...
in the distance, it would be "geometrical and emotional, the emotions of the living characters to be shown against their own patterns and the patterns of the Park." Having got so far, he wrote to Alfred Hitchcock, and when Hitchcock and his wife dined with us Sean explained his ideas to an apparently responsive hearer. Hitchcock and he talked excitedly. They parted on the same terms, with the prospect of another immediate meeting, and Sean never heard again.

The play was unsuccessful in Northern Ireland and was not produced in the south until 2010. In the autumn of 1934, O'Casey went to the United States to visit the New York City production of ''Within the Gates'', which he admired greatly. It was directed by actor

Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchk ...

and starred Lillian Gish. This is when he befriended

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

and

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...

. ''The Star Turns Red'' (1940) is a four-act political allegory in which the

Star of Bethlehem The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star, appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 where "wise men from the East" (Magi) are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem. There, they meet King Herod of Judea, and ask him: ...

turns red. The story follows Big Red (who was based on O'Casey's friend,

James Larkin James Larkin (28 January 1874 – 30 January 1947), sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party along with James Connolly and Willia ...

) who is a trade-union leader. The union takes over the unnamed country despite the ruthless efforts of the Saffron Shirts, a fascist organisation openly supported by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the country. It was staged by the Unity Theatre in London during 1940 (later, in 1978 by the Abbey in Dublin). ''Purple Dust'' (1943) follows two wealthy, materialistic English stockbrokers who buy an ancient Irish mansion and attempt to restore it with their wrong notions of Tudor customs and taste. They try to impose upon a community with vastly different customs and lifestyles that are much closer to ancient Gaelic ways and are against such false values. Sean O'Casey childhood home

The Englishmen set their opposing standards against those represented by the men employed to renovate the house. In the resulting confrontation the English are satirised and in the end disappointed when a symbolic storm destroys their dream of resettling the old into the present. The hint that is enforced by the conclusion is that the little heap of purple dust that remains will be swept away by the rising winds of change, like the residue of pompous imperialism that abides in Ireland. The show has been compared to Shaw's ''

John Bull's Other Island ''John Bull's Other Island'' is a comedy about Ireland, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1904. Shaw himself was born in Dublin, yet this is one of only two plays of his where he thematically returned to his homeland, the other being ''O'Flaherty ...

'', which was one of O'Casey's favourites, but aside from a few similarities, there are no real grounds for comparison. He also wrote '' Red Roses for Me'' (1943), which saw him move away from his early style in favour of more

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

means and overtly socialist content to his writing. It went up at Dublin's Olympia Theatre (which was the first one produced in Ireland in seventeen years). It would move on to London in 1946, where O'Casey himself was able to see it. This was the first show of his own he saw since ''Within The Gates'' in 1934. ''Oak Leaves and Lavender'' (1945) is a propaganda play commemorating the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

and Britain's heroism in the anti-Nazi crusade. It takes place in a manor with shadowy 18th-century figures commenting on the present. These plays have never had the same critical or popular success as the early trilogy. After the Second World War he wrote ''

Cock-a-Doodle Dandy ''Cock-a-Doodle Dandy'' is a 1949 play by Irish dramatist Seán O'Casey. Regarded by O'Casey as his best play, this is a darkly comic fantasy in which a magic cockerel appears in the parish of Nyadnanave and forces the characters to make choice ...

'' (1949), which is perhaps his most beautiful and exciting work. From ''The Bishop's Bonfire'' (1955) O'Casey's late plays are studies on the common life in Ireland, "Irish microcosmos", like ''The Drums of Father Ned'' (1958). His play ''The Drums of Father Ned'' was supposed to go up at the 1958

Dublin Theatre Festival The Dublin Theatre Festival is Europe's oldest specialised theatre festival. It was founded by theatre impresario Brendan Smith in 1957 and has, with the exception of two years, produced a season of international and Irish theatre each autumn. ...

, but the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin,

John Charles McQuaid John Charles McQuaid, C.S.Sp. (28 July 1895 – 7 April 1973), was the Catholic Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin between December 1940 and January 1972. He was known for the unusual amount of influence he had over successive govern ...

, refused to give his blessing (it has been assumed because works of both

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

and O'Casey were in the festival). After Joyce's play was quietly dropped, massive changes were required for ''The Drums of Father Ned'', a devious way to get O'Casey to drop. After this,

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

withdrew his

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

piece in protest.

Later life

In 1959, O'Casey gave his blessing to a musical adaptation of ''Juno and the Paycock'' by American composer Marc Blitzstein. The musical, retitled ''

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

'', was a commercial failure, closing after only 16

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

performances. It was also panned by some critics as being too "dark" to be an appropriate musical, a genre then almost invariably associated with light comedy. However, the music, which survives in a cast album made before the show opened, has since been regarded as some of Blitzstein's best work. Although endorsed by the then 79-year-old O'Casey, he did not contribute to the production or even see it during its brief run. Despite general agreement on the brilliance of the underlying material, the musical has defied all efforts to mount any successful revival. Also in 1959,

George Devine George Alexander Cassady Devine (20 November 1910 – 20 January 1966) was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film. Early life and education ...

produced ''

'' at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

and it was also successful at the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

and had a West End run. His eightieth birthday occurred in 1960, and to celebrate, David Krause and Robert Hogan wrote full-length studies. The

Mermaid Theatre The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the first built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new the ...

in London launched the "O'Casey Festival" in 1962, which in turn made more theatre establishments put on his works, mostly in Britain and Germany. It is in the late years that O'Casey put his creative energy into his six-volume ''Autobiography.'' On 18 September 1964 at the age of 84, O'Casey died of a heart attack, in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He was cremated at the

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

. In 1965, his autobiography ''Mirror in My House'' (the umbrella title under which the six autobiographies he published from 1939 to 1956 were republished, in two large volumes, in 1956) was turned into a film based on his life called ''

Young Cassidy ''Young Cassidy'' is a 1965 British biography drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Rod Taylor, Julie Christie, and Maggie Smith. It is a biographical drama based upon the life of the playwright Seán O'Casey. Plot Set in 1911 and th ...

''. The film was directed by

Jack Cardiff Jack Cardiff, (18 September 1914 – 22 April 2009) was a British cinematographer, film and television director, and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor, to fi ...

(and

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

) featuring

Rod Taylor Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including ''The Time Machine'' (1960), ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1961), '' The Birds'' (1963), and ''In ...

(as O'Casey),

Flora Robson Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 19027 July 1984) was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from q ...

, Maggie Smith,

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She ...

, Edith Evans and

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elec ...

Personal life

O'Casey was married to Irish actress Eileen Carey Reynolds (1903–1995) from 1927 to his death. The couple had three children: two sons, Breon and Níall (who died in 1957 of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

), and a daughter, Shivaun.

Archival collection

In 2005,

David H. Greene David Herbert Greene (November 4, 1913 – July 9, 2008) was an author and professor at Harvard University, Boston University, The College of New Rochelle, the U.S. Naval Academy and New York University, where he was chairman of the English ...

donated a collection of letters he received from O'Casey from 1944 to 1962 to the

Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Also in the collection are two letters written by Eileen O'Casey and one letter addressed to Catherine Greene, David Greene's spouse. O'Casey's papers are held in the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, the Cornell University Library, the University of California, Los Angeles Library System, the University of London Library, the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland i ...

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and the

Works

* ''Lament for Thomas Ashe'' (1917), as Seán Ó Cathasaigh * ''The Story of Thomas Ashe'' (1917), as Seán Ó Cathasaigh * ''Songs of the Wren'' (1918), as Seán Ó Cathasaigh * ''More Wren Songs'' (1918), as Seán Ó Cathasaigh * ''The Harvest Festival'' (1918) * ''The Story of the Irish Citizen Army'' (1919), as Seán Ó Cathasaigh * ''

'' (1923) * ''Kathleen Listens In'' (1923) * '' Juno and the Paycock'' (1924) * ''Nannie's Night Out'' (1924) * ''

'' (1926) * '' The Silver Tassie'' (1927) * ''Within the Gates'' (1934) * '' The End of the Beginning'' (1937) * ''A Pound on Demand'' (1939) * ''The Star Turns Red'' (1940) * '' Red Roses for Me'' (1942) * ''Purple Dust'' (1940/1945) * ''Oak Leaves and Lavender'' (1946) * ''

'' (1949) * ''Hall of Healing'' (1951) * ''Bedtime Story'' (1951) * ''Time to Go'' (1951) * ''The Wild Goose'' (1952) * ''The Bishop's Bonfire: A Sad Play within the Tune of a Polka'' (1955) * ''Mirror in My House'' (two volumes, 1956, reissued as ''Autobiographies'', 1963 and since; combining the six books of memoirs listed next) ** ''I Knock at the Door'' (1939) ** ''Pictures in the Hallway'' (1942) ** ''Drums Under the Window'' (1945) ** ''Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well'' (1949) ** ''Rose and Crown'' (1952) ** ''Sunset and Evening Star'' (1954) * ''The Drums of Father Ned'' (written 1957, staged 1959) * ''Behind the Green Curtains'' (1961) * ''Figuro in the Night'' (1961) * ''The Moon Shines on Kylenamoe'' (1961) * ''Niall: A Lament'' (1991)

Awards and recognition

* (1926) –

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...

for ''Juno and the Paycock'' * (1949) –

Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a trade union, labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's busin ...

of New York's "Page One Award" for ''I Knock at the Door'', ''Pictures in the Hallway'', ''Drums under the Windows'', and ''Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well'' *

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(declined) * (1960) –

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

Honorary Degree (declined) * (1960) –

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

Honorary Degree (declined) * (1961) –

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

Honorary Degree (declined)

Legacy

In Dublin, a foot bridge on the Liffey is named after him.

References

External links

* *
Website devoted to Seán O'Casey with an extensive iconography of programmes
* ttps://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00579 Sean O'Casey Collectionat the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

Seán O'Casey and the 1916 Easter RisingO'Casey at Today in LiteratureRobert G. Lowery – Sean O'Casey Collection
– at Boston College John J. Burns Library
Sean O'Casey letters, 1946–1969
– at Boston College John J. Burns Library
Bibliography

threemonkeysonline.com
David J. Marcou's sequel to 'Juno and Paycock' ('Song of Joy—Or the Old Reliables'), first performed in 2008 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Marcou's sequel was revised for publication on the La Crosse History Unbound website in 2009, then further revised in 2010, based on a critique by the National Theatre of Ireland, the Abbey.
* *
'Ireland's Shakespeare': three actors on Seán O'Casey
* Seán O'Casey at Th
Teresa Deevy Archive
* Seán O'Casey at Th
Abbey Theatre Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocasey, Sean 1880 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century male writers 20th-century memoirists Abbey Theatre Anglican socialists Christian communists European democratic socialists Golders Green Crematorium Irish Anglicans Irish Christian socialists Irish Citizen Army members Irish communists Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish male dramatists and playwrights Irish memoirists Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Politics of Dublin (city) Writers from Dublin (city)