The Plough and the Stars, a Tragedy in Four Acts

Sean O'Casey

The Plough and the Stars, a Tragedy in Four Acts

London

Macmillan & Co. Ltd.

1926

Inscribed: "To Augustus John from Sean O'Casey with Warm Regards, 27/6/28." Additionally inscribed by O’Casey, pointing to his portrait: “The Lord has afflicteth my soul with many sorrows & this is one of them.”

The Plough and the Stars was greeted with riots by many Republicans angered by the lack of revolutionary heroes in the play and the shades of gray depicting ordinary Dubliners during the Easter Rebellion. As he did for Synge, Yeats defended it from the stage, saying "You have disgraced yourselves again. Is this to be an ever-recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?" O’Casey, stung by how nationalist fervor drowned out the cause of labor in 1916 and upon the rejection of his fourth play for the Abbey Theatre, permanently left Ireland. The Plough and the Stars was banned by the Church during the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising in 1966, but it has now become a touchstone for the Abbey Theatre and Irish drama.