ICA The Story of the Irish Citizen Army (London: Journeyman Press, repr. 1980)
Colored Cap Under a Colored Cap: Articles, Merry and Mournful (London: Macmillan, 1963)
Feathers Feathers from the Green Crow, ed. Robert Hogan (London: Macmillan, 1963)
Windfalls Windfalls: Stories, Poems and Plays (London: Macmillan, 1939)
Blasts Blasts and Benedictions: Articles and Stories (London: Macmillan, 1967)
*
Other sources:
Sean Eileen O’Casey: Sean, ed. J. C. Trewin (London: Macmillan, 1971)
Eileen —— Eileen, ed. J. C. Trewin (London: Macmillan, 1976)
Colum Mary Colum, Life and the Dream (London: Macmillan, 1947)
Fallon Gabriel Fallon, Sean O’Casey the Man I Knew (London: Routledge, 1965)
Holloway Joseph Holloway’s Abbey Theatre, ed. Robert Hogan and Michael J. O’Neill (London: Southern Illinois Press, 1967)
IW Irish Worker (Dublin, 1911-14)
Lady G Journals Lady Gregory’s Journals, ed. Daniel J. Murphy [vol. I: 1916-1925] (Gerards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1978)
McCann The World of Sean O’Casey, ed. Sean McCann (London: Four Square, 1966)
MM Martin B. Margulies, The Early Life of Sean O’Casey (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1971); information from interview notes referred to as “MM unpub. notes”
For all other sources, cited in full in the notes which follow, the place of publication is London unless otherwise indicated.
*
Other abbreviations (individuals and institutions):
SO’C Sean O’Casey
EO’C Eileen O’Casey
GF Gabriel Fallon
Lady G Lady Gregory
MK Maire Keating
GJN George Jean Nathan
LR Lennox Robinson
GBS George Bernard Shaw
WBY W. B. Yeats
Berg Berg Collection, New York Public Library
NLI National Library of Ireland
Further Sources
James Agate, Ego (9 vols., 1935-48)
Ronald Ayling (ed.), O’Casey: The Dublin Trilogy (1985)
Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett (1978)
J. C. Beckett, The Making of Modern Ireland (1966)
Barrett H. Clark, European Theories of the Drama (New York, 1965)
The Life of George Crabbe by his Son (1947)
R. M. Fox, Rebel Irishwomen (Dublin, 1935)
—— The History of the Irish Citizen Army (Dublin, 1943)
Lillian Gish, with Ann Pinchot, The Movies, Mr Griffith and Me (1969)
Tyrone Guthrie, A Life in the Theatre (1960)
Robert Hogan, The Experiments of Sean O’Casey (New York, 1960)
—— “Since O’Casey” and Other Essays on Irish Drama (1983)
Michael Holroyd, Augustus John: The Years of Experience (1975)
Hugh Hunt, Sean O’Casey (Dublin, 1980)
Denis Johnston, Collected Plays (2 vols., 1960)
P. W. Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland (1910)
Robert Kee, The Green Flag (1972)
G. Wilson Knight, The Golden Labyrinth (1962)
David Krause, Sean O’Casey: The Man and his Work (1960)
—— A Self-portrait of the Artist as a Man: Sean O’Casey’s Letters (Dublin, 1968)
—— (ed.), The Dolmen Boucicault (Dublin, 1964)
Mary Lou Kohfeldt, Lady Gregory: The Woman behind the Irish Renaissance (1985)
E. Larkin, James Larkin (1965)
Sybil Le Brocquy, Cadenus (Dublin, 1962)
F. S. L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (1971)
Hugh MacDiarmid, The Company I’ve Kept (1966)
Walter McDonald, Reminiscences of a Maynooth Professor (1925)
M. J. MacManus, Eamon de Valera (New York, 1946)
E. H. Mikhail (ed.), Lady Gregory: Interviews and Recollections (1977)
Charles Morgan, The House of Macmillan (1943)
David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed (1985)
Diana Norman, Terrible Beauty: A Life of Constance Markievicz (1987)
Simon Nowell-Smith (ed.), Letters to Macmillan (1987)
Eoin O’Brien, The Beckett Country (1986)
Sean O’Faolain, Constance Markiewicz (1934)
Padraic O’Farrell, Who’s Who in the Irish War of Independence, 1916-1921 (Dublin, 1980)
P. S. O’Hegarty, Sinn Fein: An Illumination (Dublin, 1919)
John O’Riordan, A Guide to O’Casey’s Plays (1984)
Sir William Orpen, Stories of Old Ireland (1924)
George Orwell, Collected Essays (vol. 4, 1968)
Peter Quennell, Customs and Characters: Contemporary Portraits (1982)
Desmond Ryan, The Rising (Dublin, 1949)
Ann Saddlemyer (ed.), Theatre Business (1982)
Anthony Sampson, Macmillan: A Study in Ambiguity (1967)
Kenneth Tynan, Curtains (1961)
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis and other writings (1973)
John Willett, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (1959)
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Eileen O’Casey for her many kindnesses to me during the writing of this book, not least for responding patiently to the questions I asked. While I must emphasise that the interpretation I place upon personalities and events is my own, and is not to be attributed to her, I am deeply grateful to her for permission to quote from Sean O’Casey’s private correspondence, her own correspondence, and his literary works both published and unpublished.
My warmest thanks to Ion Trewin, who has given generous support at all stages, as well as valuable comments on successive drafts. My thanks likewise to Thomas A. Stewart and Susan Leon of Atheneum; to John Trewin, for introducing me to the dramatis personae of O’Casey’s life who are still alive, and for reading and commenting on the finished book; to David Krause for the advice he gave me in Dublin (including a copy of the indispensable Sean O’Casey: A Bibliography by Ronald Ayling and Michael J. Durkan) and for his patient answering of many queries and unstinting supply of unpublished letters and other material; to John Kelly for allowing me to consult the unpublished letters of W. B. Yeats, and for reading the book in draft; to Michael Holroyd for his advice vis-à-vis George Bernard Shaw and Augustus John and for reading the book at proof stage (and with the unfortunate omission of the bottom line of each page, not the easiest of tasks). To Roy Foster, for help with the historical accuracy of some passages; to Deborah Rogers, for her help in a variety of ways.
I must thank the following for consenting to be interviewed, for sending or collecting letters or information, and for help in one or more of innumerable other ways: Rosemary Aimetti, Clare Astor, The Hon David Astor, Adrian Barr-Smith, Lord Bernstein, James Bosley, John Bright-Holmes. A. J. Cockshut, Julian Curry, Thomas Quinn Curtiss, Frank Delaney, Margaret Drabble, Lady Caroline Faber, T. M. Farmiloe, Edward Fowler, Angela Fox, Robert Emmett Ginna, Lillian Gish, Robert Graff, Derek Granger, Rose Fallon, Sir Peter Hall, David Horan, H. Montgomery Hyde, Rory Johnston, Christine Kelly, Linda Kelly, Robert G. Lowery, Brian Martin, the late Siobhan McKenna, Barbara McKenna, Peter Newmark, Trevor Nunn, Kate O’Callaghan, Breon O’Casey, Shivaun O’Casey, Andy O’Mahony, Anna von Planta, Peter Quennell, Maureen Roche (née Fallon), Teresa Sacco, Brian Silcock, the late Lord Stockton, Wolf Suschitzky, Claire Tomalin, John Tydeman, Sam Wanamaker, Carole Welch, Terence de Vere White, Roma Woodnutt.
My particular gratitude is due to Seamus Scully for introducing me to O’Casey’s Dublin; by enabling me to see Dublin through his eyes, Mr Scully brought me many insights into my subject. I must thank Bernard O’Donoghue for his translations of Gaelic, for reading the typescript and checking the spelling of proper names. My thanks, too, to Martin Lubikowski for the map of Dublin. In attempting to recreate the atmosphere and processes of O’Casey’s early life I have been helped not only by Martin B. Margulies’s book, The Early Life of Sean O’Casey, but by his generous loan of notes on his interviews in 1963-4 with the follow
ing (their relationship with O’Casey is identified by the key: F = family; N = neighbourhood; M = friends of Mick Casey; IRB = Irish Republican Brotherhood; ICA = Irish Citizen Army; GNR = Great Northern Railway; L = Laurence O’Tooles):
Alicia Beaver — F (Bella’s daughter-in-law); Ernest Blythe — IRB; Mrs Rose Brady (maiden name Fitzpatrick) — N; John “Fooker” Brown — M; Paddy Buttner — ICA; Jim Caffrey — N; Christopher Casey — F (Tom Casey’s son); John Joseph Casey — F (Tom’s son); Joseph Casey — F (Isaac’s son); Mrs Tom Clarke — IRB; Mr and Mrs P. Cullen — F; Mrs Jim Cunningham — N; Mr and Mrs Liam Daly — L; Mrs Kate Doherty (maiden name Shields) — N; Susan Elliott (maiden name Beaver) — F (Bella’s daughter); P. A. Foley — GNR; R. M. Fox — ICA; Mrs J. Hanratty — ICA; Mr and Mrs William and Margaret Hart — N (landlords, 8 Church Place); Brendan Herlihy — M; Bulmer Hobson — IRB; Kit Kearney — M; Mrs Chris Keeley (maiden name Caffrey) — N; Katie Kenna — N (Abercorn Road); Nan Kenna — N; “Rabbit” Kelly — M; George Kilbride — N; Kathryn Langan — N; Jack McCabe — ICA; John McDonald — L (Patrick’s brother, despite different spelling); Mr and Mrs Patrick McDonnell — L; Ellen McGraham (maiden name Fairtlough) — F (niece of Isaac’s wife); Joseph McGrath — ICA; William Middleton — N (son of George Middleton); Miss Helena Moloney — ICA; Bridget Mulhall (maiden name Casey) — F; Mick Mulvihill — M (owned North Wall bar where Mick Casey drank and sketched); Anne Murphy — F and N; Mrs Frances Murphy — N (neighbour of Isaac’s); Isabella Murphy (maiden name Beaver) — F (Bella’s daughter); Mrs P. Murphy — N (Abercorn Road — father kept shop where Caseys purchased groceries); Prof. Liam O’Briain — N; Christina O’Rourke — N (Seville Place); Frank Robbins — ICA; George Rocliffe — N (O’Casey schoolmate at St. Barnabas’); Mr and Mrs James Shiels — L; Michael Smith — L; Mr and Mrs Stephen Synott — L (also owned bookstore where SO’C shopped); George Wisdom — GNR.
I thank the following for kind permission to use copyright material:
Macmillan and Co. Ltd, London (from the published plays and prose of Sean O’Casey)
The Society of Authors, London, as the literary representative of Bernard Shaw
John Kelly and Oxford University Press (from the letters of W. B. Yeats)
I am grateful to the editors of and contributors to the following newspapers and magazines in which articles, reviews, etc. I have consulted appear:
American Spectator
An Poblacht (The Republic), Dublin
Catholic Bulletin, Dublin
Catholic Mind, Dublin
Daily Express, London
Daily Sketch, London
Daily Telegraph, London
Daily Worker, London
Dublin Evening Telegraph
Dublin Saturday Post
Forward, Glasgow
Guardian, London
International Herald Tribune, Paris
International Literature, Moscow
Irish Freedom, London
Irish Independent, Dublin
Irish Press, Dublin
Irish Statesman, Dublin
Irish Times, Dublin
Irish Worker, Dublin
John O’London’s Weekly, London
The Leader, Dublin
Modern Drama, Lawrence, Kansas
Nation and Athenaeum, London
New Statesman, London
Newsweek, New York
New York Times
Nineteenth Century, London
Observer, London
Peasant and Irish Ireland, Dublin
Picture Post, London
Sinn Fein, Dublin
The Star, Dublin
The Standard, Dublin
The Standard, London
Sunday Times, London
Time and Tide, London
The Times, London
Totnes Times, Devon
Much kindness has been shown me by the staff of the following libraries and institutions where I have obtained material: BBC (Sound and Written) Archives; British Film Institute; the British Library; Imperial War Museum; British Library Newspaper Library, Colindale; Public Record Office, Kew; Bodleian Library, Oxford; Central Library, Westgate, Oxford; National Library of Ireland, Dublin; Trinity College Library, Dublin; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; New York Public Library; Society of Authors, London.
Finally my warmest gratitude to Catharine Carver for her editing. My thanks to Hazel Bell for making the index; to Maria Rejt, Stephanie Darnill, Evan Oppenheimer, for invaluable editorial help; to Linda Rowley and Maureen Grant for typing the manuscript.
G.O.C.
Oxford
December 1987
* * *
[1] A II. 14.
[2] Hugh Kenner, A Colder Eye (1983), 3.
[3] Mary E. Daly, Dublin the Deposed Capital (Cork, 1984), 246.
[4] Frank G. Slaughter, Immortal Magyar (New York, 1950), 37.
[5] A II. 231.
[6] SO’C to Nan Archer, 25 Aug 1945 (L II. 283). (All letters hereafter cited are from SO’C unless otherwise indicated.)
[7] A I. 198.
[8] C. S. Andrews, Dublin Made Me (Dublin, 1979), 9-10.
[9] MM, 14-15, 84-8; unpub. notes.
[10] A I. 5, 2.
[11] To Frank MacManus, 21 Oct 1946 (L II. 406).
[12] Daly, Dublin the Deposed Capital, 58.
[13] Daly, Dublin the Deposed Capital, 283.
[14] Irish Times, 28 May 1892.
[15] Sir Charles Alexander Cameron, Reminiscences (London and Dublin, 1913), 166.
[16] To Frank McCarthy, 8 Feb 1949 (L II. 585).
[17] A I. 592.
[18] To Robert Ginna, 17 Aug 1953 (L II. 986).
[19] A I. 12, 13, 10.
[20] A I. 27, 28.
[21] To Jack Daly, 10 May 1948 (L II. 522).
[22] McCann, 164.
[23] MM, 84-8; unpub. notes.
[24] To Robert Ginna, 17 Aug 1953 (L II. 986).
[25] A II. 514.
[26] Lady G Journals, 446.
[27] A I. 66-7.
[28] A I. 67.
[29] Unpub. notebook E 4 (Berg).
[30] MM, 27.
[31] A I. 171.
[32] A I. 237.
[33] James Joyce, Dubliners (1914), 151.
[34] W. B. Yeats, Collected Poems (1952), 359.
[35] A I. 9.
[36] James Joyce, “Gas from a Burner”, The Essential James Joyce, ed. H. Levin (1963), 349.
[37] To Liam Shine, 5 Jan 1947 (L II. 433).
[38] A I. 267.
[39] A I. 283.
[40] To Eric Gorman, 30 Aug 1951 (L II. 822).
[41] A I. 195; to Frank McCarthy, 24 Jan 1954 (L II. 1021).
[42] A I. 195, 197.
[43] A I. 346.
[44] To GJN, [?] Dec 1947 (L II. 569).
[45] A I. 325.
[46] A I. 310.
[47] A I. 310.
[48] A I. 353.
[49] MM, 34; unpub. notes.
[50] MM, 34, 35.
[51] A I. 370.
[52] G. B. Shaw, Preface to John Bull’s Other Island (1907), xiv.
[53] A I. 383, 378.
[54] A I. 360.
[55] G. B. Shaw, Man and Superman, Collected Plays, vol. II (1971), 557.
[56] To Brooks Atkinson, 17 Oct 1946 (L II. 405).
[57] A I. 408, 421.
[58] MM, unpub. notes.
[59] MM, 39; unpub. notes.
[60] To Leo Keogh, 12 Oct 1953 (L II. 1000).
[61] To Francis Kelly, 15 Aug 1954 (L II. 1080).
[62] To D. M. Doyle, 15 May 1950 (L II. 711); to John Hutchinson, 10 Sept 1953 (L II. 990).
[63] Unpub. ltr., J. B. Yeats to WBY, [?] 22 May 1902.
[64] To John Hutchinson, 10 Sept 1953 (L II. 990).
[65] To Francis Kelly, 15 Aug 1954 (L II. 1080).
[66] A I. 450, 446-7.
[67] Feathers, 79, 7.
[68] A I. 462, 474.
[69] Gerard Fay, The Abbey Theatre (1958), 35, 15, 11
0.
[70] A I. 511.
[71] Maxim Gorky in English Review, 1924 (Fay, Abbey Theatre, 120).
[72] Colum, 95.
[73] Preface, Windfalls, v.
[74] A I. 480.
[75] Shaw, Man and Superman, Collected Plays, II. 558.
[76] MM, 49-50.
[77] To Frank McCarthy, 27 Mar 1949 (L II. 603).
[78] To Alec Donaldson, 13 May 1946 (L II. 369).
[79] To George Gilmore, 7 Nov 1951 (L II. 836).
[80] IW, 1913; 8 Feb, 21 Jan, 8 Feb.
[81] Unpub. notebook E 15 (Berg).
[82] Desmond Ryan, Remembering Sion (1934), 82-3.
[83] MM, 45.
[84] Bulmer Hobson to MM, 8 Mar 1968.
[85] A I. 548.
[86] MM, 51.
[87] A I. 548.
[88] Two other exhortatory letters of 1910 survive, both written to Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist weekly owned and edited by Arthur Griffith: L I. 5, 919.
Sean O'Casey: A Life Page 48
