by Sean O'Casey
This scene is followed by two more beats, as Mrs Gogan escorts Nora away to her flat and the two British soldiers re-enter. The effect of the final scene is ironic. O’Casey calls for a lighting effect: a ‘glare in the sky’ seen through the back window flaring ‘into a fuller and a deeper red’ (p. 99). In his notes for the lighting written for the Samuel French acting edition of The Plough in 1932, O’Casey explains what is needed: ‘Two special red floods on illuminated cloth at window, back; these to be on dimmers, so that red glow rises and falls during Act, to indicate fires in city’ (p. 71). The sudden flare into a fuller and deeper red signifies, as Sergeant Tinley says (p. 99), the British attack on the General Post Office, where Pearse, Connolly and the Irish forces are mainly stationed. The game is up. The final song, in which the two soldiers onstage join, is both an encouragement to this fire of retaliation and a celebration of cheerfulness very much at odds with all that has befallen the tenement dwellers.
The whole of Act Four, then, has relentlessly progressed towards this ironic interrogation of a victory for one side which is also a massive defeat for the other. In performance, the final moments are searingly moving and dismaying. Through that complex ending the audience, and the readers of the text, come to see (that word is again crucial) and thus register the folly and the horror of war.
REFERENCE
O’Casey, Sean, The Plough and the Stars: A Tragedy in Four Acts [Acting Edition], London: Samuel French, 1932.
Textual Notes
1 Maggie – elsewhere Mrs Gogan’s first name is given as Jenny and Cissie, a sign of the playwright carelessly at work.
2 derogatory – critical, ascribing blame. But Fluther uses the word to suit all occasions.
3 foostherin’ – bustling about fussily (Dolan, Dictionary of Hiberno-English).
4 canonicals – clerical dress. Presumably Mrs Gogan means ‘regimentals’ or military dress.
– Citizen Army – the Irish Citizen Army was founded by Jim Larkin in November 1913 as a defence force for the Dublin workers during the great lock-out of 1913–14. O’Casey was the secretary for a time.
– Liberty Hall – headquarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and of the Irish Citizen Army, located in Beresford Place.
5 figaries – Mrs Gogan possibly means ‘filigree’, ornamental work. ‘Figary’ (Hiberno-English) could mean ‘stylish clothing’ (Dolan, Dictionary of Hiberno-English).
6 Covey – a smart alec, a know-all person (Ayling, Seven Plays, glossary).
— Plough an’ th’ Stars – the banner of the Irish Citizen Army.
— in seculo seculorum – for all eternity.
7 cunundhrums – conundrums, riddles. Here and throughout (compare ‘mollycewels’ for ‘molecules’ or ‘wurum’ for ‘worm’) O’Casey renders Dublin speech phonetically.
8 Georgina: The Sleepin’ Vennis – The Sleeping Venus by Giorgione, sixteenth-century Italian painter.
9 Dear harp o’ me counthry – one of the popular melodies of the Irish poet and songwriter Thomas Moore (1779–1852).
10 where your bowsey battlin’ ’ll meet, maybe, with an encore – where your drunken fighting may be welcome. (Note the theatrical term ‘encore’.)
11 Jenersky’s Thesis – a fictional Marxist text.
— whole – complete. The phrase is Dublinese, ‘a great fellow’.
12 a glass o’ malt – whiskey.
13 to speak proud things, an’ lookin’ like a mighty one – a possible quotation from the Bible, untraced.
— g’up ower o’ that – go away. Nora’s rather refined speech here lapses into colloquialism (the phrase is spoken as one word); ower – ‘out’.
14 sorra – no (Hiberno-English, emphatic negative).
— the Foresters – according to O’Casey, ‘The Irish National Foresters is merely a benevolent Society, and those who wear the costume worn by Peter are a subject of amusement to intelligent Irishmen’ (French’s acting edition, 1932, p. 80).
15 Oh, where’s th’ slave so lowly – another of Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1807.
16 varmint – vermin (Ayling, Seven Plays, glossary).
17 The Soldiers’ Song – by Peadar Kearney (1883–1942), first published in 1912, later the Irish national anthem.
18 yous’ll not escape from th’ arrow that flieth be night – quotation from the Bible, Psalms 91: 5.
— titther – tittle, particle.
19 Curse o’ God on th’ haporth – Dublin slang for ‘nothing at all’; ‘haporth’ – halfpenny-worth.
— It is a glorious thing … of them! – lines taken from ‘The Coming Revolution’ (1913), a speech by Pádraic Pearse (1879–1916), leader of the Irish Volunteers.
20 gems – possibly ‘gentlemen’ (ironic).
— dhrink Loch Erinn dhry – colloquial expression for great thirst; presumably referring to Lough Erne in Co. Fermanagh.
— Wolfe Tone – Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98), founder of the United Irishmen, whose grave in Bodenstown, Co. Kildare, became a shrine for republicans from the centenary of Tone’s death in 1898. See also the note to p. 40.
21 vice versa – the opposite way.
— Comrade soldiers … country – lines from ‘Peace and the Gael’ (1915), a speech by Pádraic Pearse. The next sentence in the speech here is O’Casey’s addition. It may be noted that Pearse’s speech was delivered in December 1915, one month after O’Casey’s specified time for Act Two.
22 shinannickin’ afther Judies – chasing girls. The word ‘shenanigans’, or ‘shinannickin’, is usually a noun meaning, colloquially, ‘mischievous behaviour, trickery’ (Dolan, Dictionary of Hiberno-English).
23 Bodenstown – site of cemetery in Co. Kildare where the grave of Theobald Wolfe Tone is located (see note to p. 35).
24 little Catholic Belgium – the point here is that Bessie is a staunch Protestant with a son fighting in France.
25 flappers – flighty society girls.
— a woman that is loud an’ stubborn … house – a qotation from the Bible, Proverbs 7: 11. The reference is to a ‘harlot’ or whore.
26 Cissie Gogan – compare ‘Maggie’ (p. 5) and ‘Jenny’ (p. 44).
— The last sixteen months … God! – a second quotation from Pádraic Pearse’s speech ‘Peace and the Gael’ (1915).
— Saint Vincent de Paul – a charitable organisation which gives vouchers to the poor for food and clothing.
27 precept upon precept … little – a quotation from the Bible, Isaiah 28: 10. The passage is an attack on drunkards.
— weddin’ lines – marriage certificate (Ayling, Seven Plays, glossary).
— Jinnie Gogan – earlier (p. 43), Mrs Gogan gave her first name as Cissie and at the outset (p. 5) as ‘Maggie’. O’Casey was not usually careless over such details.
28 dawny – frail.
29 gom – a silly, a foolish person (Dolan, Dictionary of Hiberno-English).
30 chiselur – child (usually spelt ‘chiseller’, Dublin slang).
— Shan Van Vok – Fluther’s rendering of the Gaelic, Sean Bhean Bhocht, or ‘poor old woman’, i.e., Ireland.
31 bowsey – a disreputable drunkard; Dublin slang, perhaps related to ‘booze’ (Dolan, Dictionary of Hiberno-English).
32 malignifed – Fluther means ‘maligned’, insulted.
— clatther – blow (Hiberno-English).
33 Our foes are strong … peace! – from Pádraic Pearse’s ‘O’Donovan Rossa – Graveside Oration’ (1915).
34 I once had a lover … th’ bed! – Rosie’s song was cut from the first production in 1926 at the horrified insistence of the government representative on the Abbey Board.
35 put much pass on – take much notice of.
— aself – itself, i.e. ‘even’.
36 GPO – the General Post Office in O’Connell Street, headquarters of the 1916 Rising.
37 gunboat Helga – the Helga did not come up the Liffey until the Wednesday of Easter Week, the R
ising having begun on Monday.
— shanghaied – forced into a situation from which there is no escape.
— th’ boyo – Uncle Peter.
38 Orange – Mrs Burgess is a Protestant and unionist, which may be enough to identify her with the Orange Society in Northern Ireland (founded 1794 as a defence organisation dedicated to that first great loyalist King William of Orange (1650–1702)). Thus, here, ‘Orange’ means ‘loyalist’.
39 Sorra mend th’ lasses – bad luck to the women (Dublinese).
40 only for – if it wasn’t for.
— th’ tossers – the coins and strip of wood with which to play ‘pitch-and-toss’. The men would bet on whether the coins came up ‘heads’ or ‘harps’ (tails), the two sides of the Irish coinage.
— oul’ son – a friendly greeting, gender-neutral.
41 a juice … a tanner – two (old) pence, and six (old) pence. Before decimalisation in 1971 there were twelve pennies in a shilling and hence a special coin for sixpence, half a shilling.
42 th’ Volunteers – that is, those in O’Connell Street, who fired on the Irish themselves in an attempt to stop the looting (compare pp. 70–71).
43 Wrathmines – the fashionable suburb of Rathmines, its higher class designated by the fancy (British) pronunciation.
44 from backside to breakfast time – a Dublin expression: inside out.
— kinch – twist (Ayling, Seven Plays, glossary).
— sorra mind I’d mind – I wouldn’t mind in the least (‘sorra’ = sorrow = strong negative).
— met with a dhrop – got a shock.
45 mot – girl (Dublin slang).
46 The Minsthrel Boys – the patriots. The reference is to Thomas Moore’s poem, ‘The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone’, Irish Melodies, 1807.
47 shelter me safely in th’ shadow of Thy wings – from Psalms 91: 4.
48 a nose – suspicion.
— pimpin’ – spying.
— Danes … Brian Boru – in 1014 Brian Boru, high king of Ireland, won a decisive battle against the Danes at Clontarf.
— Spuds up again – spades are trumps again. They are playing ‘twenty-five’.
49 hand runnin’ – in succession.
50 gone west – dead. The phrase was much used during World War I.
— sorrow may endure … mornin’ – a quotation from the Bible, Psalms 30: 5. O’Casey replaced ‘weeping’ with ‘sorrow’.
— Lead, kindly light – a hymn written in 1832 by John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801–90), a convert well known to Dubliners, since he founded the Catholic University (later University College, Dublin) at St Stephen’s Green in 1854.
51 a man’s a man – echo of a poem by Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘For a’ that, and a’ that’.
52 join hup – conscription was a controversial subject in Ireland in 1916, but was successfully kept out.
— Shinners – members of Sinn Féin.
53 redjesthered – registered (professional).
— picaroons – thieves.
54 blighter – contemptible or annoying person.
55 They were summoned … ’owme! – the popular World War I song by Ivor Novello (1893–1951).
REFERENCES
Ayling, Ronald, ‘Notes’ in Seven Plays by Sean O’Casey: A Students’ Edition, London: Macmillan, 1985.
Dolan, Terence Patrick, A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1998.
About Sean O’Casey
Sean O’Casey was born in Dublin in 1880. He was the youngest of seven surviving children and, because of malnutrition, ill health and poverty, he had little formal education. Although the first half of his life was spent as a labourer, he involved himself with the Irish political struggle for both independence and the betterment of conditions for the poor. He was secretary of the Irish Citizen Army, and wrote for the Irish Worker. The production at the Abbey Theatre of his early plays, including The Plough and the Stars, translated his experiences into art and brought him international acclaim. Like many another great Irish writer, he paid his country the compliment of leaving it as soon as he conveniently could. Having lived in London and Chalfont St Giles, in 1938 he moved with his young family to Devon, where he died in 1964.
About Christopher Murray
Christopher Murray is Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre History at University College, Dublin. His publications include Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror Up to a Nation (Manchester, 1997), Brian Friel: Essays, Diaries, Interviews 1964–1999 (Faber, 1999) and A Faber Critical Guide to Sean O’Casey: The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars (Faber, 2000).
By the Same Author
SEAN O’CASEY: PLAYS ONE
(Juno and the Paycock, Within the Gates,
Red Roses for Me, Cock-a-Doodle Dandy)
introduced by Seamus Heaney
SEAN O’CASEY: PLAYS TWO
(The Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars,
The Silver Tassie, Purple Dust, Hall of Healing)
introduced by Arthur Miller
THREE DUBLIN PLAYS
(The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock,
The Plough and the Stars)
introduced by Christopher Murray
also available
FABER CRITICAL GUIDE: SEAN O’CASEY
(THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN, JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK,
THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS)
by Christopher Murray
Copyright
First published in 2001
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2016
All rights reserved
The Plough and the Stars © Sean O’Casey, 1926
Notes © Christopher Murray, 2000
The right of Sean O’Casey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights whatsoever in this work are strictly reserved. Applications for permission for any use whatsoever, including performance rights, must be made in advance, prior to any such proposed use, to Macnaughton Lord 2000 Ltd, Macnaughton Lord, 2nd Floor, 16 Crucifix Lane, London SE1 3JW. No performance may be given unless a licence has first been obtained.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–33129–1
