The Sean O'Casey appreciation site.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Welcome to the Seán O'Casey appreciation site. The aim of this site is to bring the name of Seán O'Casey to as wide an audience as possible, and not to concentrate on just his earlier works, but all of his literary output. The site is not very prominient on some search engines, if you think of any ways that I can rectify
this, please Email me.

Latest news (19th May 2003)

Found this interesting article whilst browsing through the net:

Copyright 2003 People's Press Printing Society Ltd
Morning Star

January 03, 2003

SECTION: Pg. 7

LENGTH: 275 words

HEADLINE: A justified memorial;

IT WAS heartening to read (M Star, December 24) that a memorial plaque to Sean O'Casey was placed on the gatepost of his former home in Totnes, Devon.

My own practical introduction to the Dubliner's work was as co-director of his play Red Roses for Me at the then Lord Palmerston pub, now The Camden People's Theatre, in Camden Road, with the late legendary Declan Mulholland for the revived Unity Theatre. Declan was called for an assignment with Birmingham Rep before the play was ready for production and, although I played the character Mulcanny in Roses, he asked me to be assistant director, working under his guidelines.

Declan was generous enough to acknowledge me as co-director and the play was well received by your critic Isobel Campbell (May 1994).

My only regret is that the space in Camden was eventually granted to a group of "entryists, " later subsidised by Camden Council.

Sean had said of Unity Theatre - see The Story of Unity Theatre by Colin Chambers, page 399 - : "It was left to them to set about bringing the theatre back to the people, building with much labour and hard going a little theatre to bring colour and a laugh and an occasional tightening of the spine to the common people, in the form of play and pantomime."

O'Casey's play The Star Turns Red was premiered at The Unity Theatre in 1940, a world premiere!

He was a member of Unity's general council and offered the play to Unity free of royalties.

Not only should Sean O'Casey be remembered in Devon but also throughout the labour movement and arts and theatre world.

JACK O'CONNOR Sturdy Beggars Group Theatre, London

LOAD-DATE: January 3, 2003
 
 

Also details of that 5,000 item archive of original O'Casey manuscripts and papers, purchased by the EBS Building society from Seán's family, and donated to the National Library of Ireland in Dublin, can be found on the library's website here.

Please note that this site is still incomplete, as  I'm doing this by myself so please bear with me. Any advice is greatly appreciated, please Email me mchughd@online.ie. I've got some correspondence already, but I don't know what to do with the site until I get some more feedback. I hope that you enjoy what I have up so far.

My own interest in O'Casey began when my Mother brought me to see a production of Juno and the Paycock in the Gate Theatre, Dublin. The cast was amazing ; Donal Mc Cann as Captain Boyle, John Kavanagh as Joxer, Geraldine Plunkett as Juno, and Maureen Potter as Maisie Madigan. The stage came alive that night, and I'll never forget the performance of Donal Mc Cann's Boyle, and John Kavanagh's Joxer. This production was 60 odd years after the first one, but it was a testament to the writing of O'Casey that the characters were as fresh that night in 1986, as they were in 1924, and indeed in 2002.

So I wanted to find out more about O'Casey, and quickly discovered that he had written Juno in a house on the North Circular Road in Dublin, less that half a mile from my home. The bond was set, and O'Casey became a figure of great fascination for me. The more I read the more I realised that Seán was a very multi-faceted character, who could display a tremendous amount of patriotism to Ireland on the one hand, and show solidarity with the worlds' workers on the other. He took his principles and ideals with him to the grave, and although he could be a stubborn man, he was, in the words of his son Breon, "a likeable old cuss!"

Dave Mc Hugh,
Dublin.

(Site last updated on Monday 19th May 2003)
 

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