Sean O'Casey

Seán O'Casey was an Irish playwright and memoirist who wrote realistic dramas of the Dublin slums in war and revolution. He was a committed socialist and a critic of the Irish nationalist movement. He was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. He was also a prolific writer of autobiographies, essays, and letters. He was born as John Casey in a lower middle-class Protestant family in Dublin. His father died when he was six, and he had to work at various manual jobs to support his family. He became interested in the Irish nationalist cause and joined the Gaelic League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the Irish Citizen Army. He changed his name to Seán Ó Cathasaigh and learned the Irish language. He became disillusioned with the nationalist leaders and did not take part in the 1916 Easter Rising. He turned his attention to drama and wrote several plays that depicted the lives and struggles of the Dublin poor. His most famous plays are The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars, which were staged by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He also wrote The Silver Tassie, a play about the First World War, which was rejected by the Abbey. He moved to England in 1926 and continued to write plays, such as Within the Gates, The Star Turns Red, and Red Roses for Me. He also wrote six volumes of autobiography, which are considered among the finest in the English language. He died of a stroke in Torquay, Devon, in 1964. He was a major influence on many Irish writers, such as Brendan Behan, Brian Friel, and Frank McGuinness. He was also admired by international writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Eugene O'Neill. He is regarded as one of the greatest Irish playwrights of the 20th century.