Table Of ContentEssays on Sean O'Casey's Autobiographies
Essays on Sean O'Casey's
Autobiographies
Edited by
ROBERT G. LOWERY
Selection, editorialmatter and chapter 3 © Robert G. Lowery 1981
chapter 1 © Ronald F. Ayling 1981
chapter 2 © Deirdre Henchy 1981
chapter 4 © Raymond J. Porter 1981
chapter 5, translation © Maureen Murphy 1981
chapter 6 © E. H. Mikhail 1981
chapter 7 © William J. Maroldo 1981
chapter 8 © David Krause 1981
chapter 9 © Carmela Moya 1981
chapter 10 © Bernard Benstock 1981
Softcoverreprint of the bardeover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-26841-4
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reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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ISBN 978-1-349-04748-2 ISBN 978-1-349-04746-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04746-8
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Notes on the Contributors vn
Introduction
x1
1 The Origin and Evolution of a Dublin Epic
Ronald F. Ayling 1
2 Dublin in the Age ofO'Casey: 1880-1910
Deirdre Henchy 35
3 The Development of Sean O'Casey's Weltanschauung
Robert G. Lowery 6 2
4 O'Casey and Pearse Raymond]. Porter 89
5 That Raid and What Went With It Michael O'Maolain,
translated by Maureen Murphy 103
6 Bernard Shaw and Sean O'Casey: an Unrecorded Friend-
ship E. H. Mikhail 123
7 'A Kinda Trinitarian Soul':' Sean O'Casey and the Art of
Autobiography William]. Maroldo 147
8 On Fabrications and Epiphanies in O'Casey's Autobiog-
raphies David Krause 179
9 The Autobiographies as Epic Carmela Moya 205
10 Sean O'Casey as Wordsmith Bernard Benstock 232
Index 247
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the contributors whose articles make up this
collection of essays: thanks for their patience, for their guidance,
and for the comradeship we have shared over the years. In the
field of O'Casey studies I am especially grateful to a trio of
scholars: David Krause, Bernard Benstock, and Ronald Ayling
all of whom helped in more ways than they could possibly know.
I am deeply grateful to Maureen Murphy for her enthusiasm for
me and for her unsuccessful attempts to teach this balbhan the
Irish language. Equal appreciation to AlfMacLochlainn, Ireland's
national librarian; Eileen O'Casey, Ireland's national treasure;
Tom Buggy, a mensch; T. M. Farmiloe of Macmillan for his un
flappable efficiency; and to my dear wife, Patricia, whose patience
would have made Job nervous.
The editor and publishers wish to thank the following who
have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material:
Raymond J. Porter, for the material from his essay, 'O'Casey
and Pearse', Sean O'Casey Review ( 197 6); the Macmillan
Publishing Co. Inc., for the extracts from four books by Sean
O'Casey - Drums under the Windows (Copyright © 1945, re
newed 1973 by Eileen O'Casey, Breon O'Casey and Shivaun
O'Casey), I Knock at the Door (Copyright © 1939, renewed
1967 by Eileen O'Casey, Breon O'Casey and Shivaun Kenig), Pic
tures in the Hallway (Copyright © 1942, renewed 1970 by
Eileen O'Casey, Breon O'Casey and Shivaun O'Casey) and Rose
and Crown (Copyright© 1952, renewed 1980 by EileenO'Casey);
the Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate,
for the letters to Sean O'Casey from Bernard Shaw; and the
Trustees of the Will of the late Mrs Bernard Shaw for two letters
written by her.
Notes on the Contributors
DEIRDRE HENCHY is an honours graduate in history and French
of University College, Dublin. She has a diploma in librarianship,
and was the winner of the gold medal of the Old Dublin Society
Essay Competition in 1972 for her essay 'Dublin Eighty Years
Ago', published in the Dublin Historical Record.
WILLIAM]. MAROLDO at present teaches, researches and writes
at the English Faculty of Texas Lutheran College. He has taught
English and comparative literatures and philosophy, as well as,
at an earlier period, government and political science at New
York University, Maryland, Colorado, and the US Air Force
Academy. He holds advance degrees from the University of
Colorado, New York University and Columbia, where his doc
toral dissertation offered a definition of autobiography as an
aesthetic mode and literary genre, proceeding thence to test this
definition in an analysis of form and content in the 'Irish Books'
of Sean O'Casey's autobiographical sequence. This work is being
reworked and reshaped for publication in the not too distant
future.
E. H. MIKHAIL is Professor of English at the University of Leth
bridge, Canada. His works include Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography
of Criticism; A Bibliography of Modem Irish Drama 1899-1970;
Dissertations on Anglo-Irish Drama: A Bibliography of Studies
1870-1970; The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with
Sean O'Casey (co-edited with John O'Riordan);J. M. Synge: A
Bibliography of Criticism; W. B. Yeats: Interviews and Recol
lections; and Lady Gregory: Interviews and Recollections. He is
an associate editor of the Sean O'Casey Review, and is currently
completing a book on Brendan Behan.
viii Notes on Contributors
BERNARD BENSTOCK is Professor of English and Comparative
Literature at the University of Illinois. His books include james
joyce: The Undiscover'd Country; Paycocks and Others: Sean
O'Casey's World; and Sean O'Casey. He is co-editor of Ap
proaches to james joyce's 'A Portrait': Ten Essays, with Thomas
F. Staley; and of the recently completed Who's He When He's
at Home: A james joyce Directory, with Shari Benstock. He
has written many articles for the scholarly journals, has served
as president of the James Joyce Foundation, and is an editorial
consultant for the Sean O'Casey Review .
RONALD F. AYLING is an Associate Professor of English at the
University of Alberta in Canada. Dr Ayling acted as literary ex
ecutor to the O'Casey Estate and catalogued the extensive
O'Casey papers in the Berg Collection at New York Public Library.
His books include Blasts and Benedictions, a posthumous selec
tion ofO'Casey's writings; Sean O'Casey, an anthology ofO'Casey
criticism for the Modern Judgements series; and Continuity and
Innovation in Sean O'Casey's Drama. With Michael Durkan, he
is the author of Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography, recently pub
lished by Macmillan, London.
RAYMOND]. PORTER is Professor of English at lana College,
New Rochelle, New York. His books include P. H. Pearse;
Brendan Behan; and, with James D. Brophy, Modern Irish Lit
erature: Essays in Honor of William York Tindall. He has pub
lished widely in literary journals, and is currently working on a
study of Brian Moore.
ROBERT G. LOWERY is editor and publisher of the Sean O'Casey
Review, and will be editing An O'Casey Annual (Macmillan,
forthcoming).
MAUREEN MURPHY is an Assistant Professor of English at
Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. A fluent Gaelic
speaker she has also held courses in Anglo-Irish literature and
the Irish language. She is an associate editor of the Sean O'Casey
Review.
Notes on Contributors
lX
CARMELA MOYA is a lecturer on English and Anglo-Irish litera
ture at the British Institute, the Sorbonne and Lille Univer
sity in France. She has published several critical studies on
O'Casey in French journals and is currently writing a book on
O'Casey's autobiographies. She is an associate editor of the Sean
0 'Casey Review.
DAVID KRAUSE is the editor of The Letters of Sean O'Casey and
The Dolman Boucicault, and the author of Sean O'Casey: The
Man and His Work, Sean O'Casey and His World and A Self
Portrait of the Artist as a Man. With Patrick Funge, he drama
tised three volumes of O'Casey's autobiography for performance
at the Lantern Theatre in Dublin. He is the author of the
chapter on O'Casey in the MLA Review of Research publication
Anglo-Irish Literature and has written articles on Yeats, Synge,
O'Casey and Irish comedy for various scholarly journals. At
present he teaches Restoration drama, and also Irish and modern
drama, at Brown University, and is an editorial consultant for
the Sean O'Casey Review.
Introduction
The merit of originality is not novelty;
it is sincerity. The believing man is the
original man.
Thomas Carlyle, Heroes and Hero-Worship
Every great and original writer, in
proportion as he is great or original, must
himself create the taste by which he is to
be relished.
William Wordsworth, 'Letter to Lady Beaumont'
When Sean O'Casey died in 1964 the New York Times called
him one of those who could not come to terms with the evil in
the world, and said that 'injustice and human misery summoned
up in him a savage indignation'. The tribute called attention to
his exalted language and his essential humanity, but mentioned
his drama only once in three paragraphs. Instead, the piece ended
by saying: 'His multi-volumed autobiography, certainly one of
the most enduring works of this century, is more than a lyrical
evocation of a lifetime. It is witness of an indestructable spirit
that blazed joyously independent to the end.' It is quite remark
able that the autobiography should be called 'one of the most
enduring works of this century,' for O'Casey was primarily a
playwright, and the autobiographies were written initially to
supplement his always meagre income, and perhaps later to serve
as another outlet for his creative energies. What the editorial
emphasises, though, is that O'Casey's autobiographies should be
treated as more than merely tangential to the preferred main body
of his work - his plays - and that they deserve serious study by
O'Casey students and scholars. The autobiographies are in fact
