Sean O'Casey

Born John Casey of impoverished Protestant parents, O'Casey came to know at first hand the hardships of the Dublin's working class, later portrayed in his plays, following the untimely death of his father. He left school at the age of 14 and in 1906 joined the Irish League, learned Irish and changed his first name. O'Casey was also an active member of several groups involved in the nationalist struggle for Irish independence, but resigned from the Irish Citizen Army in 1914. His first play to be accepted by the Abbey Theatre was Shadow of a Gunman, performed in 1923. It was followed by Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926). The latter, misinterpreted as anti-nationalist by the audience, caused a riot in the Abbey Theatre which subsequently refused to put on O'Casey's next play, The Silver Tassie, in 1929. Disappointed by his fellow countrymen, O'Casey emigrated to England never to return. He continued to write plays and composed his six-volume Autobiography: I Knock at the Door (1939), Pictures in the Hallway (1942), Drums Under the Windows (1945), Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well (1949), Roses and Crowns (1952), and Sunset and Evening Star (1954). Sean O'Casey died in Torquay in 1964.