Sean O'Casey, The Shadow of a Gunman

Catherine Rees

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1923 - 1926

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The Dublin Trilogy is Sean O’Casey’s most famous work. It begins with The Shadow of a Gunman which opened at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin (a theatre with which O’Casey had a long association) in April 1923. The play was set in 1920, a period of intense fighting, which was ironic as the theatre was at the time considered to be a potential terrorist threat and was under armed guard during the performance. This coincidence reminds us that O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy is constantly surrounded and influenced by the politics of the time. The Shadow of a Gunman tells the story of two young men, Donald Davoren and Seamus Shields, who share a room in a tenement building in Hilljoy Square, Dublin. The …

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2089 words

Citation: Rees, Catherine. "The Shadow of a Gunman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7706, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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