A Whirlwind in Dublin: The Plough and the Stars Riots ed. by Robert G. Lowery (review)

Book Reviews ROBERT G. LOWERY, ed. A Whirlwind in Dublin: The Plough and the Stars Riots. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1984. Pp. 121. $27.95. Mr. Lowery's valuable documentary history ofthe disturbances connected with the first performances ofSean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars in 1926 is divided into three parts which consider events leading up to the play's opening, events during the first week's run at the Abbey Theatre, and the fascinating storm of correspondence which filled the Irish Press after the disturbances during the play's run. Lowery correctly notes that much more attention has been paid to the riots over Synge's Playboy o/the Western World. Prior to this volume, one had only a general sense of the Plough riots and, as Lowery's careful compilation makes clear, one had many misperceptions. The first section of the study, titled "The Temple Shaken," considers events leading up to the disturbances. Drawing upon Lady Gregory's journals and upon letters from various concerned parties, Lowery shows how political pressures were placed on the Abbey directors because they chose to accept O'Casey's latest play. The Abbey had just received from the Government a small subsidy of£850. The Abbey's fortunes were at a fairly low ebb in 1925 and another successful play by O'Casey could make it solvent again. Because of the new subsidy. the government representative on the Abbey board, George O'Brien, felt more encouraged to function as a censor than had previous government appointees. O'Brien insisted that major cuts be made in O'Casey's text and in particular that the scene with Rosie Redmond the prostitute in Act II be removed or altered. O'Brien believed that the Dublin audiences would find this scene morally offensive. The Abbey board (Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Lennox Robinson in particular), felt that O'Brien was functioning 3S a censor and that the artistic integrity of the Abbey Theatre was at stake. They agreed to minor changes, but not to the major alterations O'Brien sought. In hindsight, of course, O'Brien was right, but the Abbey board never regretted its decision. It was chagrined that the philistine Dubliners could once again rise up against a work of art. Book Reviews The disturbances themselves are documented in Part Two. "'The Whirlwind." Here Lowery relies almost exclusively on reviews of The Plough -and the Stars which appeared during the actual run. Reading these reviews in chronological order reminds one that the infamous "riot" did not in fact occur on the play's first night , but rather on the fourth night, on Thursday, 11 February 1926, Reviews of the opening night in both of Dublin's leading dailies, The Irish .Times and The Irish Independent, had been favorable. But word soon spread among the Irish nationalists and especially among the families of those who had died in the 1916 Easter Rising that their cause was being travestied by O'Casey. The riots themselves involved a group of about twenty women, mostly mothers and widows of those who had died , chief among them Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington. The women rushed the stage with a number of other members of the audience and managed to get the performance stopped. Yeats appeared and gave his famous speech about giving to O'Casey "his apotheosis" (p. 31). The women were particularly opposed to the way O'Casey had, in their view, insulted the Irish flag by having it brought into a pub. One fine bit of critical writing about the play appeared during the week, namely, Walter Starkie's essay in The Irish Statesman. Starkie writes incisively about the play's language, about O'Casey as a realist, and about the brilliant characterization of Fluther Good and Bessie Burgess. For Starkie, Fluther is the central character of the play (pp. 46-50). The controversy moved from the stage of the Abbey to the Editorial pages -of the newspapers in the week after the riots. Lowery's third section, "Vox Litteratoris," documents this final stage. Mrs. Sheehy-S~effington led the attack on O'Casey in the press as she had in the theatre. Several letters were...