Riders to the Sea (With Introduction)

Riders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on February 25, 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for capturing the poetic dialogue of rural Ireland. The very simple plot is based not on the traditional conflict of human wills but on the hopeless struggle of a people against the impersonal but relentless cruelty of the sea.

Only four characters are named: Maurya, an elderly Irishwoman, her daughters Cathleen and Nora, and her son Bartley. Also mentioned are Maurya's deceased sons Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, Patch, and Michael. The young priest is also important to introduce controversies about Maurya's sons.

Maurya has lost her husband, father-in-law, and five sons to the sea. As the play begins Nora and Cathleen receive word that a body that may be their brother Michael has washed up on shore in Donegal, far to the north. Bartley is planning to sail to Connemara to sell a horse, and ignores Maurya's pleas to stay. As he leaves, he leaves gracefully. Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons, and her daughters chide her for sending Bartley off with an ill word. The play continues from here. Maurya's speech in the final scene is famous in Irish drama.