Four Irish Rebel Plays

This collection brings together, for the first time, plays written by the well known Irish nationalists Thomas MacDonagh, Pádraic Pearse, James Connolly and Terence MacSwiney. In the years before the Easter Rising, Dublin saw MacDonagh stage When the Dawn is Come and Pearse produce The Master, as both men attempted to gain support for the advanced nationalist cause. Meanwhile, MacSwiney published his play The Revolutionist in order to win the endorsement of Redmondite nationalists, whilst at Liberty Hall, less than a month before the armed revolt of 1916, Connolly staged Under Which Flag? to persuade others to assist the forthcoming rebellion.

These texts offer important insights into the rebels' political and military thinking during a key period of the Irish revolution. The introduction to this edition explores the historical and theatrical contexts of the original performances, and explains how the plays influenced Ireland between 1908 and 1921. An epilogue outlines the varying afterlives that the plays enjoyed once their authors had died.