Ireland is still under the rule of Great Britain, and the Irish people are preparing to rebel. In a small tenement in one of Dublin’s working class neighborhoods live the Clitheroes. Jack Clitheroe used to belong to the Irish Citizen Army, and his wife, Nora, would do anything to keep him from returning to the dangerous cause. Her voice is an unpopular one; almost all of their friends and neighbors support the Nationalist cause. But as fighting breaks out in the streets, there is little that any of the tenement’s residents can do to stay unaffected by the violence of the rebellion. Centered around Dublin’s Easter Rising in 1916, The Plough and the Stars is one of playwright Sean O’Casey’s most renowned and poignant works. The play examines the powerful force of political idealism and the lives of those swept up in its tide. It is the final play in Sean O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy.
The Plough and the Stars guide sections
