Sean O'Casey

A world famous Irish playwright, O'Casey worked as a labourer in his teens. In his 20s, he joined the revolutionary socialist movement and became, eventually, the secretary of the Irish Citizen Army, the self-defence force established by the trade union movement.

In the 1920s, Abbey Theatre presented his `Juno and the Paycock' and soon followed it with `The Shadow of a Gunman'. His `Plough and the Stars', a realistic and unsentimental presentation of the 1916 Rising brought his uneasy relationship with the Irish literary establishment to a crisis.

O'Casey became a member of the British Communist Party and was for many years a member of the editorial board of the Daily Worker.

He wrote `The Star Turns Red', a funny projection of the socialist revolution in Ireland, for London's Unity Theatre.

O'Casey died in 1964 at age of 84.

Source: Morning Star March 1st 1989