O’CASEY, Sean. Songs of the Wren – Humorous and Sentimental [AMHRÁIN AN DREOILÍN]

New Series No I. Dublin, Fergus O’Connor, circa 1918. Octavo. Single printed sheet folded (pp. 8). A very good unopened copy of this scarce early work by a leading Irish dramatist of the 20th Century. €275

Sean O’Casey (1880-1964), playwright, born in Dublin into a working class family and christened John
Casey. His father’s death in 1886 plunged the family into poverty. Self-educated, he was deeply
involved in the Labour Movement and took part in the ‘Lock-Out’ strike of 1913. He was secretary of
the Irish Citizen Army under James Connolly, but left when it moved closer to a Republican position.
Encouraged by Lady Gregory, he began to submit plays to the Abbey Theatre; and after some years
success came with the production of ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’ (1923), which marked him as the new
great voice of Irish theatre. In 1926 he left for London to become a full time writer. His next play ‘The
Silver Tassie’ was rejected by the Abbey. This was a bitter blow to O’Casey and estranged him from
the directors

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