IRISH PLAYWRIGHT Sean O’Casey and artist Francis Bacon turned down honours from the British queen, newly released records show.
O’Casey declined an offer to become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1963, the year before he died, while Bacon turned down the same honour in 1960, according to the list released by the cabinet office.
O’Casey’s name appears among those of the 277 who did so between 1951 and 1999 and who have since died. Until now, the information was not included in official papers released under the 30-year rule but has now been released after a freedom of information request by the BBC.
The list also includes author Roald Dahl, artists Lucian Freud, L S Lowry, Henry Moore and novelist Aldous Huxley. Lowry turned down honours five times between 1955 and 1976, the list shows.
The British crown was not the only institution to be snubbed by O’Casey. In 1963, he also declined honorary degrees from Durham University and the University of Exeter, and in 1961 he declined an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin.
Although he had lived happily in England since 1927, he was a lifelong republican and socialist and never embraced the monarchy. His early attachment to the Irish nationalist movement (he was a member of the Gaelic League and of the Irish Citizens Army) soured after Independence and he switched his political allegiance to the Soviet Union, declaring that the “red star” of social liberation had risen there and not in Ireland.
While rejecting honours from the British crown and from academic institutions, he was happy to accept prizes for literature and drama. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for his play Juno and the Paycock in 1926 and in 1949 accepted the Newspaper Guild of New York’s “Page One Award” for the first four volumes of his Autobiographies.
His rejection of the Trinity honorary degree came three years after he was forced to withdraw his play, The Drums of Father Ned, from the 1958 Dublin Theatre Festival.
It would have been only the second time in over 30 years that a play of his was shown in Dublin (following the staging of Red Roses for Me in the Olympia in the 1940s), but the then archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, refused to give his blessing to the festival because of the presence in it of plays by Joyce and O’Casey. Joyce’s play was dropped and O’Casey was required to make massive changes to his play, which he refused to do.
From time to time rejections of royal honours have emerged into the public domain.
John Lennon publicly returned his MBE in 1969, with a note to the queen saying: “Your Majesty, I am returning this in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With Love, John Lennon of Bag.”
In 2007, Joseph Corre. co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, rejected the title, accusing Tony Blair of being “morally corrupt”.