Later this month the Central Bank will launch a commemorative Seán O’Casey coin to mark the centenary of the playwright’s most enduring work, The Plough and the Stars. For O’Casey to be honoured by one of the pillars of Irish commerce might appear ironic given his firm socialist views and the struggle he often had to generate a steady income.
But the purpose of such coins is “to celebrate figures of national importance and to commemorate significant events in Irish history”. O’Casey merits such a tribute. The Plough and the Stars, the centenary production of which is currently running at the Abbey Theatre, raised provocative questions about violence and the founding myths of the Irish state while it was still in its infancy. It is infused with humanity and the language of late 19th and early 20th century Dublin.
The protests that marked its first production in 1926 were resisted in a significant assertion of artistic freedom at a time when cultural pieties could be suffocating. O’Casey and the Abbey directors stood their ground in the face of accusations he was “making a mockery” of a revolutionary movement. In truth, O’Casey successfully depicted complicated definitions of loyalty and the gulf between revolutionary rhetoric and reality. His themes have an enduring relevance. One of his biographers concluded that “O’Casey as writer still remains at work in the world: his words, his characters, his situations are reflected wherever poverty and laughter and urban warfare exist”.
The controversy in 1926 was a reminder that holding a mirror to your country can generate as much condemnation as gratitude. Uncertainty about the viability and reception of creative endeavours still complicates the lives of many of our artists. The decision to make the basic income for the arts scheme permanent is welcome, but the administration of the scheme in three-year cycles has created distress for some current recipients who are not automatically entitled to the new payment. There is still work to be done to ensure the scheme provides the continuity and security artists need to thrive.
