Sean O'Casey's play 'The Plough and the Stars' provoked a riot on the fourth night of its first run at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in February 1926. Just four years after the Treaty was signed, there were people in the audience who did not approve of the Tricolour being brought into a public house, or Dublin ladies of the night being represented on the stage of the National Theatre. The author, a committed Socialist, and a former member of Connolly's Citzens' Army, probed behind the aura of romanticism that was already beginning to enshroud the events of Easter 1916 and put his focus on the suffering and the sacrifice especially as endured by the women. Not everyone approved of this anti-heroic approach.
In October 1937, the film version occasioned a violent reaction on the first night of its exhibition in Millar's Picture House, Omagh – an incident that lived on for many years in the urban folk memory, and was the subject of a retrospective article published recently by 'The Irish News'. The hostile demonstration on this occasion was conducted by what the paper, at the time, called the "Unionist youth of the town." This element took objection to the Tricolour on the screen, even though the movie was made in black and white. The film's finale featured scenes of the 1916 Rising on the streets of Dublin, recreated in a Hollywood studio.
The 'Irish News' of October 6, 1937, goes on, "Episodes of the picture were received with shouts of boos from one section of the audience while another section cheered. Stink bombs were exploded... and several people were hurt when these small bombs were thrown... officials endeavoured to quell the more noisy spirits but without success. A few RUC men were present but did not interfere. When the performance was over a crowd of Unionist boys gathered in High Street, opposite the picture house, and when the manager appeared he was greeted with boos and jeers. Subsequently a crowd gathered opposite the manager's house in Campsie and indulged in a noisy demonstration."
Heady stuff, indeed. The film was produced by John Ford, who had won his first Academy Award the year before for his work in directing the film version of 'The Informer' from the novel by his cousin, Liam O'Flaherty.
Ford was not happy with the strictures imposed upon him by the Hollywood studio, RKO. He had wanted to bring over the entire cast from the Abbey Theatre, but the studio insisted that the leading parts go to Barbara Stanwyck and Preston Foster, two Irish-American stars who did not give the impression that they had much of an idea about developments in modern Ireland. Ford did succeed in importing such Abbey luminaries as F. J. McCormick (Ford's choice for the lead), Denis O'Dea, Barry Fitzgerald and his brother Arthur Shields, who was actually in the General Post Office at the time of the surrender in 1916.
One studio executive asked Ford why the Irish were fighting the British in the midst of World War I. Ford replied that the Irish wanted the same thing that George Washington wanted for his people in the American Revolution. The executive said he thought the Irish already had secured their liberty. And so it went.
The studio wasn't happy that the leading man and the leading lady were already married at the start of the picture. Where was the romance in that? In Hollywood movies the hero married the heroine in the last reel. When Ford would not co-operate, RKO hired another director to shoot new scenes behind his back. Ford was so disgusted that he sought to have his name removed from the picture, but without success. Shortly after these spats, Ford severed his connection with the studio and moved to Twentieth Century-Fox.
'The Plough' is a long play, containing four acts. Even without intervals you would not get it, in its entirety, in less than two hours. When the studios had finished their butchery, the film was down to 78 minutes in the United States, 72 minutes in Britain and Ireland. "Completely ruined the damn thing - destroyed the whole story," Ford fumed.
Several attempts to stage the play in Omagh from the 1930s to the 1960s did not go forward because of clerical opposition. The play was eventually put on in the Town Hall by the Omagh Theatre Workshop in the Spring of 1986. There were no incidents. There was an amusing co-incidence on the Saturday evening performance: the second act is set in a Dublin pub, whilst outside can be heard the din of a Republican demonstration. On the night there was a Loyalist demonstration on the streets of Omagh. The old Town Hall was never all that well sound-proofed, and the noise of drums, whistles, accordions and shouts filled the night air, and invaded the theatre. The audience took it as part of the show and marvelled at the auditorium's sound system.
In evidence, the court heard that the defendant was being charged with stealing items of clothing from clothes lines in an estate in the locality. The stolen items were always part of gentlemen's attire - shirts, socks, trousers and his neighbours felt that they recognised their property but had no proof and were reluctant to confront him. A sort of neighbourhood watch was set in motion and vigilant monitoring resulted in the culprit being caught in the act. He could by no means be described as impoverished, he was just too mean to spend his money in buying clothes in the local stores. "He belived", said the RM, "In acquiring goods on line."
In an incident reported from California earlier this month, a middle-aged motorist was driving down a motorway when he saw a biker gang ahead. He does not like bikers, so he waved a snooker cue out of the car window, and swerves towards the bikers. He then aimed the car at the bikers, who pulled over to the hard shoulder. The driver then got out, still waving his snooker cue. Then, unfortunately for him he was run over by his own car. He had inadvertently left his vehicle in reverse. He is now recovering in hospital.
A company specialising in helping victims of various illnesses to pursue claims to possible entitlement have put out the following advertisement:
Contact us if you have had any of these: Arythmia, Heart Attack, Fatal Heart Attack.
Moscow has become not only very fashion conscious but also very snobbish. One lady was overheard at a cocktail party telling another, "You know, dear, you could have got those shoes for twice the price at Mashams."
A Tralee councillor, who was appealing for increased damages after being burned by lime used to line out a football pitch, was described in The Irish Times as having been "permanently scared".
And the Sunday Tribune has quoted a prominent business magnate as saying that Aer Lingus and Ryanair should be regarded as two 'complimentary' airlines. Perhaps the paper meant 'complementary'.
'Complimentary' means something for nothing. Not on in Irish aviation these days.
