Juno and the Paycock Study Guide

Seán O’Casey was a major Irish playwright known for his unflinching portrayals of working-class Dublin life during times of political upheaval. Born in Dublin, he was the youngest of 13 children in a Protestant family. His father died when Seán was six, plunging the family into poverty. Poor eyesight prevented him from completing formal schooling, so he educated himself, becoming a voracious reader and later teaching himself Irish and Shakespeare. O’Casey became active in Irish nationalism, joining the Gaelic League and serving as General Secretary of the Irish Citizen Army, but he resigned before the 1916 Easter Rising. He began writing plays in his forties and found success when The Shadow of a Gunman was staged by the Abbey Theatre in 1923. This launched his Dublin Trilogy: The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924), and The Plough and the Stars (1926). The last play provoked riots for its criticism of nationalism and the Easter Rising. After disputes with the Abbey, O’Casey moved to England in 1926, where he continued writing plays and autobiographies. He died in Devon at the age of 84.

Juno and the Paycock takes place during the Irish Civil War (1922–1923), a violent conflict that arose in reaction to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The treaty ended the War of Independence against Britain but established the Irish Free State as a dominion within the British Empire. This compromise split the nationalist movement: pro-Treaty forces accepted the Free State as a step toward full independence, while anti-Treaty Republicans viewed it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic declared in 1916. The result was a bitter civil war fought between former comrades, marked by assassinations, executions, and deep social division. The play portrays this political fracture through the character of Johnny, a former IRA fighter haunted by betrayal and violence. It also captures the broader economic and social disillusionment many Irish citizens experienced after independence. Instead of peace and prosperity, many urban poor remained trapped in poverty and instability. O’Casey’s portrayal of Dublin tenement life exposes the gap between political ideals and everyday suffering, showing how the promises of revolution failed to reach families like the Boyles.

Juno and the Paycock belongs to the Irish dramatic tradition shaped by the Irish Literary Revival, a cultural movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement gained traction as writers like W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and J. M. Synge sought to revive Irish folklore, language, and national identity through literature and theater, often portraying rural life, myth, and heroic figures. The Abbey Theatre, co-founded by Yeats and Gregory in 1904, became the centerpiece of the movement and the venue where O’Casey’s early plays were staged. While the Revival celebrated Ireland’s spiritual and historical legacy, it often idealized the past and emphasized nationalist themes. Seán O’Casey radically reoriented this tradition by turning his attention to the urban working class and the harsh realities of post-independence Dublin. His Dublin Trilogy—The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars—moved away from romantic nationalism and instead portrayed disillusionment, poverty, and the cost of political violence. Though O’Casey’s work emerged from the Revival’s infrastructure, especially the Abbey Theatre, his stark realism and political skepticism marked a decisive break from its earlier tone.