The play is the first in O’Casey’s “Dublin Trilogy” – the other two being Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926). It is set in Dublin in May 1920 during the Irish War of Independence and centres on the mistaken identity of a building tenant who is thought to be an Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassin. Each act takes place in Seumus Shield’s room in a tenement in Hilljoy Square.
Donal Davoren is a poet who has come to room with Seumus Shields in a poor, Dublin tenement slum. Many of the residents of the tenement mistake Donal for an IRA gunman on the run. Donal does not refute this notoriety, especially when it wins him the affection of Minnie Powell, an attractive young woman in the tenement. Meanwhile, Seumus’ business partner, Mr. Maguire, drops a bag off at Seumus’ apartment before participating in an ambush in which he is killed. Seumus believes the bag to contain household items for re-sale. The city is put under curfew as a result of the ambush. The Black and Tans raid the tenement and, at that point, Donal and Seumus discover the bag is full of Mills bombs. Minnie Powell takes the bag and hides it in her own room. The Black and Tans find nothing of note in Seumus’ room, but arrest Minnie Powell, who is later shot and killed trying to escape.
In the music video for Northern Irish rock/pop band The Adventures song “Send My Heart” (1984), the lead character is seen trying out for a version of the play.
Duggan is the son of Irish immigrants. His mother works as a cook while his father is a school secretary. He was educated at Douai School, Woolhampton, Berkshire. He studies experimental psychology for two years at the University of Edinburgh but leaves school feeling unsatisfied and decides to try his hand at acting. Prior to making it as an actor, he sells bone china to U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany.
Duggan makes his television debut in 1976 in an episode of The Flight of the Heron, followed by single episodes of Sutherland’s Law and The New Avengers (1976) and ITV‘s Playhouse (1977). He then appears in an adaptation of The Eagle of the Ninth, and his first film is Sweeney 2 in the following year. In 1979 he begins a nine-year stint as Detective Sergeant Albert “Cheerful Charlie” Chisholm in the popular TV series Minder.
Branagh is the middle of three children of working-class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who runs a company that specialises in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings. He lives in the Tiger’s Bay area of the city and is educated at Grove Primary School.
seamus dubhghaill 