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GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF THE SCREEN VERSION OF SEAN O'CASEY'S
The Plough and The Stars
I. THESTRUGGLEFORIRISHFREEDOM
Discuss this section with pupils before they see the picture.
A skull and some bronze implements of the period of 2,000 B.C. were dug up in 1933 not far from Tara, the ancient chief city of Ireland. The events of that early period of Irish history are lost in the past. Legend says that every section of the land was ruled by its own king, and that the many kings acknowledged the headship of a greater monarch who lived at Tara. Of this ancient day the Irish poet, Thomas Moore, wrote:
The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls,
As if that soul were fled. . . . No more to chiefs and ladies bright
The harp of Tara swells; The chord alone, that breaks at night,
Its tale of ruin tells.
Proud of their ancient race and language and history the Irish, for many centuries, have fought stubbornly for their land and its independence.
Beginning in the 8th century the Norsemen harried the coasts for some 200 years. Then there arose the great Brian Boru, who conquered the invaders, made himself King of Ireland, and died in battle in 1014. Over 150 years later the Normans invaded the island and divided its land among Norman nobles, thus beginning an age-long struggle over ownership of land. In various centuries English invaders waged most relentless war, even the Puritan Cromwell landing 10,000 soldiers and killing 2,000 Irish at Drogheda. Continued wars, harsh laws, and famines led to frequent rebellions. In 1846 and 1847 such starvation conditions existed that 1,500,000 persons left Ireland, many of them emigrating to America.