Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies E-ISSN: 2175-8026
[email protected] Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Brasil Kosok, Heinz DOOMED VOLUNTEERS: TWO GREAT POLITICAL PLAYS FROM IRELAND Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, núm. 58, enero-junio, 2010, pp. 77-98 Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianópolis, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=478348696004 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Doomed Volunteers: Two Great Political... 77 DOOMED VOLUNTEERS: TWO GREAT POLITICAL PLAYS FROM IRELAND Heinz Kosok University of Wuppertal Abstract: Seamus Byrne’s Design for a Headstone (1950) and Brian Friel’s Volunteers (1975) are some of the most controversial plays in the canon of Irish drama, exceptional in their explicit political implications. Loosely based on the role of the IRA in the Republic, they achieve a high degree of universality in their discussion of such provocative issues as political radicalism, internment, hunger strike, the role of the Church in society, passive resistance vs. active rebellion, justice vs. humanity, and loyalty vs. betrayal. In their tragic endings, both plays reveal a deep pessimism on the part of their authors. Keywordsds: Byrne, Friel, Political Drama, IRA, Tragedy. Frank O’Connor, in The Backward Look, has claimed that all Irish literature is characterised by what he calls a “political note”, and he insists: “I know no other literature so closely linked to the immediate reality of politics” (121).