The Stage Irish Pub: A History of Irish Pub Drama

Prof. Moonyoung Hong
Visiting Scholar
Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:

In this talk, I explore the connections between two performative spaces—theatre and the pub—and their significance in Irish history and culture. Modern Irish theatre, known for its storytelling, lengthy monologues, and mythic elements, has increasingly adopted the Irish pub as a key setting, turning it into a cultural trope. From the early peasant drama of J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (1907) and the social realism of Sean O’Casey’s Plough and the Stars (1926)—both of which sparked riots at the Abbey Theatre—to the contemporary pub tour and adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s Two Pints (2017), this talk interrogates complex notions of ‘Irishness’ and ‘platiality’ (Chaudhuri, 1997). It will examine various representations of the pub, including the Irish-American setting in Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985), rural pubs during the Celtic Tiger era in Conor McPherson’s The Weir (1997), and the Northern Irish pub in Owen McCafferty’s Quietly (2012). By analysing these diverse contexts across different time periods, I offer a diachronic and comparative reading on individual and communal identities. Furthermore, when the pub is staged, it serves as a meta-theatrical reflection on theatre itself, contributing to a “lived” experience for the audience. This presentation draws from the forthcoming edited collection The Irish Pub: Invention and Reinvention (Cork University Press, 2025; eds. Moonyoung Hong and Perry Share) and will incorporate materials from the book.