Notice: There are currently gaps in the database affecting plays from mid 2023, 2024 and mid 2025 due to a technical issue. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Home | About | Contact Us

The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

Plays

Printer Friendly

The Bird in the Net

OVERVIEW

  • Playwright

    Sean Dowling 

  • Setting

    Set in County Galway, 1914.

  • Synopsis

    Sir William D'Arcy has invited his protegé, Micheál Tyrell, a peasant poet, to his mansion. Tyrell is on leave from the battlefields of France and dressed in a British Uniform. Irish Rebels ambush the mansion and capture D'Arcy and Tyrell. When they are released Tyrell decides to return to the battlefield where he is eventually killed. He has left behind his poetry, which his mother gives to the D'Arcy family. Sir William's daughter, Felicity, urges her father to burn the poems because of the rebellious nature of the work, thus dushonouring the poet's name and his gesture to the family.

  • Play Type

    Plays General

    Number Of Acts

    Full-Length

    • Cast size

  • Male

    8

  • Female

    2

  • Total

    10

Original Production

Original Cast
Volunteer O'Grady Peadar Lamb
Lieutenant Micheál Tyrell D.S.O. Vincent Dowling
Felicity Doreen Madden
Mrs. Tyrell Marie Kean
County Inspector Harmsworth, R.I.C. Philip O'Flynn
John Meehan Micheál Ó Briain
Captain 'Jo-Boy' Regan Edward Golden
Commandant Mulvey Bill Foley
Sir William D'Arcy, Bart. Ray McAnally
R.I.C. man Frainc MacMornáin
Production Team
Settings by Tomás Mac Anna
Produced by Ria Mooney

Rights Information

  • No Information Available. ITI's researchers have examined this play entry with care and no further information has yet been found. If you have further details on this entry please contact us.

Source Of Information

The information for this entry was taken from published material.