"The Land" touched upon a typical conflict, the conflict between the individual and that which, in Ireland, has much authority, the family group. This particular conflict was shown again in "The Fiddler's House." where the life, not of the actual peasants, but of rural people with artistic and aristocratic traditions, was shown.
I tried to show the same conflict working out more tragically in the play of middle-class life, "Thomas Muskerry." Here I went above the peasant and the wandering artist and came to the official. I had intended to make plays about the merchant, the landowner, the political and the intellectual leader and so write a chapter in an Irish Human Comedy. But while I was thinking of the play that is third in this volume my connection with the National Theatre Society was broken off. "Thomas Muskerry" was produced in the Abbey Theatre after I had ceased to be a member of the group that had founded it.
PADRAIC COLUM NEW YORK August, 1916
CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S NOTE THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE THE LAND: AN AGRARIAN COMEDY IN THREE ACTS THOMAS MUSKERRY
THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE
CHARACTERS
CONN HOURICAN, a Fiddler.
MAIRE (Mary) [1] HOURICAN, his daughter.
ANNE HOURICAN, a younger daughter.
BRIAN MACCONNELL, a younger farmer.
JAMES MOYNIHAN, a farmer's son.
The action passes in the Houricans' house in the Irish Midlands.
[Footnote 1: The name is pronounced as if written "Maurya.">[