Blight (play)
Encyclopedia
Blight: The Tragedy of Dublin is a play by Oliver St. John Gogarty
. One of the earliest Irish
"slum dramas", it focuses on the horrific conditions prevalent in Dublin's tenements and the ineffectuality of the medical and charitable institutions set up to combat them. The message of the play reflects Gogarty's belief that only a complete overhaul of the Dublin housing system, coupled with a more effective campaign of preventive medicine
, were capable of producing positive change.
Gogarty's friend Joseph O'Connor, though not involved in the actual writing process, contributed some anecdotal material to the play, and when it was first performed at the Abbey Theatre
in December 1917, the name of the author was given as "Alpha and Omega", a joint pseudonym referring to Gogarty and O'Connor.
in 1911, he began to speak out about the health hazards posed by Dublin schools and tenements. In one 1913 letter he asked: "Does a tenement only cease to be a tenement, when it becomes a tomb? The houses in Church Street, as elsewhere, have the saving attribute of killing only one generation or part of a generation... but what of the houses of Church Street, the houses of six and seven feet high, that cannot fall, but can only go on reeking forever. The houses in Kean's Court—what of those? And what of those structures in Thunder's Court, where one common privy bemerded beyond use, stands beside one common water supply which a corporation notice guards from waste." Believing that the Dublin Corporation
was to blame for the current state of affairs, he also called for a list of slum property-holders to be published because "we are dealing with a form of property so injurious to public health and public morals, that it should be made accordingly publicly responsible." This sense of outrage was to remain with Gogarty his whole life; as a senator
, he made twenty-seven separate speeches on housing in a single year.
John Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello have argued that Gogarty's portrayal of the Foley family was at least partially inspired by visits to the home of his friend, James Joyce
. Though not tenement
dwellers, the Joyces' situation was impoverished, and Gogarty was later to describe their house in Cabra as "a miserable home". Similarities can be detected between the clever, idle schemer "Stanislaus Tully" and Joyce
's father, John Stanislaus Joyce. James Carens has also noted that Gogarty gives "the affectations of his Ely Place
neighbors, George Moore
and Sir Thornley Stoker" to two of the Townsend Thanatorium's board members.
, and Lily, a prostitute. Her husband is away fighting in the British army
. The first two acts are devoted to their squalid living conditions and the well-meaning but misguided attempts of a charity worker to alleviate their situation with platitudes. At the end of the second act, it is revealed that Tully has won his court case and come into a small fortune. He immediately abandons his rabble-rousing reformist stance and decides to buy property in the slums.
The third act takes place in the Towsend Thanatorium Boardroom and opens with a comic discussion between two medical students, Medical Dick and Medical Davy, and a charwoman; during the course of their dialogue, it is revealed that Lily Foley has contracted syphilis
. The Board is engaged in a plan to build a shamrock-shaped mortuary chapel for Protestants, Catholics, and Nonconformists, which is criticized as useless and frivolous by Dr. Tumulty, a cynical, practical-minded doctor. Tully, now a member of the Dublin Corporation
, arrives to broker the sale of some tenement property as a site for the project. The meeting is disrupted by Tully's brother-in-law, Foley, who has returned from the war to find that he has been evicted from his tenement
and that his wife, son, and newborn child have all perished in his absence. The Board responds with meaningless words of sympathy but apparently does not feel any culpability, and Dr. Tumulty is left to state the moral of the play: "All your benevolent formulism only makes the position more and more hopeless. The less you spend on prevention the more you will pay for cure. Until the citizens of this city realize that their children should be brought up in the most beautiful and favorable surroundings the city can afford, and not in the most squalid, until this floundering Moloch of a Government realize that they must spend more money on education than on police, this city will continue to be the breeding-ground of disease, vice, hypocrisy and discontent. I leave you to erect your tripartite edifice over the children of the city of blight."
Gogarty critics have noted that the over-prominence of Tumulty (who is essentially a mouthpiece for Gogarty and not a character in his own right) in Act III constitutes a "structural flaw". However, while acknowledging that the polemic play "suffers from the limitations of its kind", Gogarty's skillful use of comic dialogue and irony have been praised.
commenting that "such an audience has not been at the Abbey since the night Shaw's Blanco Posnet was first produced [in 1909]." Critics commented on the play's grim efficacy in unveiling the horrors of slumdom, and Sir John Russell, speaking at a charitable dinner a week after the Blights appearance, said that it exposed the plight of Dublin's poor as no play ever had. Andrew Malone, writing a review of Irish drama in 1929, called it "undoubtedly the best play yet produced by an Irish dramatist dealing with a specifically Irish social problem" and observed that it "is marked by a critically ironic insight into social conditions." Blight drew in a record £160 in profits for the Abbey
, but was cancelled by Lady Gregory after ten days, possibly due to the controversiality of some of its content.
Sean O'Casey
was present at Blights opening night, later stating that it was one of only two plays that he had ever gone to see at the Abbey
. It has been suggested that Blight may have had an influence on O'Casey
's later drama, particularly Juno and the Paycock
, but O'Casey
himself claimed that it "had no influence whatever on me."
Oliver St. John Gogarty
Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, who served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses....
. One of the earliest Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
"slum dramas", it focuses on the horrific conditions prevalent in Dublin's tenements and the ineffectuality of the medical and charitable institutions set up to combat them. The message of the play reflects Gogarty's belief that only a complete overhaul of the Dublin housing system, coupled with a more effective campaign of preventive medicine
Preventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
, were capable of producing positive change.
Gogarty's friend Joseph O'Connor, though not involved in the actual writing process, contributed some anecdotal material to the play, and when it was first performed at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
in December 1917, the name of the author was given as "Alpha and Omega", a joint pseudonym referring to Gogarty and O'Connor.
Background
A medical doctor as well as a writer, Oliver Gogarty was deeply troubled by the state of housing in urban Dublin. After joining the staff of the Meath HospitalMeath Hospital
The Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland was founded in 1753. Situated in the Earl of Meath's Liberty, the hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin....
in 1911, he began to speak out about the health hazards posed by Dublin schools and tenements. In one 1913 letter he asked: "Does a tenement only cease to be a tenement, when it becomes a tomb? The houses in Church Street, as elsewhere, have the saving attribute of killing only one generation or part of a generation... but what of the houses of Church Street, the houses of six and seven feet high, that cannot fall, but can only go on reeking forever. The houses in Kean's Court—what of those? And what of those structures in Thunder's Court, where one common privy bemerded beyond use, stands beside one common water supply which a corporation notice guards from waste." Believing that the Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation , known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between 1661 and 1 January 2002...
was to blame for the current state of affairs, he also called for a list of slum property-holders to be published because "we are dealing with a form of property so injurious to public health and public morals, that it should be made accordingly publicly responsible." This sense of outrage was to remain with Gogarty his whole life; as a senator
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...
, he made twenty-seven separate speeches on housing in a single year.
John Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello have argued that Gogarty's portrayal of the Foley family was at least partially inspired by visits to the home of his friend, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. Though not tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
dwellers, the Joyces' situation was impoverished, and Gogarty was later to describe their house in Cabra as "a miserable home". Similarities can be detected between the clever, idle schemer "Stanislaus Tully" and Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's father, John Stanislaus Joyce. James Carens has also noted that Gogarty gives "the affectations of his Ely Place
Ely Place, Dublin
Ely Place is a street in central Dublin with Georgian architecture. It is a continuation of Upper Merrion Street and the place where Lower Baggot Street and Merrion Row meet. Both the latter and Hume Street link it to St...
neighbors, George Moore
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
and Sir Thornley Stoker" to two of the Townsend Thanatorium's board members.
Plot
The story of Blight centers around the character of Stanislaus Tully, a Dublin laborer who has been injured on the job and is hoping to receive damages from the courts. He has greatly over-exaggerated the extent of his injuries in order to reap the largest monetary award possible, and is living with his sister while he "convalesces." His pregnant sister, Mrs. Foley, has two children: Jimmy, a crippleCripple
A cripple is a person or animal with a physical disability, particularly one who is unable to walk because of an injury or illness. The word was recorded as early as 950 AD, and derives from the Proto-Germanic krupilaz...
, and Lily, a prostitute. Her husband is away fighting in the British army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. The first two acts are devoted to their squalid living conditions and the well-meaning but misguided attempts of a charity worker to alleviate their situation with platitudes. At the end of the second act, it is revealed that Tully has won his court case and come into a small fortune. He immediately abandons his rabble-rousing reformist stance and decides to buy property in the slums.
The third act takes place in the Towsend Thanatorium Boardroom and opens with a comic discussion between two medical students, Medical Dick and Medical Davy, and a charwoman; during the course of their dialogue, it is revealed that Lily Foley has contracted syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
. The Board is engaged in a plan to build a shamrock-shaped mortuary chapel for Protestants, Catholics, and Nonconformists, which is criticized as useless and frivolous by Dr. Tumulty, a cynical, practical-minded doctor. Tully, now a member of the Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation , known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name given to the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin between 1661 and 1 January 2002...
, arrives to broker the sale of some tenement property as a site for the project. The meeting is disrupted by Tully's brother-in-law, Foley, who has returned from the war to find that he has been evicted from his tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
and that his wife, son, and newborn child have all perished in his absence. The Board responds with meaningless words of sympathy but apparently does not feel any culpability, and Dr. Tumulty is left to state the moral of the play: "All your benevolent formulism only makes the position more and more hopeless. The less you spend on prevention the more you will pay for cure. Until the citizens of this city realize that their children should be brought up in the most beautiful and favorable surroundings the city can afford, and not in the most squalid, until this floundering Moloch of a Government realize that they must spend more money on education than on police, this city will continue to be the breeding-ground of disease, vice, hypocrisy and discontent. I leave you to erect your tripartite edifice over the children of the city of blight."
Gogarty critics have noted that the over-prominence of Tumulty (who is essentially a mouthpiece for Gogarty and not a character in his own right) in Act III constitutes a "structural flaw". However, while acknowledging that the polemic play "suffers from the limitations of its kind", Gogarty's skillful use of comic dialogue and irony have been praised.
Reception and influence
The play was highly-anticipated by the theatregoing public and played to packed houses, with the Irish IndependentIrish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
commenting that "such an audience has not been at the Abbey since the night Shaw's Blanco Posnet was first produced [in 1909]." Critics commented on the play's grim efficacy in unveiling the horrors of slumdom, and Sir John Russell, speaking at a charitable dinner a week after the Blights appearance, said that it exposed the plight of Dublin's poor as no play ever had. Andrew Malone, writing a review of Irish drama in 1929, called it "undoubtedly the best play yet produced by an Irish dramatist dealing with a specifically Irish social problem" and observed that it "is marked by a critically ironic insight into social conditions." Blight drew in a record £160 in profits for the Abbey
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
, but was cancelled by Lady Gregory after ten days, possibly due to the controversiality of some of its content.
Sean O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
was present at Blights opening night, later stating that it was one of only two plays that he had ever gone to see at the Abbey
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
. It has been suggested that Blight may have had an influence on O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
's later drama, particularly Juno and the Paycock
Juno and the Paycock
Juno and the Paycock is a play by Sean O'Casey, and one of the most highly regarded and oft-performed plays in Ireland. It was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924...
, but O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
himself claimed that it "had no influence whatever on me."