Cheerio Titan: Friendship Between George Bernard Shaw and Eileen and Sean O’Casey

“Cheerio Titan” George Bernard Shaw signed off in a letter to Sean O’Casey during the great crisis of O’Casey’s life when the Abbey Theater in Dublin rejected his play, “The Silver Tassie”. Letters between the two men abounded. Shaw was quick and eager to criticise O’Casey’s work and to help him find his true voice. He was also always available to supply much needed moral – and sometimes financial – support to the younger playwright during his dramatic encounters with the Abbey Theatre and the controversies over his plays and politics. O’Casey repaid him with unreserved devotion, but the debates between the Shaws and O’Caseys were always spirited and the issues at stake were the most compelling of their time. Through anecdote and correspondence, Eileen O’Casey interweaves personal history with a portrait of Great Britain’s cultural life in the first half of this century.