The Play That Brought Yeats and O’Casey Almost to Blows

When, in 1927, W.B. Yeats turned down Sean O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie for production at the Abbey Theatre, “the drama of its rejection dominated the pages of The Irish Times for several weeks. There were leaked letters, threatened lawsuits, literary insults thrown in from both sides, and a lengthy debate about the state and future of the Abbey Theatre.”