'Poor Fish of Circumstance': Sebastian Barry and the History Play (Critical Essay‪)‬

This essay considers Sebastian Barry's 2009 play Tales of Ballycumber as a response both to criticisms of Barry's earlier plays and to a broader tradition of representing history on the Irish stage. By considering the elements of the play that seem problematic or unresolved, the essay argues that Ballycumber acts not only as a challenge to the stock depiction of Irish history, but as an enactment onstage of the difficulties of reckoning with history in the dramatic form. **********