'a wonderful book from one of our finest writers' Colum McCann Bella is a bright, clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment and become a "mistress of her own life". However, the manager of her school, the Rev Archibald Leeper, a married clergyman, develops a morbid attachment to her, which is to colour the rest of her life. Leeper places Bella in an untenable position; her only escape is to seduce a young army corporal, Nicholas Beaver, to hide the fact that her reputation has been ruined by the clergyman. She marries Nicholas and they have five children. However, when Nicholas dies at the age of 40 from syphilis, Bella realizes belatedly that she is not the only one who has been keeping sexual secrets. Bella Casey was the sister of the playwright, Sean O'Casey. Tellingly, though, her brother chose to kill her off prematurely in his autobiography – at least 10 years before her actual demise.

This volume contains the three plays commonly recognized as the height of O'Casey's achievement as a playwright. His tragi-comedy has relevance to the violent politics in the North and the post-nationalist bewilderments in the Republic.

The New York Times describes the play "... as based on a strike in Dublin in 1913-1914 that led to the 'bloody Easter Week Rising of 1916.' But as in all Mr. O'Casey's latter-day plays, the real theme is the life of man-his valor, his joy, his love, his religious devotion, his loyalty and his belief in the future..." --www.doollee.com.

The comedy 'The End of the Beginning' and the sketch 'A Pound on Demand' were both published in 1934 as part of the collection of essays, verse and fiction, entitled 'Windfalls'. 'Hall of Healing, A Sincerious Farce', 'Bedtime Story' and 'Time to Go, A Morality Comedy', were written in 1951.