Saturday, 9th December 2006 saw the theatre in the Centro Cultural, Cascais ring with Dublin accents as Irish theatre group, Ad Hoc Productions performed excerpts from three of Sean O’Casey’s plays based on life in early 20th-century Dublin.

O’Casey is one of the most well-known Irish playwrights of the 20th century. Despite a difficult childhood where poor eyesight and ill-health meant that he had very little formal schooling, he was passionate about learning and prided himself on being self-educated.

Early in his writing career, O’Casey created the three plays which have become known as the ‘Dublin Trilogy’, consisting of ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’, ‘Juno and the Paycock’ and ‘The Plough and the Stars’. These three plays which were first performed in Dublin during the 1920’s are all set in the tenements of inner-city Dublin and deal with Ireland through the Easter Rising and subsequent Civil War.

‘An Evening of Sean O’Casey’ was the first event organized by the Irish Portuguese Friendship Society under it’s new name of the Irish Association.