George Bernard Shaw has always been regarded as a political provocateur and socialist with ideas that reflected a complicated public philosophy. Scholarship abounds on Shaw�� politics, but Nelson Ritschel�� compelling study is the first to explore how Shaw�� presence in Irish radical debate manifested itself not only through his direct contributions but also through the way he and his efforts were engaged by others--most notably by the socially liberal dramatist J. M. Synge and the socialist agitator James Connolly.
Looking closely at such works as In the Shadow of the Glen, John Bull�� Other Island, Playboy of the Western World, and O��laherty, V.C., Ritschel opens an important door on the hidden dialogue between these men. The result is a gripping, even suspenseful, narrative of the intellectual march to the Easter Uprising of 1916.
