Arrah Na Pogue; or, The Wicklow Wedding

Arrah Na Pogue; or, The Wicklow Wedding (1865), a play by Dion Boucicault. [Niblo's Garden, 68 perf.] Arrah Meelish ( Josephine Orton), a simple peasant girl, offers to shelter the fugitive Beamish McCoul ( W. E. Sheridan), when he appears at her cottage. McCoul's presence is discovered by the treacherous informer, Michael Feeney ( W. Scallan) who divulges the secret on the eve of Arrah's wedding to Shaun the Post ( T. H. Glenney), hinting that more than anti‐British sentiments prompted Arrah's actions. Shaun is not deceived, so to save Arrah's life and reputation, Shaun claims that he had urged Arrah to hide the man. In the end Arrah, Shaun, and McCoul all manage to escape official wrath, and Arrah and Shaun are wed. The play was filled with what critics of the day liked to call “sensations,” such as Shaun's false confession and his later escape by climbing down a growth of ivy. Although some critics suggested it lacked the heartiness and complexity of similar works, such as The Colleen Bawn, The Octoroon, and Jessie Brown, the public adored the play, and it was revived regularly for the remainder of the century. Boucicault himself, who played Shaun at its London premiere, later frequently assumed the role.