"A poet needs to break down those three walls [of the modern stage] somehow, and let another world through so that, indeed, some of the characters bring a comet-tail of something larger than the human along with them." (Padraic Fallon)

Padric Fallon created many brilliant radio plays during the 1950s, a time now recognised as the medium's golden age. He wrote with a sure sense of how the play would perform, but his works are also central to his poetic vision, expressions of the inner drama that, as he declared, 'goes on in the psyche where worlds are meeting and where history is always of the present'.

These three plays, published for the first time - The Vision of MacConglinne (1953), The Poplar (1953) and The Hags of Clough (1957) - reveal the range of Fallon's historical and social themes, combining intellectual subtlety with lyrical beauty and moments of broad humour. Brian Fallon has edited the plays from original scripts, and his introduction explores their literary context and production history

Table of Contents

Fallon, The Vision of MacConglinne



Contents



Introduction vii



The Vision of Mac Conglinne: A Play in Two Parts 1

The Poplar 85

The Hags of Clough 113