Ireland, through the arts and its cultural heritage, has often been perceived as a fantasy country; fantasy in the sense that it is often depicted in a simplified and romanticized way. This can be seen in William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory's interpretation of Ireland as the romantic heroine Cathleen Ni Houlihan, or in the prevalence of Celtic culture, exemplified by organizations such as the Gaelic League. Eamon de Valera's 1943 St Patrick's Day speech, "On the Irish Language and Nation", is yet another example of a romanticised, simplified and idyllic Ireland, this time used for political, rather than artistic or cultural purposes . It is clear, however, through much Irish literature, particularly the drama of the Abbey Theatre, that the Ireland de Valera depicted in this speech, a "happy, vigorous, spiritual" Ireland, never really existed in the past or present; de Valera exploited the romantic imagination of Ireland to create political propaganda. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay De Valera's speech created an image of Ireland that was inconsistent with realistic literary representations of the country. In the speech, de Valera stated that his idyllic Ireland “would be the home of people who valued material wealth only as a basis for the right to live, of people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their free time to things of the spirit ”. De Valera here seeks to portray Ireland as populated by economically healthy people, people who recognize the importance of the immaterial over the material, and are therefore content to live on the basic necessities of life. What he is actually doing, however, is masking Ireland's poverty behind a romantic image. In a multitude of texts written before the 1943 speech, Ireland is described as living in unfavorable economic conditions. In the early 20th century, the Abbey Theatre, Ireland's national theater founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1904, produced several plays set in an impoverished environment. The setting of Juno and the Paycock, by Sean O'Casey, is an example of the poverty in which the working class of Dublin lived in the 1920s. The opening of the first act is set in the “living room of a two-room flat occupied by the Boyle family in a tenement house in Dublin”.[1] Rental buildings in Dublin were notorious for poor living conditions, designed to house as many workers as possible in as little space as possible. These urban slums are clearly at odds with de Valera's ideal of "a land whose countryside would be bright with cozy homesteads", and thus suggests that de Valera actively aspired to a new form for Ireland; not one that necessarily has the majority of the population living in rural areas, but one that captures a nostalgic aesthetic of the past. This image of Ireland as imagined by de Valera can also be seen as not necessarily rural due to other dramatic depictions of the Irish poor, such as J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. The entire play is set in a “very rough and untidy country pub or shebeen” on the “wild coast of Mayo”.[2] County Mayo, known for its difficult terrain, would have been recognized by Synge's audience as a difficult place to live, thus already presenting the environment in a negative light. Furthermore, due to the inclusion of a “shebeen”, an illegal pub, it is clear that there is none of the wholesome imagery brought forward by de Valera's speech. In these two comedies it is clearly therea lack of validity in the existence of what de Valera imagined. The realistic settings and environments presented by O'Casey and Synge are in direct contrast to de Valera's idealizations. De Valera is clearly attempting to mask Ireland's rampant poverty, to present an Ireland, bright and abundant, that does not exist. So, be content with these conditions as de Valera suggests when he says the Irish were "satisfied with frugal comforts"? Juno and the Paycock paints a difficult picture of the frugality of the Irish working class. Captain Jack Boyle, the play's antihero, is described as lazy and reluctant to work. Whenever Boyle receives a job offer he is suddenly seized with a bout of leg cramps, his wife, Mrs. Boyle, says that "It's miraculous that whenever he smells a job in front of him, his legs are starting to give out!" (O'Casey, pp. 205) O'Casey strongly implies that these leg cramps are not so much the product of actual physical disability, but rather of idleness, Boyle being entirely reluctant to find work. Mrs. Boyle goes on to say that “you [Mr. Boyle] can't climb a ladder, but you can jump like a goat in a comfortable booth!” (O'Casey, pp. 206) A private room, being a private room in a pub, implies that Boyle is much more eager to drink than to work, and therefore pretends to have leg cramps to avoid employment and go to work . pub. This presents a problem when de Valera states that the Irish are “satisfied with frugal comfort.” In a way, yes, Boyle is satisfied with his family's frugality, his wife being the main earner, and any earnings he brings home he spends on drinking, and so he is satisfied. However, it is doubtful that this is the kind of satisfaction de Valera imagined. Perhaps, then, O'Casey is presenting selfish satisfaction, in which the family suffers because of the father's selfishness, hardly the ideal that de Valera presents in his speech. It is more likely that de Valera imagined something more similar to the Gillane family. by Cathleen Ni Houlihan of Yeats and Gregory, a family living in a small 18th century cottage as they prepare for a wedding. Satisfaction with their frugality can be seen when Peter and Bridget, husband and wife, discuss their son's wedding dresses: "PETER. ... Those are wonderful dresses, indeed. BRIDGET. You didn't have dresses like that when you married me , and not a coat to wear on Sundays more than any other day. PIETRO - It's true, in fact we would never have thought that one of our children would wear such a dress at his wedding, or have such a beautiful place to wear a dress. . wife of."The play is set in Killala, a village in County Mayo, and so it is implied that the Gillane family are rural farmers. From the above dialogue it is clear that they align themselves with the idyllic populous people of de Valera. "satisfied with frugal comfort", Peter and Bridget admire the basic necessities of their children: clothes for a wedding and a solid roof under which he and his wife may live. However, it is impossible to trust this as a realistic depiction of the working class as Yeats and Gregory wrote the work as a piece of cultural propaganda, hoping to encourage Irish men to rise up against British colonial rule. It is unlikely that Yeats and Gregory attempted to make the Gillane family a realistic portrait of the Irish peasantry, more likely romanticizing them for artistic purposes. Therefore, it is clear that the Irish drama denies the Irish frugality de Valera imagined in his speech failed to live up to de's noble frugality”.