Arrah-na-Pogue

Arrah-na-Pogue, also known as Arrah-na-Pogue; or the Wicklow Wedding, is a play in 3 acts by Dion Boucicault. Along with The Colleen Bawn (1860) and The Shaughraun (1874), it is considered one of the three major Irish plays penned by Boucicault. Set during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the play popularized the street ballad The Wearing of the Green; a rendition of which was included in the play with lyrics by Boucicault. It has had an enduring place in the canon of dramatic literature on the stage internationally, and has been adapted into other media.

History
Arrah-na-Pogue premiered on November 7, 1864, at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. The cast included Boucicault, Samuel Johnson, John Brougham and Samuel Anderson Emery among others. The work had its first staging in London's West End at the Princess's Theatre, London on 22 March 1865.

The United States premiere of the play was presented in New York City at the Broadway theatre Niblo's Garden on July 21, 1865, where it ran for 68 performances. It has been revived twice on Broadway; first as Niblo's Garden in 1869, and then at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in 1903.

The play was mounted at the Abbey Theatre in 2010. The play was performed Off-Broadway in New York City by the Storm Theatre Company at the Theatre of the Church of Notre Dame in 2012.

The play's central character, Shaun the Post, was both an inspiration and object of parody for James Joyce's character Shaun the Postman in his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake.

Adaptations

 * Arrah-na-Pogue (1911, silent film)
 * Shaun the Post (1924, opera by librettist R. J. Hughes and composer Harold R. White under the pseudonym "Dermot Macmurrough")
 * Arrah-na-Pogue, (1940, radio play by NBC Radio, broadcast February 4, 1940 with Richard Gordon as Shaun the Post)