Home to Tipperary: A Play for Mothers and Wives

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A capital recruiting play. In the first scene Sir Dennis the landlord, and Patsy, the peasant, enlist. Their respective mothers are against their going, but Dennis's sweetheart and Patsy's young wife are proud they should go. Dennis makes a stirring speech. In the second scene, in Belgium, Dennis and Patsy volunteer to blow up a bridge to enable a small detachment to retreat before overwhelming odds: It is certain death. In the third scene, back in Tipperary, there is lament over their deaths but they turn up, having been only wounded and brought unconscious to the coast by Belgians ignorant of their names. Dennis makes another stirring speech and all the village enlists. It is a moving little play, extremely well written: the speeches of the old woman in the last scene are beautiful. I notice a good many excisions, chiefly of bitter violence against the Germans and they, I think, improve the play. Recommended for license. G. S. Street

Researcher's Summary:

No performance of this play has been found. The day after the licensed performance the Scotsman reviewed a matinee 'for the purpose of further recruiting and giving entertainment to wounded soldiers' given at the Royal Court. This may have included 'Home to Tipperary' as a sketch. It is also likely that the performance was a one-off as a number of the performers listed were working on shows elsewhere the week after (Hayden Coffin in particular). The audience was partly composed of wounded soldiers and performers included Hayden Coffin, Marie Dainton, Jean Sterling-Mackinlay, and the Hon Mrs Walter Trefusis, amongst others.