Exploring O Go My Man by Stella Feehily in Historical and Cultural Context

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Exploring O Go My Man by Stella Feehily in Historical and Cultural Context

Introduction

Stella Feehily’s O Go My Man (2006) is a striking example of contemporary Irish theatre that captures the personal and political anxieties of early twenty-first-century Ireland. Set against the backdrop of the Celtic Tiger era, the play exposes the contradictions of a rapidly modernising society that celebrates freedom, consumption, and success while masking emotional disconnection, gender inequality, and moral uncertainty. Feehily’s work mirrors the transformation of Irish culture at a time when traditional values clashed with globalised modernity. This essay explores O Go My Man within its historical and cultural context, examining how Feehily uses character, dialogue, and structure to critique the evolving social landscape of contemporary Ireland.

Historical and Cultural Context

When O Go My Man premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2006, Ireland was experiencing unprecedented economic growth known as the Celtic Tiger (1995–2008). This period brought prosperity, foreign investment, and a shift in Irish identity from a conservative, religious society to a cosmopolitan, consumer-driven nation. However, the rapid economic expansion also exposed social tensions, particularly surrounding gender roles, relationships, and moral expectations.

Feehily’s play reflects these tensions through its portrayal of middle-class Irish professionals who appear outwardly successful but are privately disillusioned. The female characters, especially Jane, navigate a world that offers new freedoms yet continues to restrict them emotionally and socially. The title itself, O Go My Man, captures a tone of irony and exhaustion, an implicit commentary on gender expectations in a supposedly liberated era. Feehily uses humour, fragmented dialogue, and overlapping narratives to represent a generation struggling to define itself amid shifting cultural norms.

Themes and Social Commentary

One of the key themes in O Go My Man is the commodification of relationships. The characters treat intimacy and loyalty like transactions, reflecting the materialism of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The play opens with witty, fast-paced exchanges that reveal how communication itself has become superficial, echoing sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of “liquid modernity,” where human bonds are fluid and temporary.

Jane’s relationships highlight the growing disconnection between emotional fulfilment and societal success. As an educated and independent woman, she embodies the modern Irish professional, yet Feehily reveals the hollowness beneath this façade. The play’s chaotic structure, shifting between scenes of domestic tension and comic absurdity, mirrors the instability of this new social order.

Feehily also uses the male characters to explore shifting concepts of masculinity in postmodern Ireland. Men like Ben and Karl struggle with vulnerability, identity, and moral purpose, as traditional patriarchal roles dissolve in an increasingly individualistic culture. Through them, Feehily questions whether Ireland’s economic progress has truly brought emotional liberation or merely replaced one set of constraints with another.

Gender, Politics, and the Irish Stage

Feehily is one of the few contemporary Irish female playwrights to gain prominence in a male-dominated theatre industry. Her work contributes to the redefinition of Irish drama by centring women’s experiences and exploring the intersection between the personal and political. Unlike earlier Irish playwrights such as Brian Friel or Tom Murphy, whose works often focus on national identity and tradition, Feehily turns her attention to modern urban life, gender politics, and the performance of identity.

In this sense, O Go My Man aligns with other female-authored Irish plays of the period, such as Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats and Enda Walsh’s Bedbound, which also interrogate societal expectations through dark humour and psychological realism. Feehily’s witty dialogue and non-linear storytelling echo the fragmented consciousness of a society in transition. Her characters’ emotional instability mirrors Ireland’s broader uncertainty about its postmodern identity, suspended between Catholic conservatism and neoliberal capitalism.