Playboy Riots
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The Playboy Riots occurred in January 1907 during and following the opening performance of The Playboy of the Western World, a controversial Irish play by John Millington Synge. The riots were stirred up by Irish nationalists who viewed the contents of the play as an offence to public morals and an insult against Ireland. The riots took place in Dublin, in what is now the Republic of Ireland, spreading out from the Abbey Theatre and finally being quelled by the actions of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.
The Playboy of the Western World was based on a story of apparent patricide also attracted a hostile public reaction. Egged on by nationalists, including Sinn Fein leader Arthur Griffith, who believed that the theatre was not sufficiently political and described the play as "a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform", and with the pretext of a perceived slight on the virtue of Irish womanhood in the line "a drift of females standing in their shifts" (a shift being a female undergarment), a significant portion of the crowd rioted, causing the remainder of the play to be acted out in dumb show. Yeats returned from Scotland to address the crowd on the second night, famously declaring "You have disgraced yourself again, is this to be the recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?" and decided to call in the police. Press opinion soon turned against the rioters and the protests petered out.
