O'Flaherty V.C.: A Recruiting Pamphlet

by Bernard Shaw

"O'Flaherty V.C.: A Recruiting Pamphlet" by Bernard Shaw is a comic one-act play written in 1915 during World War I. An Irish soldier returns home after winning the Victoria Cross, only to face his Fenian mother's fury upon discovering he fought for the British. His materialistic girlfriend and domestic conflicts drive him to prefer the trenches over provincial Irish life. Shaw's anti-war satire tackles recruitment, patriotism, and Irish poverty, proving too controversial for wartime Dublin authorities who banned its performance.