"I Do Repent and Yet I Do Despair": Beckettian and Faustian allusions in Conor McPherson's the Seafarer and Mark O'Rowe's Terminus

Abstract

In a press interview in April 2007, Conor McPherson correctly anticipated the imminent conclusion of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ period – the decade-long economic boom that had transformed Ireland into one of the world’s richest countries.1 ‘We’re not comfortable with success in this country,’ he claimed. ’It’s posttraumatic stress from our colonial past or whatever. As Irish people, we’re not able to celebrate what’s good about Ireland. Ireland is going to get back to what it knows now – hardship. That’s where we’re more comfortable. We can’t wait for it to start.’ (qtd in O’Regan)