He detested Catholicism and politics, and was anxious to appeal to a wider audience. Leonard was a wickedly funny writer - lines like "She's an Irish Catholic wife and mother the only thing she has left is her virginity" stung like the best of Wilde or Orton - whose subject matter was Ireland, but only to the degree that he could use it as a microcosm. Set in Dublin's vodka-and-bitter-lemon belt, the comedy resonated as a Feydeau-esque farce, an attack on the Irish nouveau riche and as a metaphor for the new heritage-conscious tourist industry, with its bedrooms named after patriots and its ageing caretaker, Hoolihan, obliquely flying the flag as a veteran of the Easter Rising. More plays and television work were followed by The Patrick Pearse Motel (1971) at the Gaiety in Dublin, opening one month after the IRA killed the first British soldier in Northern Ireland.
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