Part A · Short Questions — Riders to the Sea

Michael bought the stick for his mother in Galway, on his last trip to the Galway fair.

At the beginning, Maurya has two daughters, Cathleen and Nora, and one son, Bartley.

Maurya lost six sons in the sea — Stephen, Shawn, Sheamus, Patch, Michael and last of all Bartley.

It is a one-act tragedy — a modern tragedy of fate, built like a Greek tragedy, from the life of the island fisherfolk.

Michael's body was found in the far north, on the Donegal coast. The young priest buried him in the churchyard there.

She accepts God's will: 'No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied.' She finds peace that all her men are buried together, and the sea can do nothing more to her.

She has a bad feeling that the sea will take Bartley too. It is only nine days after Michael's death, and she does not want to lose her last son.

Galway is a seaport town on the west coast of Ireland. Its fair is famous for buying and selling horses.

The Holy Water means faith and blessing. Maurya sprinkles it on Bartley to keep him safe — it shows her simple faith in God.

Bartley wants to sell his horses at the Galway fair to earn money for the family. He cannot miss the fair because it is their living.

Cathleen is twenty years old.

Maurya says this at the end of the play, when she has given all her dead to the sea.

Bartley, the last of Maurya's six sons, dies last — the sea takes him on the way to the Galway fair.

The keening village women — the neighbours who cry over the dead — are the 'chorus' for Nora and Cathleen. Like a Greek chorus, they speak of the sorrow.