Boucicault, Dion(ysus) Larner (1822-1890)

Irish playwright and actor. He established himself in London as an actor and made his name as a playwright with the social comedy London Assurance (1841). During his career he wrote or adapted some 200 plays, many of them melodramas, including The Corsican Brothers (1852), Louis XI (1855), Arragh na Pogue (1864), and The Shaughraun (1874). He moved to the USA in 1872 where The Poor of New York (1857), The Octoroon (1859), and The Colleen Bawn (1860) were extraordinary successes amongst Irish expatriates. The popularity of his drama had a profound influence on the Irish playwrights J M Synge, George Bernard Shaw, and Seán O'Casey.