Cake

Cake is a historical radio drama concerned with the impact, cost and consequences on women and families, of a war-torn period in Irish history (1915-1920), an era which saw great change in the role of women as they lost husbands in WWI, fought in the Easter Rising, won the right to vote (1918) and began to have careers. Cake additionally explores romantic idealism versus pragmatism. The play is based on the lives of the playwright’s great-grandparents: Joseph O’Shea who died at the Somme, his northern Presbyterian wife, May, and his twin brother Michael who fought with the Irish Republican Volunteers.