This play is set in Ireland in the mid-1800s. It is a romantic comedy, with a strong dramatic element. The themes of the
Irish versus the imported Anglo-Irish upperclass attitudes, lives, thoughts,feelings, and speech is uppermost, foreshadowing the rebellion of the upperclasses as they embrace the native Irish way of life and love, resulting in Ireland''s independence a few decades later.
Hardress Cregan is secretly married to the Colleen Bawn, Eily O''Connor, a poor, but exceedingly beautiful, Irish
peasant girl. The play opens as he prepares to go visit her, once everyone but his faithful man, Danny, is asleep. His mother comes out to talk to him about his engagement to his rich and kind and spirited cousin, Anne Chute, the Colleen Ruadh. His father ran them into debt, and he must marry her to get the debts paid and save the family from ruin. His friend, Kyrle Dailey, is deeply in love with Anne, but Hardress''s mother is adamant, as the alternative is for her to marry the holder of the
mortgage, whom she despises.
Hardress goes to see his wife, Eily, and they fight. He can''t bear the way she speaks (a class symbol) and can''t see her in his aristocratic life. Danny offers to solve the problem once and for all if his master gives him his glove. Later, when the mother finds out about this, she gives the glove, pretending it is Hardress''s idea. The loyal Danny pushes Eily off a cliff, assuming her then to be dead. Danny makes his last confession to the priest, as he was shot by a local smuggler (who rescues Eily)--he is overheard by Corrigan, the lawyer who covets old Mrs. Cregan and her estate and position. Corrigan brings the guard with a summary order to hang Hardress, but the Colleen Bawn''s timely appearance saves him and his mother. Anne accepts Eily into the family as a friend and sister, and, as Anne has already redeemed the estate, all is well. She marries Kyrle Daly, whom she loves and who loves her. Hardress makes a rule, that true Irish speech is the accepted speech, and they are all happily married thereafter.