The playwriting career of Thomas Cornelius Murray (1873-1959) started in 1909 with the production of his first play, Wheel of Fortune (which he revised in 1913 and renamed Sovereign Love), at the Cork Little Theatre. His Birthright, produced at the Abbey Theatre in the following year, established him as a writer of stark and tragic realism. His most enduring plays were all written during the next two decades; none of the plays written after 1930 can be compared for quality with his earlier work.

The present selection contains Sovereign Love, Birthright, Maurice Harte, The Briery Gap, Autumn Fire, and The Pipe in the Fields. Appendices contain Illumination and Murray's essay ""George Shiels, Brinsley MacNamara, Etc."" A bibliographical checklist of his writings is also included.