Synge House fit for a playboy

THE Playboy has moved with the times: a Mayo home called John Millington Synge House, built directly opposite the shebeen site where the Playboy of the Western World was set, has creature comforts such as a sauna and a Jacuzzi hot tub, along with a staircase which wouldn’t look too out of place in a production of Gone with the Wind.

Playwright JM Synge found his inspiration in the landscape and lore of the Aran Islands, and the cadences of the language. In the village of Geesala, home to the shebeen setting for the original Playboy, much has remained unchanged.

Synge died 100 years ago this year, and among the sea-changes since is the level of nationwide prosperity. In an almost ironic way John Millington Synge House summarises aspects of it: Pegeen Mike, Christy Mahon and the Widow Quinn wouldn’t recognise the place.