Eileen O’Casey; Playwright’s Widow

Eileen O’Casey, the widow of Irish playwright Sean O’Casey and author of three books about their life together, has died at age 95.

Mrs. O’Casey died Sunday at a London home for retired actors, her family said. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Eileen Carey met the controversial playwright when she auditioned for a role in “The Plough and the Stars” in 1926 in Dublin.

The play caused a riot at its premiere when the nationalistic audience became incensed by O’Casey’s unsparing treatment of Dublin tenement life and of the Easter uprising of 1916.

The couple were married in 1927, when he was 47 and she was 27.

She continued to act until they had children. Two of their three children, Shivaun and Breon, survive her. Another son, Niall, died of leukemia in 1957.

Mrs. O’Casey’s three books--”Sean,” “Eileen” and “Cheerio, Titan”--which she wrote after the playwright’s death at 84 in 1964, emphasized his humanity over his anger.