Acres will be dense with dead, as he mows battlefield, leaving a thousand lopped heads: these things I do not conceal. Blood spurts from soldiers' bodies, released by this hero's hand. He kills on sight, scattering Deda's followers and clan. Women wail at corpse-mound because of him--the Forge-Hound. --Fedelm, Tain Bo Cuailnge So all this terror has been for absolutely nothing? --Davey, The of Martin McDonagh is one of Ireland's (1) most visible and controversial theatrical exports, and perhaps none of his works has garnered as much controversy and critical discourse as The of (2001). McDonagh's plays can be seen as a bricolage of traditional Irish drama, imagery, folklore, and, interestingly, stereotypes, melded with films of Quentin Tarantino and John Woo; violence and humor commingle with an exaggerated image of stage Irish, resulting in a troubling tapestry of tradition and iconoclasm. A great deal of scholarship has been devoted to identifying his connections to earlier Irish playwrights such as Synge, O'Casey, Yeats, and Gregory. (2) However, while much has been made of these playwrights' affinities for folklore, oral tradition, and mythology, there have not been similar attempts to link McDonagh or his works to these ancient tales and traditions. That said, there are nonetheless certain thematic, ideological, and figural connections between Cu Chulainn, (3) epic of Tain Bo Cuailnge of Ireland's mythological Ulster Cycle, and Lieutenant's Padraic. In following pages, I will utilize mythology of Cu Chulainn as a lens through which to view McDonagh's contemporary exploration of Irish hero as it pertains to both theatrical and cultural spheres. Through a comparative study of two texts, I shall examine ways in which The of satirizes ideologies permeating sectarian conflict in Ireland during latter half of twentieth century. To that end, I will analyze McDonagh's comic subversion of Cu Chulainn's status as a symbol for Irish nationalism, leading to development and construction of a postmodern comic for a divided Ireland. (4) Briefly, The of Inishmore, set on titular island in 1993, tells story of Padraic, a rogue INLA member who, having splintered off from a smaller splinter group, returns to his father's, Donny's, cottage in after hearing that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, has fallen ill. When he arrives, he finds that his cat is not sick, but has been killed and replaced with Mairead's orange cat, Sir Roger (who Padraic promptly shoots); Christy, a former colleague of Padraic, has seen to cat's death in order to lure Padraic to so that he might kill him. So begins a gruesome and bloody tale of revenge, or perhaps more accurately, vengeance. After unintentionally seducing Mairead through their mutual appreciation of violence, Padraic kills Christy and his two cohorts. Mairead discovers Sir Roger's corpse and kills Padraic in another act of revenge, adopting title of Lieutenant of Inishmore and vowing to mount a full investigation into cat's death. After all this slaughter, Wee Thomas enters cottage, alive and well--the original dead cat was a case of mistaken identity. Mairead's brother, Davey, and Donny, having survived massacre, try to kill Wee Thomas in retribution for all blood shed in his name, but cannot bring themselves to do so and instead feed him a bowl of Frosties as play ends. Written in 1994, but not performed until 20015 (presumably due to anxieties surrounding play's controversial material), is, to date, McDonagh's only overtly political work, set amidst and referring to violence of period known as the Troubles. (6) Indeed, play takes on form of a farcical living newspaper of sorts, where references to real-world violence meld with play's chaotic comic spirit; comic center of play is wildly unpredictable and bloodthirsty Padraic, who bears more than a passing similarity to mythological Cu Chulainn. …