Sebastian Barry's play "The Steward of Christendom" was nominated for an Olivier Award for best play , and won the Writers' Guild Award for best new fringe play, the London Critics' Circle Award for be st new play, and the Lloyds Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award.

"Cerebral and lyrical, he is the new crown prince of Ireland's majestic theatrical tradition" (Newsweek) Mai O'Hara lies in a Dublin hospital in 1953 attended by a young nursing Sister and visited by the uneasy figures of her husband Jack, daughter Joanie and her dead father. Fuelled by alcohol, passion and despair it is the story of her flamboyant but destructive relationship with Jack, the lost country of her childhood and unfulfilled expectations in the wake of Irish independence and self-rule. Our Lady of Sligo was produced at the Royal National Theatre in co-production with Out of Joint, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, in April 1998.