The grim reality of inner city Dublin in the 1990s is brought to life by internationally renowned playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry through his story of a ruptured love affair in the play The Pride of Parnell Street. Heroin addiction, domestic abuse, murder, HIV and prison all seep their way into what can be described as Dublin's answer to Wuthering Heights.

The Pride of Parnell Street, which was nominated for Best New Play Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre awards 2008 and has received phenomenal reviews from the Guardian to the British Theatre Guide, is a departure from Barry's usual works. A Long Long Way From Home which Barry is probably best known for due to the novel been shortlisted for the infamous Man Booker Prize in 2005 focused on the divided loyalties that tore many soldiers apart at the time following the Easter Rising 1916.

While the Steward of Christendom, is a play which again focuses on Irish history with Barry telling the story of a man who was the chief superintendent of the Dublin Metropolitan Police from 1913-1922. In both the play and novel Barry's family members were the inspiration for writing, if not the focus of the play.

In contrast, The Pride of Parnell Street happened to stem from a piece that Barry had written for a Amnesty Stop Violence Against Women Campaign which he worked on in 2005 in collaboration with director Jim Culleton.

"I was working in Philadelphia in 2006 and in touch with Jim Culleton. We had already done the fragment in 2005 and he had asked me if I thought there might be a longer piece there. I was thinking about it. He told me he had heard a chap talking on the radio about being in Mountjoy, losing everything, but glad to be off the gear. He said it sounded like Joe. Oddly enough I had heard the same piece. So I was looking at the original fragment of the play and then started to add bits, very naturally, and then I would send these new bits to Jim, and he was always very appreciative", he says.

Set in September 1999, on the cusp of a new millennium, the play tells the story of inner city Dubliners Joe (Karl Shiels) and Janet ( Mary Murray), whose marriage has collapsed amid a violent domestic attack and the death of their eldest son.

Using interconnecting monologues, we are told of the individual events in their lives that have passed in the decade since they last saw each other, when Ireland were knocked out of the 1990 World Cup. It is Ireland's elimination from Italia 90, which prompts the senseless act of violence that tears the couple apart.

As Janet states of the mood of the men at the time, "when the Irish team lost, they realised they were losers too". Unfortunately Janet bares the brunt of Joe's frustration and the couple split-up, explaining why their stories are told in separate monologues.

As nine years go by, neither's love for the other diminishes, though Janet grows in strength ("I didn't go back like the other women done") while Joe is on a path which sees him lose his family, dignity and health. Though Janet has taken away his kids, Joe shows no bitterness towards her and instead views her as The Pride of Parnell Street, a determined individual who won't allow themselves be knocked down by violence and death as he himself has been.

Barry drew upon the character's of Janet and Joe from his own personal experience of living in Dublin in the 1990s. Barry lived with his wife Ali and newly born twins in North Great George's Street, just of Parnell Street, for seven years from 1992.