From the deep stirrings within the core of a craggy island off the coast of Ireland comes the voice of this contemporary play. The island is Cliffhorn Heads and the islanders - great fisherman - face a famine caused by the international radar trawlers that have fished their waters clean. Yet there's still enough humor in these islanders to take the edge off their hunger. Masters of the Sea continues the action of Sea Marks; it is a sequel, though it stands alone and does not depend on its predecessor. Colm returns to his island followed by his wife-to-be (Timothea Stiles) who visits him only to bring him back with her. His father - The Macafee - appears to explain his own dying to his son. Colm murders an Englishman he has rescued from drowning.
From the author: "If this play is about anything it is about courage. Not the patriotic courage of a group passionate for a just cause. It is about one-by-one courage, the most troublesome kind; the individual effort. It is about the courage to save your exterminator's life, because your exterminator is a human being, the mininum requirement for salvation...This play is an homage to these masters of the sea and to their fellow islanders who cling to their doomed existence on a windblown craggy rock without remembering why they first came centuries ago. There is a ragged majesty seen in their will, in their power and their moments of joy...It is also about place. And knowing which is ours...It is about love...It is about abandonment; the exchange of a natural life for a lifestyle. It is about an island of lifers, whose lives depend upon each other, who know each other too well to be only friends. It is about optimism. And being protected by the old belief that there will always be "better news tomorrow." It is about not killing the thing you hate. Killing the thing you love being the luxury of another class...It is about vengeance and repatriation; coming to terms. It is also about faith versus faith; religious faith versus natural faith; testing inventions of faith against ancient, imbued beliefs. It is about oppression. It is about strength. It is about revenge. It is about the return of a young king, displaced, trying to take his place among his kin. It is about the return of a dead king, as a vision of truth for the young king. It is about absent love; the impossible love that still exists. It is about romance, yet it is the opposite of romance; it is a romantic tragedy. It is about the ecstasy of survival."