
Thinking of selecting Once Before I Go (Phillip McMahon) as one of your comparative texts for Leaving Cert English? This free two-page PDF guide tells you everything you need to decide.
Once Before I Go is one of the shortest texts on the list — three parts, no scene divisions, about ninety minutes — and one of the most useful for Cultural Context, because it arrives with its own control group: the same people in criminalised, church-run Dublin in 1987 and in London in 2019, where the rights exist and the damage remains. Its form gives Literary Genre plenty to work with, from a story told backwards to a set that peels away on stage and a closing sequence running in two periods at once. It is also very funny, which surprises students, and its content needs a class that is ready for it. The guide is plain about fit: which modes the play serves well, which one it serves badly, and what to weigh before setting it.
Inside the guide: an at-a-glance table covering form, setting, narration, length, first production and edition, prescribed-list status and the play’s strongest modes; a clear synopsis; the themes the play carries; and an honest “before you teach” note on what needs care in the classroom and what to check against your school’s guidance.
The guide then sets out how the play pairs in every comparison mode at BOTH levels, partner-agnostic so it holds whatever you set it against:
- Higher Level: Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint.
- Ordinary Level: Hero, Heroine and Villain; Relationships; Social Setting; and Theme.
All four modes at each level are listed, with the weak fits named as weak fits rather than talked up.
Once Before I Go was first prescribed for examination in 2025 and is on the Comparative list for 2025 through 2028, at both Higher and Ordinary Level. It is not prescribed as a Single Text at either level.
The companion Student Textbook and Teacher Guide (full exam-ready analysis and complete teaching support) are available separately from The Prescribed Shelf, or together in the Complete Bundle.
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