When St John Ervine’s biography Bernard Shaw: His Life, Works and Friends appeared in 1956, Dr Ronald Ayling, a very close friend of Sean O’Casey, wrote to Ervine saying that the one fault in his book was his failure to record O’Casey’s relations with Shaw. Ervine wrote back in a letter dated 12 September 1957, saying that O’Casey was not one of Shaw’s friends, and that he could not record
... [Show full abstract] something that ‘never existed as an important fact’. Dr Ayling forwarded this letter to O’Casey, who said in his reply of 3 November 1957:
I wonder how and where St. John Ervine got his dogmatism? He is more dogmatic on everything under the sun than a newly-fledged Irish Bishop.
