Give two examples of irony in Riders to the Sea. One is the cake made for Bartley was used by the coffin makers.

As the play opens, Maurya's son Michael, it is feared, has been lost at sea, but his body has not be found. As time elapses, the certainty of his death becomes clearer, but remains unconfirmed. Boards to make his coffin are ready for the time when he body is returned to his mother. Two ironies develop from this situation. It is Michael's brother Bartley who will be buried in the coffin to be built with the boards, as he dies before Michael's body is found. Another irony is developed when it becomes clear that there are no nails to construct his coffin. As one of the villagers observes, “[I]t’s a great wonder she wouldn’t think of the nails, and all the coffins she’s seen made already.”

Bartley's death also emphasizes the basic situational irony that the story develops. By the conclusion of the play, Maurya has lost all six of her sons. In her village, parents bury their children whose lives are lost in the effort to survive the extreme poverty and hardship in which their families live.