二十世紀初期的愛爾蘭劇場則受文化民族主義與社會寫實主義影響，本土劇作家鮮少創作包含獨白的作品，或是發表刻劃單一角色的獨白劇，但隨著歐洲心理分析與精神病學的發展，劇作家如薩繆爾．貝克特（Samuel Beckett），在1960年前後創作多部荒謬劇與廣播劇，便以大量獨白探索原本看似不重要的細節，並開創全新的表演方式，此後獨白形式的舞台創作逐漸受到歐美劇場認可。二十世紀以降的愛爾蘭獨白劇數量遠遠超過過往幾世紀的總和，且劇作主題包羅萬象，舉凡歷史事件、階級衝突、貧富差距、親子關係、身心障礙、戰爭記憶、宗教糾葛、勞工生活、性別議題、非法移民、性與毒品、家暴、青少年犯罪等；演出方式也不受限於傳統寫實主義，更多夾雜意識流與後設等手法，並挑戰劇場第四面牆的界線。這些種種都說明了愛爾蘭劇作家承繼喬伊斯與貝克特作品的顛覆性，力圖嘗試不同的劇場實驗。本文將從三大主題切入：一、獨白劇中的戰爭（復活節起義、北愛動亂、第一及第二次世界大戰）；二、獨白劇中的老化議題（被主流社會忽視的老人經驗）；三、獨白劇中的後設（獨白做為一種拆解藝術表現形式的方法），探究愛爾蘭獨白劇的多元面相與可能。

Despite the fact that early twentieth-century Irish theatre produced very few monologue drama or play that involved a significant use of monologues under the influence of cultural nationalism and social realism, novelists were more courageous in devising interior monologues in their works following the advent of psychoanalysis and psychopathology on the European mainland. From this threshold, theatrical productions that employed monologues became gradually more recognized by European and American theatres. It could be claimed that the number of monologues or monologue dramas by Irish dramatists in recent years on the world stage has quite significantly exceeded the total number accumulated through earlier centuries. The foci of their creations are particularly diversified, including historical events, class struggle, the gulf between rich and poor, parent-child relationships, the mentally and physically disabled, war memories, religious antagonism, labor issues, gender stereotypes, illegal immigrants, sex and drugs, domestic violence, adolescent crime, and so forth. The dramaturgy is not limited to conventional realism but challenges the intangible fourth wall of the stage by the mixed uses of stream of consciousness, metafictional devices and much more. These all demonstrate the ways in which Irish dramatists have succeeded to the Joycean and Beckettian radicalities with monologue dramas-which are relatively easy to produce in terms of performance costs yet, in terms of their theatricality, are almost as provocative. To explore the diverse facets and possibilities of Irish monologues, this essay will examine three major issues: 1) wars in monologue dramas (e.g. The Easter Rising, The Northern Ireland Troubles); 2) Aging in monologue dramas (e.g. senior experiences ignored by the mainstream society); 3) metatheatrical device in monologue dramas (as a manner to deconstruct arts).