The styles used by the author

Juno and the Paycock was the second of O'Casey's plays to be performed at the Abbey Theatre, the national theater of Ireland. The theatre had been founded just twenty years earlier by a group of artists including Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats and dramatist Lady Augusta Gregory. It was established during the Irish Literary Revival, a flowering of literary talent coinciding with an increased interest in Irish language, heritage, and culture.

Unlike many theaters, whose purpose is primarily to entertain the audience, the Abbey Theatre sought to educate playgoers and to inspire a sense of national and cultural identity. A notice entitled "Advice to playwrights" encouraged authors to include in their works some criticism or vision of Irish life based on personal experience or observation. Ireland's break with England in 1921 and the ensuing civil war increased the importance of this goal.

Since language was an important marker of cultural identity, Yeats emphasized the use of Irish dialect in theater, particularly that of peasants. O'Casey's admirable reproduction of Irish speech thus directly supports the mission of the theater.