In Patrick Pearse's play The Singer, Colm is MacDara's brother, and Sighle is a young woman who has lived with the family since she was a child. She is in love with MacDara, and before MacDara went away, the two of them arranged to marry. At the time the play opens, however, MacDara has been away for a long time, and Colm has just told Sighle that he loves her. Sighle is fond of Colm and says that he is kind, but she has none of the passionate strength of feeling for him that she had for MacDara.

MacDara's sudden reappearance means that Colm is neglected and sidelined in the family, obviously second in the affections of both Sighle and his mother, Maire. Colm is regarded as an immature boy of twenty by both family and community, whereas MacDara is a man of twenty-five, who has seen the world and done great things in it. Colm feels this disparity strongly, particularly where Sighle's love is concerned, and goes out recklessly to fight the Gall (that is, the foreigners) with an inadequate force of fifteen men. At the end of the play, MacDara is just about to follow Colm when a newcomer arrives to tell them that Colm has fallen in battle.