"short story has proved a popular genre, with well-known practitioners including Frank O'Connor, Seán Ó Faoláin, and William Trevor. A total of four Irish writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature – W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. After 1922 Ireland was partitioned into the independent Irish Free State, and Northern Ireland, which retained a constitutional connection to the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland has for several centuries consisted of two distinct communities, Protestant, Ulster Scots and Irish Catholics. While the Protestants majority emphasise the constitutional ties to the United Kingdom, most Catholics would prefer a"
"playwright now stands outside the gallery entrance. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. A sea change in the history of the Irish theatre came with the establishment in Dublin in 1899 of the Irish Literary Theatre by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn. This was followed by the Irish National Theatre Society, later to become the Abbey Theatre. The history of this theatre is well documented, and its importance can be seen from the list of writers whose plays were first performed here in the early days of the 20th century. These included"
"of An Taidhbhearc, a theatre dedicated to the Irish language. The Gate Theatre, also founded in 1928 under the direction of Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammoir, introduced Irish audiences to many of the classics of the European stage. The twentieth century saw a number of Irish playwrights come to prominence. Samuel Beckett is probably the most significant of these. Beckett had a long career as a novelist and poet before his first play, ""Waiting for Godot"" (1953) made him famous. This play, along with his second, ""Endgame"", is one of the great works of absurdist theatre. Beckett was awarded for"
"the Nobel Prize in 1969. The Lyric Theatre, founded in 1944 by Austin Clarke was based in the Abbey until 1951 and produced many of Clarke's own verse plays. From the mid-1950s, the Unitarian Church at St Stephen's Green, Dublin was home to Amharclann an Damer/The Damer Theatre. The Damer produced both professional and amateur Irish language theatre. The world premier of Brendan Behan's ""An Giall"" (""The Hostage"") took place here in 1958. The theatre closed in 1976. Behan went on to be an extremely popular dramatist, particularly through his work with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Royal in Stratford, East London."
"time. At the beginning of the 20th century, theatre companies dedicated to the staging of Irish plays and the development of writers, directors and performers began to emerge, which allowed many Irish playwrights to learn their trade and establish their reputations in Ireland rather than in Britain or the United States. Following in the tradition of acclaimed practitioners, principally Oscar Wilde, Literature Nobel Prize laureates George Bernard Shaw (1925) and Samuel Beckett (1969), playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Brendan Behan, Conor McPherson and Billy Roche have gained popular success. Other Irish playwrights of the 20th century"
"this genre in the early 21st century. In the genre of the short story, which is a form favoured by many Irish writers, the most prominent figures include Seán Ó Faoláin, Frank O'Connor and William Trevor. Well known Irish poets include Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas McCarthy, Dermot Bolger, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureates William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney (born in Northern Ireland but resided in Dublin). Prominent writers in the Irish language are Pádraic Ó Conaire, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Séamus Ó Grianna, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. The history of Irish theatre begins with the expansion of the English administration"
"writers as Charles Kickham, William Carleton, and (in collaboration) Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Martin. The playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, noted for his epigrams, was born in Ireland. In the 20th century, Ireland produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered to be one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. Joyce's 1922 novel ""Ulysses"" is considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature and his life is celebrated annually on 16"
"Oireachtas and the Peacock Theatre, of which ""Gleann na Sidheóg"" and ""An Dúthchas"" (1908) were published. She was a broadcaster in Irish on 2RN/Raidio Éireann after its foundation in 1926 and author of a translation of Grimms' Fairy Tales (1923). She was president of the Gaelic Players Dramatic group during the 1930s and a founder of the Gaelic Writers Association in 1939. Ní Chinnéide soon became interested in writing children's plays, including ""Gleann na Sidheóg"" [Fairy Glen] (1905) and ""Sidheoga na mBláth"" [Flower Fairies] (1909). Although there is little information available on the staging of Ní Chinnéide's first play, by"
"by strong if not bitter realism mixed with outlandish modes of speech typical of the Irish people of that time. ""The Magic Glasses"" (1913) George Fitzmaurice (writer) George Fitzmaurice (1877 – 1963) was an Irish dramatist and short story writer, some of whose plays were broadcast on Raidio Éireann. George Fitzmaurice was born in County Kerry, Ireland. In 1907 he submitted ""The Country Dressmaker"" to the Abbey Theatre, where it played successfully, rescuing the theatre after the problems of John Millington Synge’s ""The Playboy of the Western World"" in the same year. In 1916 he enlisted in the British Army"
"as ""the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century."" However, it was in the last decade of the century that the Irish theatre finally came of age with the establishment in Dublin in 1899 of the Irish Literary Theatre, and emergence of the dramatists George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) and Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), though both wrote for the London theatre. Shaw's career began in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and he wrote more than 60 plays. George Bernard Shaw turned the Edwardian theatre into an arena for debate about important political and social issues, like marriage, class, ""the"
"as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Irishman so honoured. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize: these works include ""The Tower"" (1928) and ""The Winding Stair and Other Poems"" (1929). In addition to W. B. Yeats other important early modernist poets were the American poets T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) and Ezra Pound (1885–1972). Eliot became a British citizen in 1927 but was born and"
"play, ""The Playboy of the Western World"", ""caused outrage and riots when it was first performed"" in Dublin in 1907. George Bernard Shaw turned the Edwardian theatre into an arena for debate about important political and social issues, like marriage, class, ""the morality of armaments and war"" and the rights of women. An important dramatist in the 1920s, and later, was Irishman Seán O'Casey (1880–1964). Also in the 1920s and later Noël Coward (1899–1973) achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as ""Hay Fever"" (1925), ""Private Lives"""
"1946, the Feis committee decided to honour her by presenting her with an illuminated address. It can be seen today at Portnagolan House with its stained glass windows commemorating a great Irishwoman. During her speech she said: ‘Ireland is a closed book to those who do not know her language. No one can know Ireland properly until one knows the language. Her treasures are hidden as a book unopened. Open the book and learn to love your language’. Dobbs wrote seven plays, published by Dundalgan Press in 1920, though only three were performed. ""The Doctor and Mrs McAuley"" won the"
"Library of Ireland, Colby College, Boston College and the Fales Library. In Dublin, a foot bridge on the Liffey is named after him. Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. O'Casey was born at 85 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin, as John Casey, the son of Michael Casey, a mercantile clerk, and Susan Archer. His family background was ""shabby genteel"", and not, as often assumed, the working-class culture"
"that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such as William Wycherley's ""The Country Wife"" (1676), ""The Rover"" (1677) by the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, and John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. Although documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early as 1601, the earliest Irish dramatists of note were: William Congreve (1670–1729), author of ""The Way of the World"" (1700); late Restoration playwright, George"
"The Land of Heart's Desire The Land of Heart's Desire is a play by Irish poet, dramatist, and 1923 Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats. First performed in the spring of 1894, at the Avenue Theatre in London, where it ran for a little over six weeks, it was the first professional performance of one of Yeats' plays. In this theatrical lament on age and thwarted aspirations, a faery child encounters the newlyweds Shawn and Mary Bruin at their home, shared with Maurteen Bruin and Bridget Bruin, Shawn's parents. The child, who at first is thought of by the Bruins as"
"George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ""Man and Superman"" (1902), ""Pygmalion"" (1912)"" and Saint Joan"" (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw"
"used grammar books on the Irish Language, ""Progress in Irish"". ""An Grá agus an Gárda"" is a 1937 comedy produced at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin focusing on a complex marital situation. Two years beforehand Ní Ghráda was forced to give up her job in RTÉ when her husband, a senior Garda, was reinstated to his post. This is Ní Ghráda's 1938 translation of Peter Pan, the first in Irish. ""Manannán"" (1940) is regarded as the first science fiction book in Irish. Máiréad Ní Ghráda Máiréad Ní Ghráda (23 December 1896 – 13 June 1971) was an Irish poet, playwright,"
"the Irish Times Prize for Poetry in 1995 for his ""Collected Poems"", and subsequently he moved to Dublin when he was elected a member of ""Aosdana"". Shaw was a science fiction author, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story ""Light of Other Days"" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel ""The Ragged Astronauts"" in 1987. The first well-documented instance of a theatrical production in Ireland is a 1601 staging of ""Gorboduc"" presented by Lord Mountjoy Lord Deputy of Ireland in the"
"Great Hall in Dublin Castle. Mountjoy started a fashion, and private performances became quite commonplace in great houses all over Ireland over the following thirty years. The Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin is generally identified as the ""first custom-built theatre in the city,"" ""the only pre-Restoration playhouse outside London,"" and the ""first Irish playhouse."" The Werburgh Street Theatre was established by John Ogilby at least by 1637 and perhaps as early as 1634. The earliest Irish-born dramatists of note were: William Congreve (1670–1729), author of ""The Way of the World"" (1700) and one of the most interesting writers of Restoration"
"""caused outrage and riots when it was first performed"" in Dublin in 1907. George Bernard Shaw turned the Edwardian theatre into an arena for debate about important political and social issues, like marriage, class, ""the morality of armaments and war"" and the rights of women. In the 1920s and later Noël Coward (1899–1973) achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as ""Hay Fever"" (1925), ""Private Lives"" (1930), ""Design for Living"" (1932), ""Present Laughter"" (1942) and ""Blithe Spirit"" (1941), have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. In the"
"Longley, in the 1960s. Ciarán Carson's poem ""Belfast Confetti"", about the aftermath of an IRA bomb, won ""The Irish Times"" Irish Literature Prize for Poetry in 1990. The most significant dramatist from Northern Ireland is Brian Friel (1929– ), from Omagh, County Tyrone, hailed by the English-speaking world as an ""Irish Chekhov"", and ""the universally accented voice of Ireland"". Friel is best known for plays such as ""Philadelphia, Here I Come!"" and ""Dancing at Lughnasa"" but has written more than thirty plays in a six-decade spanning career that has seen him elected Saoi of Aosdána. His plays have been a"
"C. Sherriff's ""Journey's End"". Seán O'Casey's ""The Silver Tassie"" and Ivor Novello's ""A Symphony in Two Flats"" both played in 1929. Diana Wynyard starred as Charlotte Brontë in Clemence Dane's ""Wild Decembers"" in 1932. Marion Lorne was the star of a number of plays by her husband Walter Hackett from 1934 to 1937. Ian Hay's ""Housemaster"" had the most successful run in this period with 662 performances from 1936. Raymond Massey starred in Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning ""Idiot's Delight"" in 1938. Patrick Hamilton's play ""Gaslight"" held the stage in 1939, and Terence Rattigan's ""Flare Path"" played in 1942. Control of"
"a full range of cultural and gastronomic offerings, outposts of Irish culture. The Republic of Ireland's national theatre is the Abbey Theatre, which was founded in 1904, and the national Irish-language theatre is An Taibhdhearc, which was established in 1928 in Galway. Playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Conor McPherson and Billy Roche are internationally renowned. Ireland has made a large contribution to world literature in all its branches, both in Irish and English. Poetry in Irish is among the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century. Irish remained the"
"on writing by women, which found concrete expression in the founding of the publishers Arlen House. Irish writers of a commercial bent include Cecelia Ahern (""PS, I Love You""), Maeve Binchy (""Tara Road""), John Boyne (""The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas""), Marian Keyes (""Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married"") and Joseph O'Connor (""Cowboys and Indians"", ""Desperadoes""). Fiction in Irish was greatly stimulated by the Gaelic revival, which insisted on the need for a modern literature. The first novel in Irish (an historical romance) was written by Patrick Dineen, lexicographer and literary scholar. He was followed by Father Peadar Ua Laoghaire, who"
"in 1960. In 1957, his Irish language play, ""An Giall"" (""The Hostage"") opened in the Damer Theatre, Dublin. Reminiscent of Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation, it portrays the detention, in a teeming Dublin house in the late 1950s, of a British conscript soldier seized by the IRA as a hostage pending the scheduled execution in Northern Ireland of an imprisoned IRA volunteer. The hostage falls in love with an Irish convent girl, Teresa, working as a maid in the house. Their innocent world of love is incongruous among their surroundings—the house also serves as a brothel. In the end,"
"and in English. He began to write in Gaelic in 1984. ""Bùth a' Bhaile"" (""the store of the town"") was his first play. He was involved with theater companies, among them 'Na Nisich' in Lewis and Cluicheadairean Loch Aillse. From 1988 to 1990 he was a writer-in-residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye. He wrote the novels ""The Nessman"" and ""Visiting the Bard"" in English. He won the Stornoway Gazette Award for new play in 2009 at the Royal National Mòd. His novel, ""Ro Fhada san t-Suidheachadh Seo"", won the first prize at the 2015 Donald Meek"
"wrote the plays ""Anthony and Anna"" in 1926 and ""The First Mrs. Fraser"" in 1929. His 1956 biography of ""George Bernard Shaw"" was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. A contemporary production of ""Mixed Marriage"" played at the Finborough Theatre in London from 4 to 29 October 2011, to critical acclaim. Ervine died in London in January 1971, aged 87. St. John Greer Ervine St. John Greer Ervine (28 December 1883 – 24 January 1971) was an Irish author, writer, critic and dramatist. He was born in Belfast, Ireland but moved to London while in his teens. His first"
"products of Anglo-Irish literature, though written exclusively from the viewpoint of the ""big house"". In 1894 they published ""The Real Charlotte"". George Moore spent much of his early career in Paris and was one of the first writers to use the techniques of the French realist novelists in English. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), born and educated in Ireland, spent the latter half of his life in England. His plays are distinguished for their wit, and he was also a poet. The growth of Irish cultural nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, culminating in the Gaelic Revival, had a marked"
"like ""London Assurance"", (1841), in the middle of the 19th century. However, drama did not achieve importance as a genre in the 19th century until the end of the century, and then the main figures were also Irish-born. In the last decade of the century major playwrights emerged, including George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), ""Arms and the Man"" (1894), and Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), ""The Importance of Being Earnest"" (1895). Both of these Irish writers lived mainly in England and wrote in English, with the exception of some works in French by Wilde. The year 1922 marked a significant change in the"
"years. While there he wrote ""The Countrywoman"" (1962), ""The Stubborn Season"" (1962), and ""'Stravanga"" (1963). He returned to Dublin in 1972 where he remained until he died on 11 January 1997. He was awarded the American Irish Foundation Literary Award in 1978, and was a member of Aosdána, an Irish association of artists. Paul Smith (Irish writer) Paul Smith (4 October 1920, Dublin, Ireland – 11 January 1997, Dublin) was an Irish writer and playwright. Smith was born near Charlemont Street in Dublin, the son of a wheelwright. He became involved with the Gate Theatre at 16 years of age."
"best known of these is Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett's poetry, while not inconsiderable, is not what he is best known for. The most significant of the second generation Modernist Irish poets who first published in the 1920s and 1930s include Brian Coffey (1905–1995), Denis Devlin (1908–1959), Thomas MacGreevy (1893–1967), Blanaid Salkeld (1880–1959), and Mary Devenport O'Neill (1879–1967). While Yeats and his followers wrote about an essentially aristocratic Gaelic Ireland, the reality was that the actual Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s was a society of small farmers and shopkeepers. Inevitably, a"
"contributor was Brendan Behan, who made his debut with two plays for the radio. Between plays the players acted in radio variety programmes and read pieces on the radio as necessary. In 1961 O'Sullivan acted in ""The Weaver's Grave"". Adapted and produced by Mícheál Ó hAodha, it was written by Galway author Seamus O'Kelly, and won the coveted Prix Italia for Radio Drama. The players also won this award in 1964. He later appeared in Radio Éireann's ""Rambling House""; a programme in which Ceoltóirí Chualann, Seán Ó Sé, Éamon Kelly and others re-enacted, through singing, music, and story telling, the"