Lady Gregory founded The Abbey Theatre

Lady Augusta Gregory

It is the birthday of Irish dramatist Lady Augusta Gregory (1852), founder of The Abbey Theatre (along with William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn) and collector of Irish folklore. Her family were Anglo-Irish landlords in Galway. She was home schooled and greatly influenced by her Catholic nanny, who spoke Gaelic and introduced her to local legends. Folklore became a lifelong interest and led to the publication of several volumes of local tales, including Chuchulain of Muirthemne (1902), Gods and Fighting Men (1904), A book of Saints and Wonders (1906), A Kiltartan History Book (1909) and The Kiltartan Wonder Book (1910). She also edited the autobiography of her husband, Sir William Henry Gregory (who was 35 years older), and published it in 1894, after his death. Lady Gregory may be best remembered for her work founding the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899 with Edward Martyn (a neighbor) and Yeats (his friend). It failed because of lack of funding in 1901 but in 1904 Lady Gregory, Martyn, Yeats, John M. Synge, Annie Horniman, George William Russell, and William and Frank Fay formed the Irish National Theatre Society, which eventually moved into a theater in Lower Abbey Street in Dublin and became known as The Abbey Theatre. Many of Lady Gregory's plays were presented there, including Spreading the News (1904) and The Rising of the Moon (1907). Synge's The Playboy of the Western World opened there in 1907, causing riots. The rest of the performances were in pantomime.