• 'Welch is persuasive in his detailed analysis of the major playwrights of Abbey history. He superbly charts Yeats's theatrical explorations… His insights on the work and its relationship to the evolution of Irish society are perceptive and illuminating.' -Joe Dowling, The Irish Times 8/1/00

A century ago this year, productions of W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen and Edward Martyn's The Heather Field launched what was to become Ireland's National Theatre, named after its home in Abbey Street, Dublin. This is the first history of the Abbey Theatre to set the plays and the personalities in their historical and political context and to describe the theatre's artistic and financial development to the present day. Outstanding plays and persistent dramatic themes are discussed alongside the Abbey's people-not just the playwrights, poets, and actors who supply its dramatic life but also the directors and policy-makers whose struggle for financial security, subsidy, and new-style 'partnerships' form a crucial part of its story.