Lady Augusta Gregory

Lady Augusta Gregory (Isabella Augusta Persse), 1859-1932, Irish dramatist. Though she did not begin her writing career until middle-age, Lady Gregory soon became a vital force in the Irish drama. She was a founder and the manager-director of the Abbey Theatre , for which she wrote many of her most successful pieces, including Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), written with friend and colleague W. B. Yeats, Spreading the News (1904), The Gaol Gate (1906), The Rising of the Moon (1907), and The Workhouse Ward (1908). Her short plays, mainly comedies, are rich in portrayals of Irish peasantry. Among her other works are Our Irish Theater (1913) and several long plays dealing with Irish history.

Bibliography: See her journals (ed. by L. Robinson, 1946); biography by C. Toibin (2003); studies by H. Adams (1973) and M. L. Kohfeldt (1985).

Gregory, Lady Augusta (1852–1932), author. Born Augusta Persse, from a Galway landowning family, she married Sir William Gregory (see gregory clause) in 1880. After his death she administered his estate at Coole Park, Co. Galway, for their son and developed nationalist sympathies. Coole became a centre of the Irish literary revival through her friendship with W. B. Yeats, who idealized the aristocratic traditions of the Gregorys and encouraged her interest in folklore. In 1899 Gregory co‐founded the Irish Literary Theatre, remaining a leading Abbey board member and playwright until the late 1920s. She wrote 27 plays employing a synthetic dialect known as ‘Kiltartanese’. Her light comedies were popular; she also wrote plays on historical and mythological themes. Gregory produced Kiltartanized book versions of Gaelic sagas and folklore. Her history of the Abbey theatre and posthumous autobiography and journals are significant sources for the history of the literary revival. Her grandmotherly, slightly condescending image disguises her stature and individuality. Coole was demolished after her death.

Patrick Maume