Gregory, Lady (1852-1932), an Irish playwright and folklorist, helped launch the renaissance in Irish drama associated with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. She excelled in writing lively dialogue and creating simple, strong dramatic situations. Her best-known plays include The Rising of the Moon, Spreading the News, and The Workhouse Ward (all 1904-1908).
Isabella Augusta Persse was born on March 5, 1852, in County Galway and married Sir William Gregory in 1881. She wrote most of her plays in “Kiltartan,” the peasant dialect of her home district. She collected Irish folklore and poetry, pioneered in the use of peasant dialect, and invented the folk history play. Her retelling of the Celtic heroic myths in Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902) and Gods and Fighting Men (1904) inspired many Irish writers, especially William Butler Yeats. She died on May 22, 1932. Seventy Years, an autobiography, was published in 1976, after her death.
