November 27, 1911

Lady Augusta Gregory, one of the founders of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, spoke at length on “The Making of a Theatre.” Speaking about, as The Vassar Miscellany reported, “the Irish theatre which has recently commanded so much attention,” she claimed “to Mr. Yeats, her co-worker, belongs a large share of the idea of a national theatre, which should have as its purpose the production of poetic and romantic Irish plays played by Irish players.”

“To illustrate how the fable and the emotion are drawn from folk-lore,” said The Miscellany, “and also to show us what kind of play the company uses, Lady Gregory read parts of “McDaragh’s Wife,“ her yet unpublished play…. The principal figure…McDaragh, she had know personally as one of her father’s tenants—a red-haired genius of the bag-pipes who had become the ‘lightning rod’ which attracted many of the myths of the vicinity.” McDaragh’s Wife (later known as McDonough’s Wife) opened at the Abbey Theatre on January 11, 1912.