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 on 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 development.

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 on 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 development.