Edward Martyn
1859 - 1923
Born in Co. Galway in 1859, Edward Martyn was a novelist, playwright and co-founder with Lady Gregory and Yeats of the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897. His play The Heather Field was produced by the company in 1899 at the Antient Concert Rooms in Brunswick Street (now Pearse St) on the 9th May 1899. Martyn's play Maeve was produced the company in 1900, and George Moore's version of his play The Tale of a Town, entitled The Bending of the Bough was also produced in 1900. Martyn was a keen follower of Ibsen, and became increasingly estranged from Yeats and Gregory, and against the 'peasant plays' of the early Abbey repertoire. He co-founded the Irish Theatre Company in 1914 with Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett with the intention of producing more translated work from European writers, and plays in Irish.