In the following essay, Flannery considers the political context in which the Abbey was established, focusing particularly on conflicts about the artistic vision the Abbey was to follow.

In the following essay, Hunt—the director of the Abbey Theatre from 1935 to 1971—recounts the plays performed in the early years of the Irish Free State, which was formed in 1923 as a result of the Anglo-Irish War.

In the following essay, McDiarmid argues that three early controversies—the censorship of Shaw's The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, the American response to Synge's Playboy, and the debate over whether to produce Shaw's play, O'Flaherty VC—helped the Abbey define itself artistically and strategically as a national theater.

In the following essay, Saddlemyer discusses contemporary artistic and political reactions to the poetic and peasant plays produced by the Abbey Theatre during the early years of the Irish Literary Renaissance.

In the following historically-grounded essay, Dalsimer argues that the Abbey's American tours between 1911 and 1914 (at the height of the Irish Literary Renaissance) and between 1931-1938 consolidated the Abbey's international reputation but alarmed Irish nationalists, who feared that the Abbey's representation of Ireland and the Irish would adversely affect American support for Irish independence.

In the following essay, originally given at the first Abbey Theatre Dramatic Festival in 1938, Malone recounts the early history of the Abbey Theatre.

In the following essay, Miller—a stage designer—discusses the “pioneering work in stage design” that occurred at the Abbey Theatre during the Irish Literary Renaissance.

In the following essay, McClintock explores Yeats's changing attitudes toward the Irish language as a nationalist who insisted on “art over politics.” The author argues that Yeats's written dialogue attempts to capture the rhythm and sound of the Irish language in English, which both resolved and created certain difficulties for performers and their audiences.

In the following essay, Ayling examines the complicated relationship of playwright Sean O'Casey to the Abbey Theatre.

In the following essay, Gooddie examines the complicated and thorny relationship between Yeats and Annie Horniman, the first financial backer of the Abbey Theatre.

In the following essay, Kavanagh describes Yeats's interest in producing poetic works and the Catholic Church's suspicions of the Abbey's early plays.

In the following essay, Saddlemyer discusses an unpublished essay by John Millington Synge that demonstrates Synge's commitment to Yeats's artistic principles and the ideals of the early Abbey Theatre.

In the following essay, first delivered as a speech for the first Abbey Theatre Dramatic Festival in 1938, Robinson—who served as a manager, producer, and director at the Abbey Theatre—describes Lady Augusta Gregory's contributions to the Abbey Theatre.

In the following essay, first published in The Irish Statesman on January 2, 1926, Russell, an important figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance who signed his poetry with the initials “A. E.,” discusses his experiences with the Abbey Theatre at the height of the Literary Revival.

In the following essay, originally published in 1947, Fay, one of the original actors at the Abbey Theatre along with his brother, Frank Fay, provides his personal impressions of the founding of the Abbey Theatre.

In the following interview, originally published in 1910, one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre discusses the peasant plays of the Abbey Theatre as part of a dramatic movement “that is representative of the social life and the economic conditions of Ireland.”