Celebrations mark Shaw's 150th anniversary

Events are taking place this week to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of dramatist George Bernard Shaw, which falls tomorrow…

Events are taking place this week to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of dramatist George Bernard Shaw, which falls tomorrow.

A programme of readings, guided tours and performances at Shaw's birthplace on Synge Street in Dublin began last Saturday and continues until Friday, while readings from his work will take place at the Dublin Writers' Museum on Parnell Square from noon to 12.30pm tomorrow.

The National Gallery, which counts the Nobel laureate as its most generous benefactor, will tomorrow launch a series of festivities for the rest of the year. These include an exhibition which will continue until December as well as musical performances and lectures on Shaw and his work.

A number of conferences and seminars will be held around the world to mark the sesquicentennial year: in New York it is being marked with staged readings of all 52 plays.

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RTÉ Radio 1, which re-broadcast four of Shaw's plays from its archive in June, has made these available as podcasts on its website (www.rte.ie/radio1).

George Bernard Shaw - Fabian socialist, economist, writer and orator - was born on July 26th 1856 at 33 Synge Street and moved to London during the 1870s.

After a stint as a local councillor in the St Pancras district of London for a few years from 1897, Shaw worked as a drama critic at the Saturday Review. His first successful play, Candida, was produced in 1898, the year of his marriage to an Irish heiress, Charlotte Payne-Townshend. There followed a series of classic comedy-dramas, including The Devil's Disciple (1897), Arms and the Man (1898), Caesar and Cleopatra (1901), Man and Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1912) and Pygmalion (1913).

After the first World War, during which he was a noted pacifist, Shaw produced more dramas, including Heartbreak House (1919) and Saint Joan (1923). He died in 1950 at the age of 94.