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The continuing success of Irish drama abroad is important not only for Ireland’s international profile but also for the new work it makes possible, especially in difficult economic times. But this global reach is no accident, as SARA KEATINGfinds out from some of those who have helped to make it happen

BY THE END of 2009, international audiences will have had a chance to see more than 38 touring performances by Irish theatre and dance companies this year, in venues as exotic as Buenos Aires and Bulgaria (Gare St Lazare Players’ First Love) and as familiar as London and New York (Druid Theatre, The Walworth Farceand The New Electric Ballroom); with work as traditionally Irish in form and content as Sebastian Barry’s The Pride of Parnell Street(Fishamble, the New Play Company) and as theatrically challenging as The Crumb Trail(Pan Pan Theatre). Irish clowns have performed in Palestine (Clowns Without Borders), contemporary Irish dancers have danced across South America (Rex Levitates), and Irish street artists have lit up the sky in Tarrega (LUX e).