The conundrum that was Lady Augusta Gregory has been remembered in Galway city and county this weekend with several events celebrating the 150th anniversary of her birth.
The Abbey Theatre founder and director, who is synonymous with the Irish literary revival of the early 20th century, was also a landlord who exacted rents from her tenants at Coole Park, according to a biographical essay by writer Colm Toibín.
Entitled Lady Gregory's Toothbrush, the book was launched last night in Coole Park Visitors' Centre near Gort in Co Galway.
In Galway city, a celebration of her life entitled Recollection has been opened by Garry Hynes, artistic director of the Druid Theatre, in the Galway Arts Centre. The centre in Dominick Street was formerly the townhouse of Lady Gregory's sister, Arabella Persse, and she spent much time there.
The exhibition evokes something of her life and spirit, according to Ms Helen Carey, director of the Galway Arts Centre. "Lady Gregory and key people in her life, such as W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, George Bernard Shaw, Hugh Lane, her family and children are back in Dominick Street through portraiture, sculpture, painting, photography, film and artifacts," Ms Carey said. Her strong influence on theatre is reflected in memorabilia of the Abbey Theatre, and there are also photographs, some of which have been rarely seen.
The exhibition runs until April 13th. The title of Toibín's work was inspired by Lady Gregory's comment on the rioters who opposed Synge's Playboy of the Western World in the Abbey. "It is the old battle between those who use a toothbrush and those who don't," she said in a letter to Yeats.