Did the founders of the Abbey Theatre - W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and those other idealists of the Irish National Theatre Society - ever imagine that the institution would survive the depredations of a century: fire, riots, bouts of artistic decline and sometimes, too, loss of artistic nerve?
Or that it would become a national treasure, contributing to the canon of 20th century drama a number of its greatest works, and through them endowing an emergent and developing nation with a voice that would resound on stages throughout the world. That it has done so has been a triumph of the imagination, and often a triumph of resilience.
The Abbey Theatre is justified in the jubilant mood with which it has just embarked on a year-long celebration of its centenary.
The programme of events draws on some of the staples of its distinguished repertoire and rich inheritance, its relationship with European theatre and its duty to propagate new writing for the stage.
If there is a disappointment in its programme for the year ahead, it is that there is far too little of the latter.
Revivals of time-honoured classics are necessary reminders of past achievement and of the standards and values that must be maintained and followed. But a greater emphasis on new work by contemporary dramatists is necessary if a national theatre is to mirror the wider community with which it should be engaged.
The annals of the theatre resonate with the greatest names in Irish drama; its stage has nurtured and given to theatre-goers here and abroad an abundance of talent. Like any institution, there have been shameful moments, like the rejection of O'Casey's anti-war masterpiece The Silver Tassie. But it is the future that matters now.
The Abbey is still mired in uncertainty over its accommodation. There is all-round agreement that the current building, its home since the 1960s, is unsuitable. The opening of a new theatre in 2004 would have been the ideal birthday present. The possible opportunity to provide that gift was lost in a debacle for which the Government and the Abbey itself have to share the blame.
Little has been heard since the last proposal - unconvincing as it was - that the theatre be redeveloped on its present site under the aegis of a public/private partnership scheme. As well as reappraisals of the role of a National Theatre, it is to be hoped that the centenary year will not end without a rebuilding plan that offers more tangible assurance: a new design and date of completion. Only then can our National Theatre go forward with new vibrancy, continuing to provoke, astonish, interrogate - and entertain.