The slew of Tony Awards nominations for three Irish plays currently enjoying Broadway success is a major accolade for an art form which has a long history of enhancing our international profile in the arts. The significant and indelible contribution Ireland has made to world theatre - from Synge, Wilde and O'Casey to Beckett and Friel - is always readily acknowledged whenever assessments of work for the stage are made.
To receive 11 Tony nominations, including three in best play categories and several going to the actors in these plays, is an outstanding achievement for all involved. The Tonys are the most prestigious honours that Broadway - the home of theatre - can bestow; nominations are coveted and the competition is usually particularly strong.
The three productions - the Gate Theatre's revival of Brian Friel's Faith Healer, Conor McPherson's Shining City and Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore - already come with plaudits from the hard-to-please New York critics and are attracting huge audience interest. Between them, they form a very rich representation of modern Irish drama, and justice has finally been done to the Friel play in America where it was poorly received when first performed in 1979.
McDonagh may be London-Irish, but he has always been regarded as an heir to the Irish tradition whose work is steeped in a re-imagining of the west of Ireland. Friel is the old trouper and masterful hand, and McPherson delivers the promise of his earlier work magnificently in Shining City.
While both the McPherson and McDonagh shows are original New York productions, Faith Healer originated on the stage of Dublin's Gate Theatre. The Gate has played an important role in developing an international audience for Irish theatre and well deserves the reward of a place in the Tony Awards spotlight. It also deserves to have its role in taking Irish theatre abroad fully recognised when it comes to Arts Council funding.
Irish theatre has previously won recognition at the Tonys, receiving valuable exposure in the process. Coincidentally, Broadway productions of plays by both Friel and McDonagh scooped several awards in the past - an Abbey Theatre production of Friel's ever-popular Dancing at Lughnasa impressed the judges in 1992 when it received three Tonys, and Druid triumphed with McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane when it took four awards in 1996.
Let's hope the pride and jubilation created on those occasions is repeated on June 11th.