Lady Gregory

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory, was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist, and stage manager. She co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre with William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, and she authored several short plays for each. Lady Gregory wrote several novels repeating stories from Irish mythology. She rebelled against British rule despite being born into a class that strongly supported it. Her conversion to cultural nationalism, as indicated by her works, was representative of many of the political fights that occurred in Ireland during her lifetime. Lady Gregory is well noted for her role in the Irish Literary Revival. Her home in Coole Park, County Galway, served as a gathering spot for key Revival leaders, and her early work on the Abbey's board was at least as crucial to the theatre's development as her creative writings. Lady Gregory's motto comes from Aristotle: "To think like a wise man, but to express oneself like the common people." Gregory was born in Roxborough, County Galway, as the youngest daughter of the Anglo-Irish gentry family Persse.