No nation has made a richer contribution to the recent literature of the theater than Ireland. Her playwrights have brought about a renaissance of the drama in their own country and have earned the world's admiration. The plays in this volume represent the finest flowering of the Irish genius in the drama, and include the complete texts of The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea by J.M. Synge, Juno and the Peacock by Sean O'Casey, Spreading the News by Lady Gregory and Shadow and Substance by Paul Vincent Carroll. George Jean Nathan provides a scintillating Introduction.