John Millington Synge - Dublin

John Millington Synge, born in Rathfarnham on 16 April 1871. He went to Germany to study music but later moved to Paris where he met fellow Irishman William Butler Yeats. Yeats encouraged Synge to live on the Aran Islands and whilst there he wrote ‘The Aran Islands’ (1907). He wrote ‘In the Shadow of the Glen’ in 1903, ‘Riders to the Sea’ in 1904. Both these plays were produced by the Irish National Theatre Society. This group along with Yeats and Lady Gregory as co-directors founded the famous Abbey Theatre.
Synge also wrote ‘The Well of the Saints’ in 1905 and ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ in 1907 and ‘The Tinker’s Wedding’ in 1908. ‘Dierdre of the Sorrows’, a tragedy unfinished at the time of his death on 24 March 1909, was presented by the Abbey players in 1910.