Many of the plays in this collection seem dated, but they are still interesting reading. There are several I would enjoy seeing performed, though they tend a bit toward talky and at times pretentious. In places they are rendered slightly difficult to read by the extreme dialect, and the use of Irish words for ordinary things, though the editors do take pity on the non-Irish reader and explain Irish phrases in footnotes. Particularly good works include Synge's Dierdre of the Sorrows (though it is extremely difficult to suspend disbelief in this piece) and O'Connor's In the Train, a short piece that presents a fascinating character study. The English are gleefully lampooned as oblivious aristocrats; the Irish are poor, but plucky and with a worldly wisdom. The collection includes a great deal of nationalism and pride of lineage, and in places poverty is a bit romanticized. Still, an enjoyable collection. ( )

While some of the other plays are better known, I rated this 5
stars for Lady Gregory's The Canavans, one of the funniest plays I have ever read; it is especially funny if the reader has prepared by reading Edmund Spenser and other Elizabethans
in their glorification of Gloriana's conquest of Ireland. ( )