David O’Shaughnessy

The theatre was a crucial forum for the representation of Irish civility and culture for the 18th-century English audience. Irish actors and playwrights, operating both as individuals and within networks, were remarkably popular and potent during this period, especially in London. As ideas of Enlightenment percolated throughout Britain and Ireland, Irish theatrical practitioners—actors, managers, playwrights, critics, and journalists—exploited a growing receptivity to Irish civility, and advanced a patriot agenda of political and economic autonomy.