Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901

"Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901" by Yeats, Hyde, Martyn, Moore, and Gregory is a literary periodical written in the early 20th century. It champions the Irish dramatic revival through manifestos, theatrical criticism, a retold Fenian legend, and a one‑act play in Irish with an English translation. The issue’s likely focus is building a national theatre culture grounded in the Irish language and tradition while learning from world drama, with vivid dramatic material featuring the wandering poet Hanrahan, Oona, and their community. The opening of this periodical presents an editorial surveying the birth of an Irish theatre, celebrating the surge of new Gaelic plays and amateur companies, and weighing two paths forward: a municipally backed stock troupe with outside training versus a freer, grassroots route anchored in local players. It presses dramatists to study European masters, criticises slack construction in recent Irish work, and announces a season pairing an Irish‑language comedy with a prose drama drawn from heroic lore. A subsequent reminiscence recalls rough early productions, the beauty that shone through flawed staging, and the belief that a subsidised stage can quicken national thought. A further plea urges training native actors (including in Irish) through technical education so Ireland can stage both its own texts and the world’s masterpieces.

Samhain, Issue 1, October 1901, from the public domain. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78522.