The image of Ireland in nineteenth-century drama is no longer an uncharted territory, while the problem of translation is considered in an essay on Joyce's translation into Italian of Riders to the Sea and one on Brian Friel's play Translations. There is also a more general essay on this major playwright. Synge's influence on other playwrights is also considered, while another contribution explores the three adaptations of Antigone, by Brendan Kennelly. Tom Paulin. and Aidan Carl Mathews: and after a study of Thomas Kiiroy's theatre, there is a view of the Field Day Theatre Company. The question of language is at the core of Thomas Murphy's drama, while MacNeice's perception of Irish history is studied through his They Met on Good Friday. John Hewitt's The Bloody Brae is situated in Irish drama and specifically in Ulster drama. Throughout these essays, which constitute a network encompassing the different aspects of the Irish Theatre, we find recurring political and social problems, but also the universal topics of literature, the question of language and the care for art and stagecraft. The different literary approaches throw an interesting light on the vitality of the genre in Ireland.