Bullying has a long history in the world of Irish theatre

There’s a difference between being a director and being an autocrat

Michael Colgan outside the Gate Theatre in 2002. Pic: RollingNews.ie

Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh was one of the founding members of the Abbey Theatre. In January 1906, when William Butler Yeats was seeking to take control of the theatre, she was to the fore among the actors opposing him.

Yeats did not appreciate this. Nic Shiubhlaigh was “fiercely bullied” by him, records Robert Welch in his history of the Abbey. Nic Shiubhlaigh later recalled Yeats exploding at her, “his whole being shaken by fits ...