This volume of essays explores the fascinating and immensely rich legacy of Irish women playwrights throughout the twentieth century and opens up essential dialogue on the politics of authorship, representation and the 'canon' of Irish theatre. Ideological, historical and cultural issues are discussed in relation to the performance of woman, gender, sexuality and the body on the Irish stage in plays by women and, to a lesser extent, by men. An appendix lists over two hundred Irish women playwrights and their works, contesting the traditional concept of Irish theatre as primarily a site of male authorship and authority. In this book unknown territories are discovered and familiar ones are renegotiated, as the histories of Irish theatre are expanded, challenged and critiqued. Women in Irish Drama opens a space for previously forgotten or silenced voices and marks an exciting new beginning for the way in which Irish theatre is considered in the twenty-first century.