Lady Gregory

public domain

Born Isabella Augusta Persse, March 5, 1852, Roxborough, County Galway, Ireland—died May 22, 1932, Coole Park, County Galway. She married Sir W. H. Gregory, a widower several decades older than she. After his death, she turned her attention to writing and preserving Irish culture for the stage.

Those who love the old Irish stories and tales owe much to Lady Gregory. An Irish proponent of national culture, she wrote 40 plays and many poems and essays. With William Butler Yeats, she founded The Irish National Theater Society in the early 1900's--a time of cultural revival in Ireland.

She rewrote ancient Irish legends and folktales. If you'd like to learn more about Lady Gregory, here's a good place to start.

Mankind as a whole had a like dream once;
everybody and nobody built up the dream bit by bit, and the ancient
story-tellers are there to make us remember what mankind would have been
like, had not fear and the failing will and the laws of nature tripped
up its heels. ~Lady Gregory, from Gods and Fighting Men