Editing Lennox Robinson (section)

== Life ==
Robinson was born in Westgrove, [[Douglas, County Cork]] and raised in a [[Protestant]] and [[Unionism (Ireland)|Unionist]] family in which he was the youngest of seven children. His father, Andrew Robinson, was a middle-class stockbroker who in 1892 decided to become a clergyman in the [[Church of Ireland]] in the small Ballymoney parish, near [[Ballineen]] in West Cork. A sickly child, Robinson was educated by private tutor and at [[Bandon Grammar School]]. In August 1907, his interest in the theatre began after he went to see an Abbey production of plays by [[W. B. Yeats]] and [[Lady Gregory]] at the [[Cork Opera House]]. He published his first poem that same year. His play, ''The Cross Roads'', was performed in the Abbey in 1909 and he became manager of the theatre towards the end of that year. Shortly after joining the Abbey Theatre, he was sent to London for three months to train under [[George Bernard Shaw]] as his assistant while he was directing ''[[Misalliance (play)|Misalliance]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/revival-of-the-robinson-connection-1.509176|title=Revival of the Robinson connection|website=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref> He resigned in 1914 as a result of a disastrous tour of the United States but returned in 1919. He was appointed to the board of the theatre in 1923 and continued to serve in that capacity until his death, his Abbey career and production involvement can be found in the Abbey archives <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/archives/person_detail/13398|title=The Abbey Theatre Archive|website=abbeytheatre.ie|accessdate=20 July 2016}}</ref>[[File:Lennox Robinson - Project Gutenberg eText 19028.jpg|thumb|Lennox Robinson|left]]As a playwright, Robinson showed himself as a nationalist with plays like ''Patriots'' (1912) and ''Dreamers'' (1915). On the other hand, he belonged to a part of Irish society which was not seen as fully Irish. This division between the majority native Irish (Roman Catholics) on one side and the [[Anglo-Irish]] (Protestants) on the other can be seen in a play such as ''The Big House'' (1926), which depicts the burning of a Protestant manor home by the IRA. Robinson's most popular plays were ''The Whiteheaded Boy'' (1916), ''The Big House'' and ''[[Drama at Inish]]'' (1933).<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=204|isbn=}}</ref>

Other plays included ''Crabbed Youth and Age'' (1924), ''The Far Off Hills'' (1928), and ''Church Street'' (1935). ''Drama at Inish'', which was presented in London and on Broadway as ''Is Life Worth Living?'', was revived as part of the 2011 season at the Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada), with Mary Haney as Lizzie Twohig.  Robinson's fiction includes ''Eight Short Stories'' (1919). In 1931 he published a biography of [[Bryan Cooper (politician)|Bryan Cooper]], who had recently died. In 1951, he published ''Ireland's Abbey Theatre'', the first full-length history of the company.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

He published an edited edition of Lady Gregory's diaries in 1947.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} In 1958 he co-edited (with Donagh MacDonagh) ''The Oxford Book of Irish Verse'.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}.'' He was also a director and producer, in 1930 he produced a play by Irish playwright [[Teresa Deevy]] called ''The Reapers'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://deevy.nuim.ie/items/show/326|title=The Teresa Deevy Archive (326)|last=Deevy|first=Teresa|website=deevy.nuim.ie|date=18 March 1930|accessdate=21 July 2016}}</ref> and in 1931 he was co-director of ''A Disciple'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://deevy.nuim.ie/items/show/464|title=The Teresa Deevy Archive (464)|last=Deevy|first=Teresa|website=deevy.nuim.ie|date=24 August 1931|accessdate=21 July 2016}}</ref> along with [[W. B. Yeats]] and [[Walter Starkie]].{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}