The theatre was founded by the poet WB Yeats and his long-time collaborator and patron, Lady Augusta Gregory, “to bring upon the stage the deeper emotions of Ireland”.

The programme was called Spreading the News, after the opening-night play of the same name written by Augusta Gregory.

The Abbey Theatre has never been far from controversy and rebellion, and many believe that this is where important theatre should position itself. 

The audience rioted on the opening night of The Playboy of the Western World — by one of its directors, JM Synge — in 1907, ostensibly because of the playwright’s depiction of Irish womanhood, but mainly because of nationalist political motives. 

When it toured the US five years later, its cast was arrested for performing “immoral or indecent” plays.

The theatre staged plays banned in England, lost its original sponsor because it did not close to mark the death of Edward VII, and was linked with the Easter Rising of 1916. 

The first casualty, Seán Connolly, had been scheduled to appear on stage that day. 

The theatre was the first State-funded theatre in the English-speaking world and has received an annual subsidy since 1925. 

Although its original premises were destroyed by fire in 1951 — the new building was opened by Éamon de Valera, who had appeared on the original stage as an amateur actor — it has performed on a regular basis.

Included in the RTÉ programme were works from Barbara Bergin, Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Lady Gregory, Stacey Gregg, Tom Murphy, Anna Mullarkey, Frank McGuinness, Caitríona McLaughlin, Conor McPherson, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Sean O’Casey, Mark O’Rowe, JM Synge, WB Yeats, and Enda Walsh. 

Among the artists were Peter Coonan, Seán McGinley, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Stephen Rea, Kate Stanley Brennan, and Eileen Walsh. 

It is online if anyone needs a reminder of how the theatre has enriched our lives.

Soundtrack to the weather

Given that six of the areas forming part of the Shipping Forecast, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Wednesday, have waves that lap onto our shores, it is a shame that we have no one from the Republic participating in the BBC’s celebrations.

Celebrities have been asked to read the New Year’s Day forecast in a programme familiar to early risers and insomniacs alike. 

It divides the seas around Britain and Ireland into 31 distinct zones. 

Those which are closest to us are Malin, Rockall, Shannon, Fastnet, the merest touch of Lundy and the Irish Sea.

However, others can be a complete mystery. North Utsire and South Utsire? Something to do with herring? Just where does Dogger end and German Bight begin? Who has ever been to Sole or Fitzroy or could point to Bailey on a map? Is Fair Isle as nice as it sounds, or just a rather itchy type of jumper that moves in and out of vogue?

Apart from redolent place names, the Shipping Forecast also uses a language which possesses its own rhythm, timbre, and phrases. 

The lay person can only be confused to hear that something is “falling more slowly” or “backing south-westerly.” 

Isn’t being “moderate or good, occasionally poor” a definition of us all?

Séamus Heaney said the bulletin was “verbal music” which inspired his 1979 Glanmore Sonnets. 

To mariners and people whose livelihood and safety depend on the weather, the information it contains is crucial and irreplaceable. 

A local world summed up in 380 words. 

Among those invited to read the forecast this week is Ruth Jones, Nessa from Gavin and Stacey, whose character spent some time working on the high seas before settling in Barry Island.

A celebration programme will feature actors Julie Hesmondhalgh, Stephen Fry, and Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar, and the sailor Ellen MacArthur. 

Blur’s Damon Albarn, whose track ‘This Is a Low’ was inspired by the Shipping Forecast, will also appear.

Gunning for return

It makes you wonder what the British will fill their museums with once everything they have hoisted from overseas is repatriated, and some of the rest is sold to the highest bidder.

Or, as accusations made earlier this year claimed, it is disposed of illicitly on eBay. 

First, it was the Elgin Marbles. 

Then, it was the Benin Bronzes. 

Now, it looks like a rare cannon smuggled out of the Irish waters of Tramore Bay may rediscover its place in a cause célèbre tug of war. 

The story is in the latest release of State papers. 

Official documents show that the two bronze cannons, each measuring 2.75m by 1.8m, were said to have been removed illegally from a shipwreck close to the Metal Man navigation beacon off Waterford.

They were allegedly transported without a licence and acquired by a Tower of London official, though their provenance had not been established.

They featured as a tourist attraction at Britain’s royal armouries, originally with no reference to Ireland. 

The papers confirm that the National Museum of Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and our chief State solicitor all pressed for their return.

While that fell on deaf ears, history does not disappear. We should not rule out another request, but we must be careful.

One of Waterford’s landmarks in the People’s Park is a pair of cannons dating to the Crimean War of the mid-19th century. 

They were made at the Aleksandrovsk factory in Karelia, Russia. 

Vladimir Putin may want them back.