Griffith, Arthur

JAMES R. GRIFFITH, ARTHUR G. SANDS, and JACK E. COWLING Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D. C. 20390... 

First responses to Riders in the national press were marked by objections it contained studies of melancholy , according to the Independent, and, despite much of the old charm and delicacy , was too dreadfully doleful to please the popular taste .In the United Irishman - Arthur Griffith s paper so important in the controversy over The Shadow - Riders tragic beauty was noted, but the reviewer found the play wanting we need sunshine badly . Such reviews make evident that the Irish Literary Theatre was perceived to have responsibilities other than the simple performance of its chosen plays -the plays were held accountable for their entertainment value, but also for their politics and their representation of an Irishness whose definition was still under construction. 

Arthur Griffith, All Ireland , United Irishman, ii February 1905, p. i. 

For example, Arthur Griffith s The Resurrection of Hungary (Dublin James Duffy, 1904). 

D. Sheehan, quoted in Kilroy, The Playboy Riots, p. 87. P. D. Kenny, the drama critic for the Irish Times, explicated the Darwinian aspects of The Playboy s plot in his review ( That Dreadful Play , Irish Times, 30 January 1907, p. 9). In A Plea for the Playboy , one P.M.E.K. laid out the Darwinian reading of The Playboy for the readers of Arthur Griffith s Sinn Fein (9 February 1907, p. 3). 

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