Isabella Augusta Persse 1852 : Short Biography

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Ireland

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Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (Persse) 1852

Gort Kilmacduagh And Kiltartan (Galway)

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Place of migration

Stayed in Ireland

Born Isabella Augusta Persse on 15/3/1852, she was the youngest daughter of the Anglo-Irish gentry family Persse. Her mother was Frances Barry who was related to Viscount Guillamore and the family home, Roxborough, was a 6000-acre estate between Gort and Loughrea in County Galway.

Educated at home, Isabella was greatly influenced by her nanny, Mary Sheridan, who taught her the history and legends of the local area. In March 1880, she married William Henry Gregory who was a widower and 35 years her senior. William had an estate at Coole Park, and also a house in London where the couple spent a lot of their time entertaining many literary figures including Lord Tennyson, Henry James, Robert Browning. In 1881 they had a son together, but he was killed during the 1^st world war.

Lady Gregory’s early writing includes a series of love poems she wrote during a time in which she had an affair with the English poet Wilfred Scawen Blunt called ‘A Woman’s Sonnets’. Her husband died in 1893 and a year later, a trip to Inisheer in the Aran Islands inspired her to learn Irish. She met W.B. Yeats in 1896 and started collecting folklore in Kiltartan with him. Between 1899 and 1901 she, along with Yeats and Edward Martyn, founded the Irish Literary Theatre which would later become the Abbey Theatre Company. Lady Gregory directed with Yeats and J.M. Synge and began writing plays by helping Yeats with the peasant dialogue of his plays.

"The rising of the moon" by Lady Gregory is a politically-minded play set in early 20th Century Ireland. It explores the two alternatives that faced Ireland at the time - to accept the power of the English or to follow the revolutionary path of fighting for independence.

Ill health resulted in her retirement in 1928. By this time, she had written more than 19 plays and played the lead role in ‘Cathleen Ni Houlihan’.

Lady Gregory died in her home in Coole Park in May 1932.

Sources: Biography.com, Irishwriters-online, Wikipedia

Additional Information
Date of Birth	15th Mar 1852
Date of Death	22nd May 1932
Mother (First Name/s and Maiden)	Frances Barry

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Comments

Fascinating article, thank you.

Sunday 16th May 2021 09:05PM

Adds another piece to the history of the Persse family. Her father was Dudley Persse whose father was Robert Persse (1763-1850). Dudley's sister was Sarah Persse. Isabelle was married on 4th March 1880 at St Matthews Church of Ireland in Donnybrook, Dublin. One of the witnesses was her brother Algermon. Much has been written about the family in the book "The Great War And Beyond In Days that Were" by Gerry Kearney published in 2018.

My interest in the Persse family is that I have connections to the Persse family as my great granduncle Francis (Frank) Joyce married Arabella Eliza Persse eldest daughter of Burton Robert Persse D.L., J.P. My great grandmother was Harriet St George of the Tyrone House family who married John (Jack) Joyce brother of Frank. There are also other connections with the Persse, Bingham and Burdett families. The St George family of Woodsgift are also related to the Tyrone St Georges as various marriages have taken place between cousins.