A short note on the texts used
The playtexts used throughout the cycle are those edited by Ann Saddlemyer in the four volume Collected Works published by Oxford University Press, 1968, under the general editorship of Robin Skelton. The present publishers of these four volumes are Colin Smythe since 1982. These are also the playtexts made available in Oxford World Classics paperback editon, 1995. Ann Saddlemyer’s first-mentioned edition contains Synge’s earlier drafts of each play and one such draft has been drawn on briefly in the case of Deirdre of the Sorrows
The following play synopses draws on material made available by Robert Welch from the volume he edited, The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature (1996).