Article: Republic of Ireland
Section: Literature

Question: What started modern Irish fiction?

Ireland has made a significant contribution to world literature in both the English and Irish languages.
Modern Irish fiction began with the publishing of the 1726 novel "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift.
Other writers of importance during the 18th century and their most notable works include Laurence Sterne with the publication of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" and Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield".
Numerous Irish novelists emerged during the 19th century, including Maria Edgeworth, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham, William Carleton, George Moore, and Somerville and Ross.
Bram Stoker is best known as the author of the 1897 novel "Dracula".
James Joyce (1882–1941) published his most famous work "Ulysses" in 1922, which is an interpretation of the "Odyssey" set in Dublin.
Edith Somerville continued writing after the death of her partner Martin Ross in 1915.
Dublin's Annie M. P. Smithson was one of several authors catering for fans of romantic fiction in the 1920s and 1930s.
After the Second World War, popular novels were published by, among others, Brian O'Nolan, who published as Flann O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, and Kate O'Brien.
During the final decades of the 20th century, Edna O'Brien, John McGahern, Maeve Binchy, Joseph O'Connor, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, and John Banville came to the fore as novelists.
Patricia Lynch (1898–1972) was a prolific children's author, while Eoin Colfer has been particularly successful in this genre in recent years.
In the genre of the short story, which is a form favoured by many Irish writers, the most prominent figures include Seán Ó Faoláin, Frank O'Connor and William Trevor.
Well known Irish poets include Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas McCarthy, Dermot Bolger, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureates William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney (born in Northern Ireland but resided in Dublin).
Prominent writers in the Irish language are Pádraic Ó Conaire, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Séamus Ó Grianna, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
The history of Irish theatre begins with the expansion of the English administration in Dublin during the early 17th century, and since then, Ireland has significantly contributed to English drama.
In its early history, theatrical productions in Ireland tended to serve political purposes, but as more theatres opened and the popular audience grew, a more diverse range of entertainments were staged.
Many Dublin-based theatres developed links with their London equivalents, and British productions frequently found their way to the Irish stage.
However, most Irish playwrights went abroad to establish themselves.
In the 18th century, Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan were two of the most successful playwrights on the London stage at that time.
At the beginning of the 20th century, theatre companies dedicated to the staging of Irish plays and the development of writers, directors and performers began to emerge, which allowed many Irish playwrights to learn their trade and establish their reputations in Ireland rather than in Britain or the United States.
Following in the tradition of acclaimed practitioners, principally Oscar Wilde and Literature Nobel Prize laureates George Bernard Shaw (1925), and Samuel Beckett (1969), playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Brendan Behan, Conor McPherson, and Billy Roche have gained popular success.
Other Irish playwrights of the 20th century include Denis Johnston, Thomas Kilroy, Tom Murphy, Hugh Leonard, Frank McGuinness, and John B. Keane.