Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, “associated with the greats of Irish culture, including W B Yeats, Augusta Gregory, Sean O’Casey and J M Synge, is embroiled in an off-stage drama which rivals its front-of-house productions. Mounting debts, disastrous box-office numbers and a very public row between board members and the theatre’s creative director, Ben Barnes, have rather overshadowed the festival to celebrate the founding of what was intended as a cornerstone of Irish cultural and artistic life.”