John Millington Synge

John Millington Synge (April 16, 1871 - March 24, 1909) was an Irish dramatist, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre. He is best known for the play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey.

Family background and early life

Synge was born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, County Dublin. Rathfarnham was a rural part of the county at that time although it is now a busy suburb. He was the youngest son in a family of eight children. His family on his father's side were landed gentry from Glanmore Castle, County Wicklow and his maternal grandfather, Robert Traill, had been a Church of Ireland rector in Schull, County Cork and a member of the Schull Relief Committee during the Irish potato famine.

Related Topics:
Newtown Villas - Rathfarnham - County Dublin - Glanmore Castle - County Wicklow - Church of Ireland - Rector - Schull - County Cork - Irish potato famine

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His grandfather, John Hatch Synge, was an admirer of the educationalist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and founded an experimental school on the family estate. His father, also called John Hatch Synge, was a barrister who contracted smallpox and died in 1872 at the age of 49. Synge's mother, who had a private income from lands in County Galway, then moved the family to the house next door to her mother in Rathgar, Dublin. Synge had a happy childhood here, playing and developing an interest in ornithology along the banks of the River Dodder and in the grounds of Rathfarnham Castle, both of which were nearby, and during family holidays at the seaside resort of Greystones, Wicklow and the family estate at Glanmore.

Related Topics:
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi - Smallpox - 1872 - County Galway - Rathgar - Ornithology - River Dodder - Greystones

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Synge was educated privately at schools in Dublin and Bray and studied piano, flute, violin, music theory and counterpoint at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He was a talented student and won a scholarship in counterpoint in 1891. The family moved to the suburb of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) in 1888. Synge entered Trinity College, Dublin the following year, graduating with a BA in 1892. At college, he studied Irish and Hebrew as well as continuing his music studies and playing with the Academy orchestra at concerts in the Antient Concert Rooms.

Related Topics:
Bray - Piano - Flute - Violin - Music theory - Counterpoint - Royal Irish Academy of Music - 1891 - Dun Laoghaire - 1888 - Trinity College, Dublin - BA - 1892 - Irish - Hebrew - Antient Concert Rooms

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He also joined the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club and read Charles Darwin, and developed an interest in Irish antiquities and the Aran Islands. In 1893, he published his first known work, a Wordsworth-influenced poem, in Kottabos, A College Miscellany. His reading of Darwin coincided with a crisis of faith and Synge abandoned the protestant religion of his upbringing around this time.

Related Topics:
Dublin Naturalists' Field Club - Charles Darwin - Aran Islands - 1893 - Wordsworth - Religion

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