The Emerald Isle, or Ireland, is well-known for a nation with world-class literature, Nobel Prize winners, playwrights, and award-winning film directors. However, what makes the Irish good storytellers in particular? What prompts its artists to produce masterpieces over the generations? This course aims to uncover the diverse Irish experiences through drama, in attempt to explore how Ireland, as a largely Catholic nation and a former British colony—controversially, rebuilds and interrogates its history in the twentieth century. The issues to be discussed include the making of political identities, individuality versus religious authorities, cultural nationalism and de-colonization, sectarian violence, gender and racial divides, immigration and ethnic minorities. We will cover drama written by both genders, Catholics and Protestants, Republicans and Unionists, and from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, so as to maintain a balanced view of Irish experiences. We will also discuss how Irish intellectuals struggled against political and religious powers to initiate social changes. Observing the painful experiences of this divided nation—which is still in this case—will unveil the changing faces of Ireland since the early twentieth century to date.