ABSTRACT
The play Diarmuid and Graine, which WBY and GM wrote in collaboration, was performed by the Irish Literary Theatre on 21 Oct. 1901. Work on composition began on 17 Oct. 1899, and continued sporadically through 1900 and 1901. The two speakers, Finn and Diarmuid (‘Diarmid’ in copy-text only) have been estranged ever since Diarmuid took Graine away from Finn on the day of her arranged marriage to him; Diarmuid, who had been one of Finn's principal Fenian chieftains, thus broke the oath made to his king, and had been pursued by Finn, in search of revenge, for some years. In the preparation of ISW for Dun Emer, WBY was initially concerned that he did not have enough poetry to hand: it is probably in the light of this that his thoughts of including ‘The Blood Bond’ should be viewed.
