Druid’s 35th anniversary celebrations, 'From Galway to Broadway and Back Again', at the Town Hall Theatre features excerpts from some of our most memorable productions from over the years.

A public vote is conducted to choose one of the productions, with Tom Murphy's Conversations on a Homecoming winning.

The featured plays: The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, Sive by John B. Keane, The Year of the Hiker by John B. Keane, Lovers' Meeting by Louis D’Alton, At the Black Pig’s Dyke by Vincent Woods, The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh, My Brilliant Divorce by Geraldine Aron, Same Old Moon by Geraldine Aron, The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh, Penelope by Enda Walsh, Conversations on a Homecoming by Tom Murphy, Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy and The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge.

The cast: Rebecca Bartlett, Jane Brennan, Denis Conway, Derbhle Crotty, Clare Dunne, Garrett Lombard, Sean McGinley, Aaron Monaghan, Eamon Morrissey, Marie Mullen, Mikel Murfi, Cillian Murphy, Tadhg Murphy, Deirdre O’Kane, Raymond Scannell, and Catherine Walsh.

Directed by Mikel Murfi, this is Druid’s third production with Enda Walsh, following the Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award winners The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom.

Penelope tours Ireland and then travels to New York, Edinburgh and Helsinki. The following year it transfers to London for a month at the Hampstead Theatre and then to Washington, D.C. for a month at The Studio Theatre.

Using all the resources of the theatre including live music and dance, this is an epic staging of one of O’Casey’s great plays.

Garry Hynes directs a cast of 19 – Druid’s biggest ever company of actors to date.

The production tours Ireland as well as Oxford and Manchester and then tours to New York the following year for a run at the Lincoln Center.

Druid co-founder Mick Lally passes away after a short illness.

In a statement issued by the company, Garry Hynes says, "The mood in Druid is one of total shock and disbelief. Mick Lally was a man without measure. He was my hero and I looked up to him. Druid owes everything to him. If he hadn’t agreed to join Marie and I in the summer of 1975 then Druid would not have existed. Everyone at Druid has lost a colleague and dear friend."

Taoiseach Brian Cowen says he was "shocked and saddened" by Lally's death, adding that he was "one of the most loved actors of his generation and will be dearly missed by the public and his colleagues in theatre and television". Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin and Michael D. Higgins TD, former Minister for Arts, Culture & Gaeltacht, also express condolences. Pat Moylan, chair of the Arts Council, describes his passing as "a sad and shocking loss".

The following year, Druid renames its Galway theatre in honour of Mick, becoming The Mick Lally Theatre.

Druid continues its exploration of the canon of John B. Keane with Big Maggie (2011, 2012, 2016) following Sive (2002, 2018), Sharon’s Grave (2003) and The Year of the Hiker (2006).

Aisling O’Sullivan, John Olohan and Keith Duffy lead a cast of 11, directed by Garry Hynes.

At that year's Irish Theatre Awards, Aisling O'Sullivan wins the Best Actress award and John Olohan wins the Best Supporting Actor award.

Druid’s next play cycle celebrates the great works of Tom Murphy and tells an epic story of Irish emigration across three plays: Conversations on a Homecoming, A Whistle in the Dark and Famine.

The mammoth production tours Ireland (including visits to Inis Meáin and Inis Mór), London and New York in 2012. The following year, two of the three plays (Conversations and Whistle) are revived for a national tour.

Dion Boucicault’s rollicking Victorian melodrama gets the Druid treatment in an acclaimed production that tours Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Belfast and Limerick.

The large ensemble cast includes Ronan Leahy, Kelly McAuley, Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Rory Nolan, John Olohan, Aisling O’Sullivan, Marty Rea and Maelíosa Stafford.

Introduced in 2014, FUEL is a nine-month artist residency programme run by Druid, based in The Mick Lally Theatre.

The programme is open to theatre-makers based in the West of Ireland, with an original idea that is ready to be developed.

As of 2025, almost 50 artists have taken part in the residency.

Almost three decades since its world premiere by Druid, Tom Murphy’s Bailegangaire is revived with Marie Mullen now in the role of Mommo, having originated the role of Mary in 1985.

Alongside this revival, Druid premieres Murphy’s latest play, Brigit, a continuation of the same story, set 30 years earlier.

The double bill opens in Galway before touring to Clifden Arts Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival.

A play cycle of epic proportions, centuries in the making, DruidShakespeare is a theatre event that condenses four action-packed plays – Richard II, Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2), and Henry V – into one thrilling drama played out over six hours.

Produced to celebrate Druid's 40th anniversary, DruidShakespeare opens in Galway, then tours Ireland, transfers to New York, and wins five gongs at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards.

One of Druid’s most celebrated productions, their internationally acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece tours Ireland and the world for three years, wowing audiences and critics alike, playing to over 60,000 people, earning multiple awards and five-star reviews the world over.

The production is directed by Garry Hynes and performed by Druid Ensemble members Aaron Garrett Lombard, Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan and Marty Rea.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its world premiere, Druid revives Martin McDonagh’s masterpiece for tours of Ireland, the United States and Hong Kong.

Garry Hynes directs a cast of 14, including Seán McGinley, Seána Kerslake, Marty Rea, John Olohan and Bosco Hogan, in a major new production of Eugene McCabe's 1964 play.

Druid presents a major new production of John B. Keane’s most popular play at the Gaiety Theatre with a cast that includes Barbara Brennan, Bosco Hogan, Andrea Irvine, Marie Mullen and Tommy Tiernan.

Introduced in 2018, the Marie Mullen Bursary is an annual award for women working on the island of Ireland as theatre artists in the fields of design, directing and dramaturgy.

Named in honour of actor and Druid co-founder, Marie Mullen, the bursary is intended to address a historic imbalance and to support the professional development of women in Irish theatre.

There have so far been eight bursary recipients:

• Lianne O'Shea, Director, 2025
• Martha Knight, Sound Designer and Composer, 2024
• Suzie Cummins, Lighting Designer, 2023
• Katie O'Halloran, Director, 2022
• Sarah Baxter, Director, 2020-2021
• Emily Foran, Director, 2020-2021
• Clíodhna Hallissey, Costume Designer, 2019-2020
• Eleanor White, Dramaturg, 2018-2019

Bursary winners often continue to work with Druid following the completion of their bursary years. In 2023, four bursary recipients formed part of the creative team for DruidO'Casey. In 2024, three bursary recipients formed part of the creative team for The House. In 2025, three bursary recipients formed part of the creative team for the double bill of Riders to the Sea and Macbeth.

In another success story for Druid’s new writing programme, the summer of 2018 sees the world premiere of two new plays which were both first read as part of Druid Debuts, the company's rehearsed reading series: Sonya Kelly’s Furniture and Cristín Kehoe's Shelter.

Furniture begins life as a Druid Debut rehearsed reading in the summer of 2017, having been submitted anonymously via Druid’s script submissions process. In July 2018, it opens at The Mick Lally Theatre, directed by Cathal Cleary, as part of Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) and then embarks on a national tour the following spring.

Cristín Kehoe's Shelter is first read as part of Druid Debuts in 2016. Directed by Oonagh Murphy, it runs alongside Furniture on Druid Lane as part of GIAF 2018.

Returning to Shakespeare’s history plays and the groundbreaking DruidShakespeare project, Druid premieres Richard III at the Town Hall in Galway, transfers to Dublin for a run at the Abbey Theatre as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, and then tours to New York the following year for a run at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater as part of the Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival.

2019 is a year of new writing for Druid, beginning with a national tour of Furniture by Sonya Kelly which premiered the previous summer, the world premiere of Epiphany by Brian Watkins in July, and the world premiere of The Beacon by Nancy Harris in September.