Professor James Flannery, Ph. D. is the Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities at Emory University, Atlanta. He is also head of the W. B. Yeats Foundation and founder of the Yeats International Theatre Festival at the Abbey Theatre. He is a scholar of Irish and Celtic music, poetry and mythology. Dr. Flannery is the author of W.B. Yeats and the Idea of a Theatre: The Early Abbey Theatre in Theory and Practice, and Dear Harp of My Country: The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore. He is the 1994 recipient of the Wild Geese Award for outstanding contributions to Irish culture and the holder of honorary doctorates from Trinity College (Hartford) and the University of Ulster.