Christine Longford (1900–1980)

Christine Patti Trew was born in Somerset, England. Her parents separated when she was a child, and her mother took in boarders while Christine attended Oxford High School. She won a scholarship to study classics at Oxford University. There she met and in 1925 married Edward Pakenham, later 6th Earl of Longford. The couple moved to Ireland and divided their time between Dublin and Pakenham Hall, now Tullynally Castle, in County Westmeath. In 1930, Christine Longford and her husband, also a playwright, invested in The Dublin Gate Theatre Company, a showcase for modern plays and design, and worked with Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammoir from 1931 to 1936. Following a disagreement, the Christine and her husband founded Longford Productions, which produced more than 150 plays at The Gate Theatre over 24 years. In addition to designing costumes and managing productions at the theater, Christine Longford wrote many plays, including Lord Edward (1940) and Patrick Sarsfield (1943). She also adapted novels such as Pride and Prejudice for the stage. Her books include A Biography of Dublin, published as part of the Biographies of Cities series, and a comic semi-autobiographical novel, Making Conversation (1931). Christine and her husband were childless, and on his death the earldom passed to her brother-in-law Frank.