SINCE the demise of the magazine Theatre Ireland some years ago, there has not be any forum for in depth discussion of Irish theatre. Now a group of young writers has got together, inspired by the achievements of the defunct magazine, to produce Irish Theatre Forum, a magazine on the Internet, produced from the Drama Studies Department at UCD.

Irish Theatre Forum hopes to produce three issues a year, and aims to be have an eclectic mix of articles, including one new Irish play text per issue, and articles relating to plays on the Leaving Certificate Course. Eamonn Jordan at the Drama Studies Centre (01-7068049) is looking for material for coming issues. The current issue includes articles such as "Recurring Modes Of Male Representation: the Lads In Irish Theatre" by Aideen Howard, a study of the plays of Billy Roche by Marina Carr, and a feminist reading of Gary Mitchell's In A Little World Of Our Own by Anne F. Kelly. There's some good stuff in there, but the magazine will have to guard against falling into the languages and structures of literary criticism. The web page address for the forum is Http://www.ucd.ie/(tilde)irthfrm/firstiss.htm.