The playwright, Sebastian Barry, considered leaving the Republic because his work was so harshly criticised by journalists and critics, according to British media reports.
Mr Barry said he was shocked and confused by recent criticism of his play, Hinterland, a satire which dealt with political corruption. The criticism, he said, came from several quarters, but mainly from The Irish Times.
He told the Guardian newspaper before doing a reading at the Hay-on-Wye festival at the weekend: "If I had been a Russian writer 20 years ago, I would have been stone-cold dead or in Siberia in quick order."
Mr Barry could not be contacted for further comment but, according to the Guardian, he was extremely upset about criticism of the play.
"I felt that I didn't know my own country. I felt like I had suddenly been disproved, that I no longer understood the place," he is quoted as saying. "Something happened in my heart, whatever was left of my spirit changed. I do passionately love my country, and my whole impulse with the play had been to heal what had gone before, not to open a wound. But after going through the fire of Dublin, I felt desperate." Mr Max Stafford-Clark produced Hinterland in Dublin last spring and since then it has been touring England. It will shortly open in Liverpool.
Hinterland was the subject of much debate in theatre circles when it opened.
Following criticism of the play in this newspaper and elsewhere, the artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Mr Ben Barnes, publicly defended it.
Speaking in February, Mr Barnes said: "Hinterland went through 11 drafts before it was presented to the public and, while none of us claim that it is flawless or that there are [NOT] certain scenes that work better than others, it is nevertheless a play of serious moral intent which unflinchingly examines the capacity of power to corrupt," he said.
Mr Barry, whose most acclaimed play is The Steward of Christendom, said he was particularly hurt by the language used by some critics. "I was called some pretty grim names, including 'moronic'. The whole experience was deeply unnerving," he said.
"It was confusing to be told by my own country that I was a savage, unfair and scandalous. To be called moronic in the world of opinion that we all belong to was a shock and confusing," he told the paper.