The Society was founded in 1907 as a branch of the British Empire Shakespeare Society (BESS), which had been established in London in 1901. The prime movers were academics from Trinity College (Dublin University).

The inaugural meeting of the Society took place on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Dublin, on 12 September 1907. The Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy, later Provost of Trinity College, presided at the meeting and was succeeded as President of the Society in 1908 by Edward Dowden, Professor of English and a Shakespearean scholar. The membership was drawn mainly from the Dublin middle, upper, and professional classes. (The membership fee of five shillings was a considerable sum at the time).

The objects of the Society, set out at its first meeting, were:

• To promote greater familiarity with Shakespeare’s work among all classes throughout the British Empire.
• To help the rising generation not only to study Shakespeare’s works but to love them.
• To form Shakespeare Clubs and Reading Societies or help those existing in London and the provinces and in the colonies.
• To encourage the study of Shakespeare by prizes given yearly for the best reading, recitation, and actual scenes from his plays and by essays on Shakespeare by members and associates of the Society.