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Overview of political contexts of Brian Friel's Translations
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Context Study of Translations covering past and present to give a total overview of the hidden contexts of the play
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Overview of the Contexts of Brian Friel’s ‘Translations’Brief Timeline
Date Event
1600-1800 Catholic Penal Laws
1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill, United Irishmen Rebellion
1801 Act of Union joining Great Britain and Ireland
1824 Spring Rice Report which began Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1825-1842
1829 Catholic Emancipation lead by Daniel O’Connell
1831 National Schools Initiative
1833 Year Play is set
1845-49 Irish Potato Famine
1870 Irish Land Act ending Landlordism in UK
1916 Easter Rising which lead to Anglo-Irish Civil War
1922 Partition begins
1972 Bloody Sunday which Brian Friel was at
1980 Translations premieres in Derry’s Guildhall
1969-1998 Troubles
2015 Brian Friel dies
2020 Irish Language Commissioner appointed in Northern Ireland
Catholic Penal Laws
• Imposed overtime between c. 1501 - c. 1700
• Imposed post Protestant Reformation to suppress Catholicism in society
• Main restrictions: restrictions from most public offices and serving in the armed forces, ban on
intermarriage with Protestants, ban from politics and voting, banned from practicing at the bar
(legal), ban on education (receiving and giving)
• 'No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school or instruct youth in
learning within this realm' upon pain of twenty pounds fine and three months in prison for every
such offence.
• Speaking, writing or listening to Music in Irish Gaelic was prohibited
1798 Rising
• Theobald Wolfe Tone (20 June 1763 – 19 November 1798), was a leading Irish protestant
revolutionary figure and one of the founding members of the United Irishmen, and is regarded as
the father of Irish republicanism, and leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. Politician and associated
with French Revolution as family originally from there.
• Society of United Irishmen, founded as a Radical or liberal political organisation in 18th-century
Belfast, Ireland to seek reform but evolved into a revolutionary republican organisation, inspired by
the American Revolution and allied with Revolutionary France.
• 1798 Rebellion- Series of battles led by Society of United Irishmen with the aim to end British rule
in Ireland. First battle in Dublin but was swiftly put down but violence spread. Some short-term
victories where achieved but were short lived. The French army sent to armies to assist the Irish
rebels but failed to gain a foothold and were heavily defeated by British forces. A significant battle
was the Battle of Vinegar Hill where over 13,000 British soldiers launched an attack on Vinegar Hill,
Wexford which was the largest camp and headquarters of the Wexford United Irishmen.
• 12 October 1798, French force consisting of 3,000 men, and Wolfe Tone attempted to land in
Donegal but intercepted by a larger Royal Navy squadron, and finally surrendered after a three
, hour battle without ever landing in Ireland. Wolfe Tone was tried by court-martial in Dublin and
found guilty.
• As a consequence, the United Kingdom was formed, and Ireland was adopted as a full territory of
Great Britain via the Act of Union 1800.
• The first Special Branch, or Special Irish Branch, as it was then known, was a unit of
London's Metropolitan police formed in March 1883 to combat the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The name became Special Branch as the unit's remit widened to include more than just IRA-related
counterespionage.
Daniel O’Connell
• Formed the Catholic Association which allowed for appeal to the masses plus populist policy.
Encouraged the learning of English and held large “Monster Meetings”
• Man seen as heading the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829
• He helped Catholics to win the right to become Members of Parliament.
• Called “The Liberator” because he looked for rights for Irish people.
• Sought the repeal of the Act of Union in part in 1840’s. He wished for independent Kingdom of
Ireland with Queen Victoria as Sovereign
Mapping of Ireland
• Came out of 1824 Spring Rice Report (Thomas Spring Rice MP for Limerick)
• Began to create detailed military and taxation maps 6 miles to an inch
• Led by Lt Thomas Colby (who inspires the character of Lancey)
• Dinnseanchas ("lore of places" or "topography") is a class of onomastic text in early Irish literature,
recounting the origins of place-names and traditions concerning events and characters associated
with the places in question. Since many of the legends being related also concern the acts of mythic
and legendary figures, important source for the study of Irish mythology.
Schools
• Main setting of the play is a hedge school. Hedge schools were illegal schools held in fields,
outdoors or in barns and were paid for by catholic families to attain a basic education. Education
was banned under the Catholic Penal laws.
• National Schools Initiative began in 1831 and saw the introduction of free centralised education
that was all delivered in the English language
Famine and Emigration
• Population: 1845: <9 million, 1851: ~6.5 million, 1901: ~4.5 million
• Worst years of famine were 1845-1849
• Due to land division many catholic tenant farmers had small plots of land and so relied on the
potato, a low area crop, to act as a food source. Also high in carbs and fibre so good source of
nutrition
• First response by Government: Peels Brimstone- disgusting yellow cornmeal imported secretly
from America but not enough purchased and not always accessible due to cooking required. Public
works: made people work on government projects for small money by doing hard labour for long
hours. Workhouses: Another work scheme where you worked long hard hours in return for food
and a place to sleep, rife with disease and death.
• As many 1 million emigrated to the USA, Canada and England through overpacked ships,
nicknamed coffin ships. Many died en route from starvation and disease as the journey was long
and risky. Their bodies were dumped in the sea upon death. Many had to learn the English
language in order to achieve a new life in these destinations however the Irish culture spread
around the world and its effects can still be seen today.
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