TRANSLATIONS
, CONTEXT
Brian Friel, the person;
Born in Omagh, country Tyrone, northern Ireland on 5th
Jan 1929
His father was a teacher from Derry and his mother from
an Irish-speaking area of Donegal
Moved to Derry in 1939, when he got a job at Long Tower School-
in which Friel atended
In 1945, Friel decided he wanted to rain for the Catholic
priesthood. Afer 3 years, it was clear he would not become a
priest, and so he lef and decided to train to become a teacher- St
Joseph’s Teachers training college
This college was single sex and Friel’s segregated educaton may
have had an efect of his knowledge of and attude towards the
female characters
In 1950, he became a teacher in Derry and next ten years he
taught in primary and secondary schools and wrote in his spare
tme.
By 1960, he built enough confdence to work full tme as a writer.
He and his family moved to Donegal
Brian Friel, the writer;
His stories like his plays, ofen deal with the inter-related themes
of love, loyalty and family relatonships, attudes to home and
exile, the bond between the individual and the community,
language and identty, politcs and power, poverty, oppression and
violence,
, His stories have been well received but Friel’s literary reputaton
relies mainly on his plays
He has had a very clear vision of the role of the dramatst in
Ireland. Writng in the Times Literary Supplement he discussed
Irish theatre audiences in the early part of 12th century
Produced 20 plays over 30 year period
Brian Friel, Irish heritage;
Born into a Catholic community in Northern Ireland at a tme
when being a Catholic meant being less privileged. But he was
diferent to most Catholics he was urban bbecause his father’s
positon), he was middle class
Lived through major IRA campaigns b1950s, 1970s) aimed at
forcing the Britsh government to renegotate the Treated b1922)
that had parttoned Ireland he saw thousands of Britsh troops
statoned in Northern Ireland and he lived through killings and
bombings
His parents knew Irish Gaelic his father had learnt it at school his
mother had grown up in an area of Donegal where it was stll the
main mother tongue Friel learned it at school. During his lifetme
he saw the language lose ground to English
The loss of a language and the cultural deprivaton that follows
such a loss were to become thematc in his writngs
Historical background;
England’s frst serious atempt to conquer Ireland began in 1155
when the English Pope, Adrian IV gave Henry II permission to take
over Ireland in order to carry out religious reforms. It was
estmated that by 1175 almost half of Ireland was subjugated, and
an additonal quarter had been added by 1250
English authority was confned mainly to the urban centres in the
east and the south and this authority declined during the 14 th
, century. The decline was partly due to the difcultes in
maintaining an efectve military presence and partly to the fact
that the early setlers gradually adopted the Irish language and
Irish customs
The Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth set in train a second
conquest of Ireland and this, together with the Cromwellian
routng of the Irish between 1649 and 1651, began the phase
which resulted in the entre island coming under the jurisdicton of
England.
Donegal, where the play is set, is one of the nine countes of
Ulster and since Ulster was seen as the greatest potental danger
to English rule, it was singled out to be transformed into a
stronghold of English law. The transformaton was to be achieved
by setling large numbers of Protestants, who were loyal to the
throne, throughout the nine countes of Ulster
Friel’s play was writen at the height of the IRA campaign to
reunite the 6 countes of Northern Ireland with the 26 countes of
the Republic of Ireland
Irish Gaelic;
The original mother tongue of the Irish was Gaelic, a Celtc
language
This language fundamentally afected Hiberno-English, the English
of people whose ancestral mother tongue was Gaelic
Many Gaelic structures were carried over into the English of Irish
speakers and many are used by Friel to suggest that his characters
are Irish-speaking even though they use English
Decline in Gaelic language
The fate of the language was infuenced by the increasing power
of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan ofcials viewed the use
of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in
Ireland. Its decline began under English rule in the 17th century
, By the end of Britsh rule, the language was spoken by less than
15% of the natonal populaton
Great Famine;
A period of mass starvaton, disease and emigraton in
Ireland between 1845 and 1852. Referred to as “Irish Potato
Famine”
About two-ffhs of the populaton was solely reliant on this
cheap crop for a number of historical reasons
During the famine, one million people died and a million
more emigrated from Ireland causing Ireland’s populaton
to fall by between 20%-25%
The proximate cause of famine was potato blight, which
ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s.
Many Original Irish people either died or moved,
= decline in the Gaelic language
Penal Laws;
Series of laws imposed in an atempt to force Irish Catholics
and Protestant people to accept the reformed changes as
defned by the English state
17th and 18th centuries, Irish Catholics had been prohibited
by Penal laws from purchasing or leasing land, from
entering a profession and obtaining educaton
Reduced the natve populaton, restrictng the use of the
Irish language, so that by 1800 Irish was no longer the frst
language for those who had achieve any degree if economic
success or for those who hoped to improve their politcal or
social positon
