officers, even an allusion to Adam's naming of the animals.
At the very time when the Ordnance Survey is remaking Irish topography, a new English-language system of National Education is being put into place, and it will supplant the local Irish-speaking schools, or hedge schools, greatly accelerating the anglicization of the still-Gaelic-speaking regions of Ireland. Hugh O'Donnell presides over the hedge school, and while his classroom is a barn where the English language and its literary canon (e.g., William Wordsworth) are unknown, the ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, such as flashing-eyed Athena, are vital and immediate presences in classical languages. The conflicted schoolmaster, who initially dismisses English as useful 'for the purposes of commerce' and then seeks employment in the new English schools, foresees the loss of an educational system and, to a significant degree, of a culture; he muses elegiacally but realistically that a community's language cannot remain frozen in the face of massive historical change: 'We must learn where we live. We must learn to make [the new English names] our own. We must make them our new home.' The English language, the play evocatively suggests, has both dispossessed and rehoused, unified and fragmented, advanced and oppressed the Irish, like the many other peoples remapped and reeducated by the empire.
Friel was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and spent much of his youth in Derry (or Londonderry), Northern Ireland, with vacations across the border in County Donegal, in the Irish Republic, with his maternal relatives. He attended St. Patrick's College, Ireland's national seminary, in Maynooth, but instead of becoming a Roman Catholic priest, taught school in Derry for ten years, before turning full-time to writing in 1960. Having published short stories, essays, and radio plays, he increasingly devoted himself to writing stage dramas, such as Philadelphia, Here I Come! (first produced in 1964), Faith Healer (1979), and Dancing at Lughnasa
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(1990), which have been performed and garnered prizes in Derry, Dublin, New York, London, and elsewhere. In 1969 Friel moved across the border from Northern Ireland into Derry's hinterland in County Donegal, and in 1980 he cofounded the Field Day Theatre Company, which has brought professional drama to many parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland, while seeking to break down calcified polarities of Northern Irish politics (Catholic vs. Protestant, Unionist vs. Republican, etc.). Translations was Field Day's first production, with the company's cofounder, the actor Stephen Rea, playing the role of Owen, and Liam Neeson playing Doalty.
PRONOUNCING GLOSSARY
As an aid for performance and reading, the following phonetic spellings provide a rough guide to the pronunciation of Irish names and words. Standard Irish diacritical marks are given in the glossary, though omitted by Friel in the playscript.
Anna na mBreag: ANN-na nuh MRAYG
Baile Beag: BOLL-ya bYUG (BOLL rhymes with doll)
Baile na gGall: BOLL-ya nuh NOW L (NOW L rhymes with owl; nuh has the it sound as in English up)
Beann na Gaoithe: bYOWN na GWEE- ha (YOWN rhymes with town)
Buncrana: bunn KRAAH-na (where AA is an elongated version of the a sound in apple)
Bun na hAbhann: BUNN nuh HOW-un
Caitli'n Dubh Nic Reactainn: katt- LEEN DUV neek ROK-tin
Carraig na Rf: KORR-ig nuh REE (KORR: the o sound as in English on and off)
Carraig an Phoill: KORR-ig on f-WEE L
Catach: KOTT-ukh
Ceann Balor: kYOWN BA-lor (YOWN as above; 'Balor' rhymes with valor)
Cnoc na Mona: k-NUKH nuh MOW-na (MO W as in English)
Cnoc na nGabhar: k-NUKH nuh NOWer (NOW as in English) Cnoc na Rf: k-NUCK nuh REE Cuchulainn: KOO- kuhl-lin
Diarmuid: DEER-med
Donegal: dunny-GAWL
Druim Dubh: drimm DU V (the u sound of the English tin-)
Druim Luachra: Drim LOO-krah Eamon: AIM-en
Grania: GRAW-nya
Inis Meadhon: IN-ish MAA N (where AA is an elongated version of the a sound in apple)
Lag: log (exactly like the English word
log) Lis Maol: liss MAY-ull (liss rhymes with English kiss) Lis na Muc: LISS nuh MUK Lis na nGall: Liss nuh nALL
Lis na nGradh: LISS nuh nRA W (a gentle little n sound before the RAW)
Loch an Iubhair: LUK H un OO-er
Loch na nEan: LUK H nuh NAY-un
Luachra: LOO-akh-ra
Machaire ban: MOKH-ur-uh BAW N
Machaire Buidhe: MOKH-i-reh bWE E (the middle i is short like the English
in)
Machaire Mor: MOKH-i-reh MOO R
