TRANSLATIONS BY BRIAN FRIEL - General Questions
Consider the following exchange and discuss the ways in which it helped you towards a fuller understanding of the play as a whole:
Yolland. Some years ago we lived fairly close to a poet-well, about three miles away.
Hugh. His name?
Yolland. Wordsworth-William Wordsworth.
Hugh. Did he speak of me to you?
Yolland. ctually I never talked to him. I just saw him out walking-in the distance.
Hugh. Wordsworth?…No, I’m afraid we’re not familiar with your literature, Lieutenant. We feel closer to the warm Mediterranean. We tend to overlook your island.
What dramatic use does Friel make of the historical setting of the play? You might wish to write about:
- Reference to potato blight
- The ‘march to Sligo’ in 1798
- The Royal Engineers’ Programme in County Donegal
- The National Schools
- Inis Meahon
- Baile Beag
- The Liberator
- Hedge Schools
- Tobair Free.