2. Where are Donegal and
Ballybeg located?
This is where Donegal is
located.
Ballybeg is actually a ficitional place and it
means ‘little town’. Some people think that
Ballybeg is based on a town near where
Friel lives called Glenties.
This is
where
Glenties is
situated.
3. Why Did Friel Choose This
as His Location?
Friel has used the setting of Ballybeg in many of
his plays such as ‘Philadelphia here I
come!’, ‘Translations’ and obviously ‘Dancing at
Lughnasa’ along with 11 other of his plays.
By setting many of his plays here it has allowed
Friel to build up a history of this town and show
many different aspects of it.
4. It also allows Friel to create a completely fictional
history of the town that is his own because there
is no real history of the town.
5. Why didn’t Friel use a real
place?
People have positive/negative associations with
certain places so it might affect their views on the
play and also whether they go and see the play
in the first place.
Also people may dispute the play if they thought
that it was a real place and what happens within
the plays.
All of the plays are works of fiction so therefore it
makes sense to set the play in a fictional place.
6. Why did Friel choose a
rural setting?
Friel probably chose a rural setting because it
meant that the women’s isolation from the
community could be more prominent within the
play.
It also enables the poverty of the women to be
highlighted.
