BRIAN FRIEL’S BALLYBEG
BRIAN FRIEL: Ballybeg is a village of the mind, more a depository for remembered or invented experience than a geographical location.¹
BRIAN FRIEL: The task of writing the play, the actual job of putting the pattern together, itself generates belief in the pattern… map-makings.²
EXTRACT: For Jimmy the world of the Gods and the ancient myths is as real and as immediate as everyday life in the townland of Baile Beag.³
Baile – Town, home, homestead
Beag – Small
KATE: You know Baile Beag – Small Town
(Philadephia, Here I Come!)
Read by Adrian Dunbar. One of the first times Ballybeg appears in Brian Friel’s writing
The Skelper, 1959
Set in Beannafreaghan. (The Sergeant) told the Skelper to get dressed and come with him to the Police Station in Ballybeg to make a statement.
The Death of a Scientific Humanist, 1964
Beannafreaghan, our home, three miles outside the town of Omagh.
Suggested Location of Ballybeg: Near to Beannafreaghan which is three miles from Omagh
The Gold in the Sea 1965
The July sun had withered and the Donegal hills were a sullen purple.
The appearance of the salmon in the bay two days previously created a happy urgency that made everyone in Ballybeg partners.
Suggested Location of Ballybeg: Near the sea in WEST Donegal
The suggested locations of Ballybeg as a town and townland in Donegal according to references to real places in Brian Friel’s plays.
BALLYBEG HOSPITAL
FRANK: …and not only swim in the sea on a wet Friday night in December, but she wants to go out to the rocks at the far end of Tramore.
Suggested Location: TRAMORE BEACH
BALLYBEG HOSPITAL
Inishkeen Island, off the west coast of County Donegal, Ireland. The action takes place on the island of Inishkeen in June. The inhabitants are leaving for good.
MANUS: Fifty years ago there were two hundred people on this island; our own school, our own church, our own doctor.
Suggested Location: GOLA ISLAND and BUNBEG HARBOUR
BALLYBEG PIER, a stone pier at the end of a headland on the remote coast of north-west Donegal. Built in 1905 but has not been used since the hinterland became depopulated many decades ago.
TERRY: And there’s the ruins of a Middle Age church dedicated to Saint Conall.
FRANK: Maybe Saint Conall stood on the shores of the island there and gazed out across here at Ballybeg, and said to his monks, ‘Oh, lads, lads, there is the end of desire’.
Suggested Location: PORTNOO PIER and INISHKEEL ISLAND
Restored Thatched Cottage, close to the sea in the remote townland of Ballybeg, County Donegal.
JACK: Everybody’s grandmother was reared in a house like this. The ancestral seat of the McNeilis dynasty
TIM: I remember now. What she said was that her father had to be in Sligo at six for this political dinner he’s speaking at.
JACK: That means he’ll have to leave here at four thirty at the latest.
Suggested Location: SOUTH WEST DONEGAL COAST
MILITARY BARRACKS, Commandant Frank Butler’s living quarters – a detached house close to a small military barracks in a remote part of County Donegal, Ireland.
SIR: A remote and run-down army camp in the wilds of Donegal.
MIRIAM: Until Charlie gets home from court in Glenties.
BEN: That famous picnic years ago
HELEN: On Portnoo Pier
MIRIAM: All into the car – back home like the hammers of hell – and you know those roads along the Gweebarra
Suggested Location: Remote area around GWEEBARRA RIVER
MUNDY FAMILY HOME, two miles outside the village of Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland.
BRIAN FRIEL: In memory of those five brave Glenties women.
Suggested Location: The Laurels, GLENTIES
S.B. O’DONNELL’s SHOP, the home of County Councillor, S.B. O’Donnell, who owns a general shop in the small village of Ballybeg in County Donegal, Ireland.
S.B.: You’re getting the mail-van to Strabane?
GAR: She and old Screwballs off on a side-car to Bundoran for three days
Suggested Location: GLENTIES
LOUNGE BAR, outside a village called Ballybeg, not far from Donegal Town.
FRANK: So on the last day of August we crossed from Stranraer to Larne and drove through the night to County Donegal. And there we got lodgings in a pub, a lounge bar really, outside a village called Ballybeg, not far from Donegal Town.
Suggested Location: Near DONEGAL TOWN
FOX MELARKEY’S MARQUEE, Ballybeg
FOX: Should we go up through the gap or should we go round by the foot of Glenmore?
Suggested Location: Near BARNESMORE GAP
THE LODGE, Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland. The home of Christopher Gore and his son David.
CHRISTOPHER: Maybe he’s in cahoots with that gang that murdered poor old Lifford. Maybe they’re plotting out there already. Maybe the whole of Ballybeg is going to rise up.
DAVID: We’ll go to Derry next Saturday to buy some fencing posts, ho-ho-ho. We’ll get the boat there that night. And on Sunday morning there will be magnificent Glasgow.
Suggested Location: EAST DONEGAL around BALLYBOFEY and LIFFORD
BALLYBEG HALL, the home of District Judge O’Donnell, a large and decaying house overlooking the village of Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland.
ALICE: That was just across the Border – away in the North.
TOM: Only twenty miles away.
CASIMIR: Something wrong with the lines. Can’t even get the Letterkenny exchange.
ALICE: Very smart. Did you get it in Derry?
Suggested Location: Between LETTERKENNY and DERRY
THE OLD MANSE, Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland
TOM: From the distance the house does look well, doesn’t it? Originally it was a shooting lodge – away back in the 1880’s; then it was a manse; then it was a youth hostel; and then we moved in.
Suggested Location: Drumaweir, Brian Friel’s home, GREENCASTLE
HEDGE SCHOOL, in the townland of Baile Beag/Ballybeg.
OWEN: We are trying to denominate and at the same time describe that tiny area of soggy, rocky, sandy ground where that little stream enters the sea, an area know locally as Bun na hAbhann… Burnfoot! What about Burnfoot?
Suggested Location: INISHOWEN near URRIS
ARMY
Military Barracks, Irish Army (1970’s) (Living Quarters)
Royal Engineers Of The British Army (1833) (Translations)
BEACHES
Tramore Beach (Molly Sweeney)
Silver Strand (Translations)
White Strand (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
CARAVANS
Ben’s Blue Caravan (Living Quarters)
Barney the Banks Caravan (The Communication Cord)
Willie’s Mobile Home (Aristocrats)
DERELICT SITES
Old Coastguard station (Living Quarters)
Old Rectory (Living Quarters)
Old Lime Kiln (Living Quarters)
Old Railway station (The Gentle Island)
Ring Fort (Living Quarters)
Second World War wreckage (The Gentle Island)
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
Hedge School, 1833 (Translations)
National School (Dancing at Lughnasa/Home Place)
ENTERTAINMENT
The Fox Melarkey Show – occasional (Crystal and Fox)
The Carnival (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
Harvest Dance (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Cinema in the Hall (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Motorbike Scrambling (Communication Cord)
Health Spa with Swimming Pool (Molly Sweeney)
Sea Swimming (Molly Sweeney/Communication Cord)
FARMING
Potatoes (Translations)
Cattle (Translations)
Sheep (Translations)
Turf (Translations)
FISHING
Lobster (The Gentle Island)
Salmon (The Gentle Island)
Trout (Molly Sweeney)
GARDA STATION
Policeman (Crystal and Fox/Dancing at Lughnasa)
HOUSES
Restored Thatched Cottage (The Communication Cord)
Mundy Family Home (Dancing At Lughnasa)
The Old Manse (Give Me Your Answer, Do!) Originally A Shooting Lodge 1880s and previously a Youth Hostel
Ballybeg Hall (Aristocrats)
The Lodge (The Home Place)
Commandant’s Detached House Near Barracks (Living Quarters)
Senator Doogan’s House (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
Carlin’s House Near Pier (Wonderful Tennessee)
HOSPITALS and MEDICAL
Ballybeg Hospital (Molly Sweeney/The Gentle Island)
Chemist’s shop (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Doctor (Dancing at Lughnasa/Aristocrats)
Psychiatric hospital (Molly Sweeney/Give Me your Answer, Do!)
INDUSTRY
Old Quarry (Dancing at Lughnasa/Living Quarters)
Lime Kilns (Living Quarters)
Salesman for Minerva Gramophones (Dancing at Lughnasa)
ISLANDS
Inishkeen Island (The Gentle Island)
Oileán Draíochta, Island of Otherness (Wonderful Tennessee)
KNITTING
Hand knitting (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Glove knitting Factory established 1933 (Dancing at Lughnasa)
LIBRARY
Including Children’s section (Dancing at Lughnasa)
LOUGHS
Lough Anna (Molly Sweeney/Dancing at Lughnasa)
Lough na Cloc Cor (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
NEWSPAPER
The Donegal Enquirer (Dancing at Lughnasa/Living Quarters)
PIER AND HARBOUR
Ballybeg Pier (Wonderful Tennessee)
Ballybeg Harbour (The Gentle Island)
POST OFFICE AND TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
Mrs Moore Postmistress (Aristocrats)
RELIGION
Catholic Church
Protestant Church
Faith Healer, occasional
Holy Wells, (Translations)
Festival of Lughnasa
RESTAURANTS, PUBS AND HOTELS
Chinese Restaurant (Molly Sweeney)
Moriarty’s Wine Bar (Molly Sweeney)
Lounge Bar (Faith Healer)
McLaughlin’s Hotel (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
RETAIL AND SHOPS
S.B. O’Donnell, General Shop (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
Jerry, Green-grocer and supplier of vegetables to hotels (Aristocrats)
A Morgan, Arcade (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Butcher – Phil Boyle (eggs sold) (Living Quarters)
Shoemaker (Dancing at Lughnasa)
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Workhouse (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Orphanage (Aristocrats)
TRANSPORT LINKS
Bus to Derry – with connections to Glasgow (The Gentle Island)
Mail van to Strabane (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
Bus routes (The Communication Cord/Aristocrats)
VARIOUS NATURAL FEATURES
Beyond the Mountains (Philadelphia, Here I Come!)
Meadow beyond the school – wild flowers (Living Quarters)
The Back Hills (Dancing at Lughnasa)
River (The Gentle Island/Give Me Your Answer, Do!)
Bogland (Wonderful Tennessee/Living Quarters)
WATER SUPPLY
Well (Dancing at Lughnasa)
Lough Anna supply (Molly Sweeney)
✭ ¹Quoted in Pine, R. Brian Friel and Ireland’s Drama, 1990, p51-52 .
Source: Interview with D.E.S. Maxwell, Images: Arts and the People in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Northern Ireland Information Office/Arts Council of Northern Ireland, n.d.)
✭ ²Extracts from a sporadic diary (1979): Translations, in Murray, Christopher (ed.) Brian Friel: Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964-1999. London: Faber& Faber, 1999, p.78
✭ ³Translations (1980) by Brian Friel in Brian Friel Collected Plays, Co Meath: Gallery Press, 2016.
✭ The Skelper. Read by Adrian Dunbar, with kind permission. Produced by Heather Larmour. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in March 2013.
An Action of the County Donegal Heritage Plan
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