Translations is a period piece that, while set in one particular time and place, successfully portrays the anxieties of an entire country on the precipice of profound change. A society still fully in touch with its cherished traditions—its own language, its unique way of learning, its proud culture—that feels the winds of change blowing strongly and wonders what the future might bring. Are the newly presented possibilities ones to be welcomed and embraced or feared and resisted? Is this a moment for mourning the past or celebrating new beginnings? All of these questions and feelings are in play when the lights rise on an unassuming hedge school in County Donegal, Ireland in the year 1833. The events that paved the way to this pivotal moment, however, began centuries earlier. 

The Romans, looking across the Irish Sea upon their arrival in Britain, called the island to the west Hibernia and chose to venture no further. The English eventually would go where the Romans would not. The Anglo-Norman King Henry II invaded the neighboring island to the west, declaring himself Lord of Ireland. English influence would for the most part remain mostly concentrated to Dublin and its surrounding lands while Gaelic lords continued to rule their own fiefdoms around the rest of the island. Beginning with the Tudor dynasty in England, a more concerted effort to tame Ireland commenced. There was of course now a religious divide between the two countries. Denied an annulment of his first marriage, King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and established the Anglican Church of England. The English soon set about dismantling the Catholic monasteries spread across Ireland which had served as centers of culture and learning for centuries. Declaring himself King of Ireland in 1542, Henry offered a path to legitimacy to the Irish lords; if they willingly surrendered their land to the crown, the King would then regrant the land back to them in exchange for pledged loyalty. 

However, the eager expansion of English settlers and governance further into Irish lands provoked a wave of rebellions beginning in 1569 that continued intermittently until 1691. While the Irish found some success, each rebellion would inevitably end in an English victory and the seizing of the rebels’ lands. Catholic landownership fell from 70% in 1641 to 10% by the end of the 1650s, as confiscated lands were given to Protestant settlers, often from Scotland or Wales. By 1640, more than 30,000 settlers were living in the northern province of Ulster, and the city of Derry was renamed Londonderry to encourage investment from London guilds and merchants. Famine and plague further decimated the Irish population, allowing the English to solidify full control over the island by the dawn of the 18th century. 

Although by law Ireland was a separate kingdom under the same monarch as England, the Irish, and Catholics in particular, were not treated by their government as equals. A series of penal laws were passed from 1695 to 1760 that banned Catholics from serving as priests, taking seats in Parliament, voting, owning firearms, marrying Protestants, buying land, or teaching school. The Education Act of 1695 stated: “No person of the Popish religion shall publicly teach school or instruct youth...upon pain of 20 pounds and prison for three months for every such offence...” 

And yet there was a real need to educate an Irish population that was rapidly growing throughout the 1700s. To avoid detection by the authorities, hedge schools were initially held outdoors in secluded environs before later migrating indoors to unused barns and outbuildings. A hedge schoolmaster needed to be knowledgeable in many subjects and able to teach all ages. Reading, writing and arithmetic were universally taught but it wasn’t uncommon for history, geography, mathematics, Latin and even Greek to be offered as well. Tuition was paid either monetarily or in-kind, and a schoolmaster’s livelihood depended on how many students attended school and their ability to pay for their education. The hedge school became a symbol of Ireland’s love of learning and language and the lengths to which the Irish would go to circumvent English discrimination and provide for themselves. 

Revolutionary fervor kindled again at the end of the 18th century. Having witnessed successful revolutions in America and France, the Society of United Irishmen formed in 1791 to advocate for parliamentary reform of Ireland’s colonial status. French military aid was promised to the rebels but failed to arrive on time. When the Irish did rebel in 1798, the uprising was swiftly crushed. British politicians moved to incorporate Ireland into the United Kingdom, reasoning that it would ostensibly offer the Irish equality as British citizens while minimizing their political power within the larger populace of Great Britain. There was a strong need to keep the Irish pacified; Napoleon and his armies were marching across Europe and Irish soldiers made up a sizable portion of the British armed forces. Thus, in 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created by an Act of Union, and all Irish became British citizens for the first time. 

Meanwhile, Ireland’s population of 2.9 million in 1718 had grown to 5.5 million in 1806, less than a hundred years later. With Irish-grown grain needed to feed the rest of the British Empire, Irish farmers had little arable land unused in their fields to grow their own food. The arrival of the potato from the New World, therefore, was a godsend. The potato’s suitability to the Irish climate and its ability to generate abundant returns in a small area provided a consistent food source for an increasing number of Irish families. The population exploded as a result of this newfound stability, but overreliance on the potato carried grave risks. Each year, when the winter store of potatoes was used up, more and more Irish would go hungry during the later spring and early summer until a new harvest was ready. And yet, with no alternatives for feeding the country, more and more potatoes were planted every year. Faced with economic uncertainty and political powerlessness, many chose to leave their homeland. A million Irish set sail for North America between 1801 and 1845—and still the population of Ireland grew by over 2 million during the same timeframe. 

In the 1820s, a new movement for Irish equality began, spearheaded by Daniel O’Connell. The politician from County Kerry advocated for Catholic emancipation through political means rather than armed rebellion, and his impassioned speeches were widely attended. When O’Connell won a seat in British parliament in 1828, he was unable to take it without swearing an oath that denigrated the Catholic Church. O’Connell, like all Catholics before him, refused. Fearing the politician’s popularity and the possibility of unrest, the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 was passed to remove the anti-Catholic oath, and O’Connell subsequently took his place in parliament. The Irish press dubbed him “The Liberator.” 

Such a public victory for Irish nationalism was simultaneously undercut by other efforts. The Parliamentary Elections Act of 1829 raised the landownership requirements for suffrage, excluding many of O’Connell’s supporters from voting in future elections. In 1831, the Chief Secretary of Ireland proposed a system of national schools to be built all over the country by the British government, which would provide free education to the Irish populace. Unable to compete, the hedge schools soon went extinct.  

In 1824, an ordnance survey was proposed for Ireland, similar to one carried out previously in Scotland. The Corps of Royal Engineers (informally known as “Sappers”) deployed to Ireland to survey and map the entire country from north to south, with each map depicting a section of Ireland on a scale of 6 inches to a mile, the most detailed maps ever to that point in history. Irish citizens were hired to assist the cartographers with translation and naming of landmarks, and Irish language sounds and meanings were Anglicized for English grammar and phonetics. For example, the town of Na Gleannta (which in Irish means “the glens”) was renamed Glenties. New English names for places combined with English language instruction in the recently built national schools contributed to an inexorable decline in the use of Irish as a primary language. 

As the lights fade out and Translations comes to an end, many pages of the most well-known chapters of modern Irish history are becoming visible. The catastrophic failure of the potato crop beginning in 1845 and lasting several seasons. A resulting famine that would kill roughly a million people. A mass emigration of millions more over the ensuing decades. The near total abandonment of the Irish language by the end of the 19th century. The partition of the island in 1921 into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. A Catholic minority with a desire to join the Republic to the south, and a Protestant majority determined to remain a part of Britain. The embrace of violence by both sides to achieve their ends. We depart the hedge school before any of these events come to pass, but having witnessed a map being made of the next 150 years of Irish history.