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Doalty
Another student at the Baile Beag hedge school her twenties. She is described as a plump, vain, yet good-natured person with “a countrywoman’s cunning.” She is learning to write and tells the other students the new laws about the national school, including that it will teach everything in English. Bridget frequently fears a “sweet smell” that foreshadows the impending Irish potato famine.
Bridget Quotes in Translations
The Translations quotes below are all either spoken by Bridget or refer to Bridget. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1 Quotes
Bridget: Did you know that you start at the age of six and you have to stick at it until you're twelve at least — no matter how smart you are or how much you know.
Doalty: Who told you that yarn?
Bridget: And every child from every house has to go all day, every day, summer or winter. That's the law.
Doalty: I'll tell you something — nobody's going to go near them — they're not going to take on — law or no law.
Bridget: And everything's free in them. You pay for nothing except the books you use […] And from the very first day you go, you'll not hear one word of Irish spoken. You'll be taught to speak English and every subject will be taught through English and everyone'll end up as cute as the Buncrana people.
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Explanation and Analysis:
While waiting for Hugh to arrive to the hedge school, Bridget elaborates on what she knows about the new national school soon opening nearby. The British began to implement such schools throughout Ireland in the 1830s, inevitably spelling death for rural, Irish-language hedge schools like Hugh’s. Doalty’s refusal to believe that the new schools will thrive will be proven wrong by history, and the national school system reveals one way in which colonialism suppresses native culture. The play will continue to develop the connection between language and cultural history, asserting that, by forcing the Irish population at large to be Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperi
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Bridget Character Timeline in Translations
The timeline below shows where the character Bridget appears in Translations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
Doalty and Bridget, two students in their twenties, enter noisily. Doalty carries a surveyor’s pole and does an...
(full context)
Everyone settles down for class, and Bridget asks if anyone knows the name of Nellie Ruadh’s baby, who was christened earlier that...
(full context)
Bridget off-handedly mentions soldiers making maps while talking about the “sweet smell,” indicating crop rot. Maire...
(full context)
...ritual of naming.” Hugh also asks where the Donnelly twins are; after a brief pause, Bridget says they’re probably at “the turf” before changing the subject to how much she owes...
(full context)
As Hugh quizzes Bridget on Latin conjugations, Maire gets to her feet and asserts they should all be learning...
(full context)
Act 3
...where Hugh is. She mimes rocking a baby, but Owen does not understand the gesture. Bridget and Doalty enter loudly and say that fifty more soldiers have arrived and are looking...
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Owen asks Bridget and Doalty if they saw Yolland and Maire leave the dance together. They confirm that...
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Bridget confuses the smell of burning tents with the “sweet smell” of potato blight, then runs...
(full context)
