This paper explains that the notion of change, both of the Irish nation through
colonizing British politics and the character
of the central protagonist Owen of Brian Friel's play "Translations" (1980) is continually debated throughout the play, which is set in Baile Beag during the 19th century, then an Irish-speaking community in County Donegal. The author points out that, between Act II and Act III, Owen's attitude towards the Irish begins its most fundamental change as he realizes that the true purpose of the English solicitation of translation is not to modernize or improve Ireland but to make taxation of Irish provinces easier for the Mother Country and to make sites of potential
military unrest more easily identifiable in the case of military turmoil. The paper relates that the play "Translations" is presented as a series of conflicts between the Irish and English military as well as between ancient and modern attitudes to the world beyond Ireland.