Brian Friel, The Freedom of the City

Michael Parker (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1974

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The specific events which occasioned Brian Friel’s play

The Freedom of the City

were the killings on Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) of thirteen unarmed civilians in Derry/ Londonderry by British soldiers during an anti-internment march, and the publication less than three months later of Lord Widgery’s Report (see note 1) which exonerated the military, compounding the anger and outrage felt in Northern Ireland’s nationalist community. Yet the play is best understood not just in the context of contemporaneous political violence, which by the time of the play’s première on 20 February 1973 had already cost over 730 lives in the province, but by placing it within a broader historical narrative.

The Freedom of the City

constitutes a response not only to the escalating sectarian…

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2959 words

Citation: Parker, Michael. "The Freedom of the City". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10221, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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