Irish History

  On the surface, 'Dancing at Lughnasa' and `The Field' offer very different visions of rural Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century. Brian Friel's portrait of benevolence and tolerance among a fragile but tightly-knit family of sisters in rural Donegal stands in sharp contrast to the dark and foreboding world of the 'Bull' McCabe and the 'Bird' O'Donnell. Not too far deep below the surface, however, the enduring themes of Irish history are deeply etched: land hunger and unemployment, the 'curse' of emigration, the social disruption caused by the returning emigrant, the accommodation women are forced to make in order to survive, the social role of the clergy, and the petty and casual cruelty towards the helpless and marginalized Write a critical essay in which you compare and contrast the way those themes are handled in the two films, and (based on your reading of the chapters from the Terence Brown book) comment on the historical realities upon which they are based.