Ballybeg (fictional town)

{{short description|Fictional town in Ireland}}

{{Other uses|Ballybeg (disambiguation){{!}}Ballybeg}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Ballybeg, an anglicisation of the Irish language name Baile Beag (IPA: [bˠalˠə bʲɔɡ]) meaning "Little Town", is a fictional town in which Irish playwright Brian Friel set many of his works.{{cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/02/brian-friel-revealed-ireland-past-and-present-to-itself | first = Gary | last = McKeone | publisher = The Guardian | website = theguardian.com | title = Brian Friel revealed Ireland, past and present, to itself | date = 2 October 2015 | accessdate = 18 October 2019 }} Several of Friel's plays, including Philadelphia Here I Come!, Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa, are set in the fictional County Donegal town.{{cite web|last = Nightingale | first = Benedict | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article5774491.ece | title = Brian Friel's letters from an internal exile | work = The Times | date = 23 February 2009 | quote = Brian Friel's Ballybeg - originally known in Gaelic as baile beag or “small town” - has known troubles galore}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite web|last = O'Kelly | first = Emer | url = http://www.independent.ie/incoming/friels-deep-furrow-cuts-to-our-heart-1879651.html | title = Friel's deep furrow cuts to our heart | publisher = Sunday Independent | date = 6 September 2009 | quote = Ireland possesses the universal voice as far as Friel is concerned. He does not look beyond, and forges the steel of human experience in a place called Ballybeg}}{{cite web| last = McElroy | first = Steven | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/arts/21weekahead.html | title = The Week Ahead: Jan. 21 - 27 | work = The New York Times | date = 21 January 2007 | quote = In the fictional town of Ballybeg in 1833, the British are remapping and renaming every hill and dale with English words, thus declaring ownership of the land while simultaneously treading on national pride}} Friel's Ballybeg is partially based on the real village of Glenties, close to where he lived.{{cite web|url = https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/brian-friel/glenties-is-the-stage-brian-friel-s-donegal-1.2376262 | first = Joe |last = Mulholland | publisher = Irish Times | website = irishtimes.com | title = 'Glenties is the stage': Brian Friel's Donegal | date = 3 October 2015 | accessdate = 18 October 2019 | quote = Glenties, in fact, offered [Friel] everything he needed to create an baile beag – Ballybeg}}{{cite web | url = https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zc7hv4j | first = Marie-Louise | last = Muir | publisher = BBC | website = bbc.com | title = The Irish Chekhov | date = 15 December 2015 | accessdate = 18 October 2019 | quote = the small Donegal town of Glenties became his spiritual home and inspired the fictional Ballybeg, the setting for 14 of his plays and now as famous in global theatrical history as Chekhov’s provincial Russia }}{{Dead link|date=July 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}