Discuss the relationship between individual and collective memory in Brian Friel’s play Dancing at

Lughnasa.

First of all, considering the fact that Dancing at Lugnasa is a ‘memory play’, it is important to establish

the definitions of what is considered an ‘individual’ and ‘collective’ memory, as it relates to the concepts

of memory and history. Firstly, memory consists of the mostly subjective realm in which an individual

recalls certain past events. Its mechanisms are mostly fluid, subject to change and therefore cannot be

relied upon when recalling objective truths. History, on the other hand, is comprised of a plethora of

things from places to events, which exist through a common knowledge shared by individuals, thereby

giving validity to its objective nature. It is here, that the relationship between memory and history is

important, as any strand of history is subject to the personal interpretation of the myriad of individuals

who have an understanding of a shared history; hence, the differentiation between an Individual and

Collective memory, where the latter represents the overlap of one’s subjective understanding of a

shared history (Haslam, 2012).

The first and most conspicuous reference to the major theme of memory is the fact that the

goings-on upon the stage itself is a recitation of the adult narrator’s past experiences. In other words,

the play is a recounting of the narrator, Michael’s memory; specifically his childhood at Ballybeg, Ireland.

Although, with that being said, the author is not seeking to elucidate factual events concerning

Michael’s past and homeland through conveying the memory; rather, the play seeks to encapsulate the

atmosphere of the narrator’s daydream through it (dancing-at-lughnasa-, 2019), hence rendering all

factual or historical episodes or tidbits incidental and unreliable. This thereby gives substance to the line

in the ending monologue, where Michael explains that memory is ‘simultaneously actual and illusory’,

and further solidifying that in the foreground of the play, lies the concept of illusion (or individual
memory), where in the backdrop, lies objectivity. Further lending credence to such an unusual

construction for a play is the fact that the narrator’s boy self does not appear throughout the memory,

but is replaced in the form of his adult self, who during intervals pauses to reflect on unseen events

which do not play out upon stage (Haslam, 2012). This theatrical device is supposedly used to highlight

the subjective nature of the play; namely the very fact that it is being retold, not as a presently ongoing

narrative, but from a future point in time, namely, from when the narrator, Michael, is a man. Such an

unconventional technique appropriately gives form to the fact that the play is being told from a personal

point of view – a window into one’s individual memory - and as such, the narrator is unable to visualize

himself. Indeed, how he appears to himself during the memory cannot be envisioned since the memory

is recalled from the narrator’s point of view. Hence, it is a way to remind the audience of the subjective

nature of the play itself, and hints at the notion of Michael as an unreliable narrator.

Conversely, Michael’s narrative, which is put through the lens of the subjective, can be picked

apart to find clues of an objective historical and cultural context. Here, we can see displays of Irish

traditional culture, such as dance and music, as a means to highlight the theme of the character’s shared

heritage. For example, such is expressed through the sister’s desire to attend the dance at the pagan

Festival of Lughnasa, and the Irish Ceili music emanating from the radio. Further giving a sense of locality

and chronology within Michael’s phantasm are small details, such as the comment that ‘Aunt Kate had

been involved locally in the War of Independence’ and ‘Agnes’s fondness for ‘Annie M. P. Smithson

novels.’ Having said that, there is no straightforward or explicitly highlighted mention of timeframe,

which, if left to the readers deduction is most likely taking place during the 1930’s. Thus, Michael’s

memory should be rife with political notions in regards to Ireland during that period of time. Yet, in the

same vein, politics is hardly mentioned, as are notions of their location in Ballybeg, county Donegal.

Instead, what context relating to historical and collective memory given, is presented through subtle and

plain details, which importantly, strongly denote the hallmark functions of nostalgia through a
subjective child’s mind. In this sense, there is an overtness to the play’s timeframe being within the 30’s,

yet because of the compromised nature of the main character and his childlike lack of understanding of

the events he is witnessing, the historical and political aspects of the play are rendered vague, save for

the whimsicalness of subtle details picked up through eavesdropped conversational banter from the

other characters within the frame of individual memory.

Further, one cannot help but conceive of the overt sense of the stage as the daydream; of the

unreality of it all, even when things appear seemingly normal. An example of this is the narrator,

Michael, making it clear in the beginning monologue that ‘different kinds of memories offer themselves

to me’, and eventually when he says ‘these two memories.’ In this, he is relaying to the audience in the

tone of a daydream that the whole play is a reference to the nostalgia he was describing; the nostalgia

which essentially encapsulates the form of the play itself. Eventually, he returns to this reference with

the line that such a memory ‘owes nothing to fact’, referencing a memory he has of dancing. This line, in

a large sense, defines the not only the ending monologue, but the whole play, as it is a reference to how

everything captured from the mind of his child self is essentially a child’s version of a shared history and

not how history itself played out. Similarly, when he explains that ‘everything is simultaneously actual

and illusory’, and when he refers to how his memory ‘drifts in from somewhere far away -- a mirage of

sound – a dream music that is both heard and imagined; that seems to be both itself and its own echo,’,

such lines are directly in reference to the subjective nature of individual memory.

Further, from the framing of Michael’s subjective thoughts, the other characters also have

memories, such as the Mundy sisters, who recall their past through talking about going to the Pagan

harvest festival, when they say ‘Just like we used to,’ and then proceed to engage in, as the Author

refers to it, a form of ‘complete self-expression’, when the three sisters relive joyous experiences of the
past by dancing together. Further references to other character’s collective memory lie in Jack informing

Chris that the mental picture of her and her mother is ‘like a photograph in my mind.’
Bibliography

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/discuss-collective-

memory-in-dancing-at-lughnasa-1808348 [Accessed 15 May 2019].

Haslam, S., Asbee, S. (2012). The Twentieth Century. The Open University Press

dancing-at-lughnasa-. (2019). dancing-at-lughnasa- | Themes. [online] Available at:

https://andreacameline001.wixsite.com/dancing-at-lughnasa-/themes [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Sorrels, R. and Lazere, A. (2019). Dancing at Lughnasa – Brian Friel. [online] CultureVulture. Available at:
https://culturevulture.net/theater/dancing-at-lughnasa-brian-friel/ [Accessed 15 May 2019].

SuperSummary. (2019). Dancing At Lughnasa Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary. [online]
Available at: http://www.supersummary.com/dancing-at-lughnasa/summary/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].