Memory as an Essential Element in Irish Culture within Brian Friel’s Play Dancing at Lughnasa

Culture is something that cannot simply be observed. It is something that consists of many levels. If you visit a community for a short time, you only see the surface i.e. the social etiquette but its deepest layers are not visible to the eye. In order to understand culture, one needs to realize that cultures have different conducts, values, beliefs specific of that particular community. It is an idea that traditional barriers among people of different cultures will break down the traditional barriers among people. This paper is about memory as an essential element in Irish culture through the play “Dancing at Lugnasa”. What actually makes this play unique and worth reading is that you learn a lot about the Irish culture and what matters is that culture identifies the different customs, traditions, dances and the destructive entanglement of myth in this case, through the Irish women's lives.

Key words: memory, culture, play, childhood, women, Irish culture.