Shakespeare once wrote: “What's in a name? What we call a rose / By any other name would smell just as sweet. I would have to disagree with Juliet's statement that a name is a meaningless convention, and I think Brian Friel would too. It's a concept addressed in his play Translations, set at a time of change for his native Ireland, when the country itself is on the verge of submitting to the imperialism of England. Two significant colonial events are occurring: the implementation of the national school system which replaced locally run hedge schools like the one in which the play is set, as well as the remapping of Ireland and the anglicisation of place names from part of the English. Translating something means changing it from one condition to another, or adapting it from one system or language to another; in fact this metaphor can be applied to this work but also to Irish history. In this article I will discuss this play as an examination of language as a defining characteristic of a particular culture and its subsequent power as a tool of colonization, of the way in which language and communication can manifest as positive or negative influences, and of how Friel exposes the violence, figurative and literal, suffered by the Irish people as a result of these translations. The English colonizers use the language in a negative sense, as a vehicle to exert their power over Ireland. They claim that the renaming of places is done “to advance the interests of Ireland” (31), when in reality it is a step towards eradicating the Gaelic language. While the English may not enslave the Irish or move them all onto reservations, as in the case of the Canadian and American First Nations peoples, this is an example of a more subtle, but equally harmful way... ......programming a story (and grappling with its translation) that celebrates the triumphs of the Roman Empire, and written in Latin, the language of the conquering Romans. The irony of this final scene is that Translations is a play written by an Irish playwright, but written and performed in English, the language of Ireland's conquerors. Translations' message is simple: language is something much bigger than a way of communicating. Language is the cornerstone of identity, be it personal or that of an entire nation. Attempting to eradicate the language of a particular place is a crime against its character and heritage. Considering Ireland's unique colonial history and the challenges it still faces today regarding the preservation of its culture and language, it is easy to see why this play has become such an important piece of Irish culture..