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As the author writes
in his preface, The Enemy Within is neither a history nor a biography but
an imaginative account of the voluntary exile of St. Columba.
Columba, or Columcille, was born in County Donegal circa A.D. 521. A founder of monasteries, he left
Ireland in 563 for Iona where he spent thirty-four years and where the play
is set.
Brian Friel concentrates on the private man, a charismatic, worldly personality
who struggled to combine skills of scholar, bard and ruler with a fearless
commitment to his vocation, and he probes the theme of exile, a subject
he returned to in Philadelphia, Here I Come!
The Enemy Within is Brian Friel's first significant play. It remains a neatly
accomplished and altogether engaging study.
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