For Owen, names seem up to this passage, to be insignificant. When Manus brings up the misidentification and thereby erosion of Owen’s identity in Act one, Owen replies: "Owen — Roland — what the hell. It’s only a name. It’s the same me, isn’t it? Well, isn’t it?"(33) Surely his argument is, that a place whether called– Burnfoot or Bun na hAbhan, is still the same place so therefore nothing has changed. He fails to understand that the main function of a name or a word it not only it’s meaning, but its identity. The importance of the name to ones identity is highlighted vividly in the play; “The Crucible” in which John Proctor, refuses to hand over a signed confession to heresy as he could not surrender his integrity- his ‘self’ by committing his name:
Proctor (with a cry of his whole soul): “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! –How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul- leave me my name!” Act four, page 115, The Crucible.
Owen regards the continuation of tradition and heritage as simply a romantic dream which barricades the road to progress and modernization. The Irish language, is as far as he is concerned, outdated, outclassed and for the uncivilized. However, it is apparent throughout pages 52-56, that beneath his flippancy, Owen is beginning to realize the difference between name as referent and name as an individual identity when he confronts a surprised Yolland with his true name.
Throughout the play, Owen slowly abandons his stance on the preservation of the Irish language and place names as being pointless, and comprehends the difference between the heritage carried within the Irish place-names and the superficial marking of the Anglicized names. This is noticeable in particular over the debate on Tobair Vree, as Owen and Yolland deliberate over an English alternative. Yolland- the English officer in charge of the re-naming process, has recognized what Owen will not- that the sound also changes the place, making it "an eviction of sorts" even as "something being eroded." Owen disagrees with Yolland: "We’re taking place-names riddled with confusion and we’re standardising those names as accurately and sensitively as we can." (35) He has taken on the job of interpreter and aligned himself to the English viewpoint without any (visible) misgivings or question of what is being ordered to be done. He ignores hostilities towards the English- such as the young girl spitting on Yolland, and scorns his father for his seeming inability to accept or adapt to the realities.
Manus’s demand "What’s incorrect about the place-names we have here?’’ to Owen in Act one, is reflected in Yolland’s subsequent questioning of Owen’s answer-“Who’s confused? -Are the people confused?” Both realise the true reasoning behind the renaming process: “It’s a bloody military operation!’’ Manus (36)
In defense of his point, Owen narrates how Tobair Vree came to obtain its name. In English, the translation of the name is ‘Brian’s Well’, and refers to a well that once was nearby the cross roads, but long since dried up, with "Vree" being the erosion of the Irish name "Brian." Brian was a man who lived a hundred and 50 years ago, who believed that the well water was blessed and would heal him. Even as Owen attempts to demonstrate the invalidity of Tobair Vree as a place-name through its seemingly irrational links, Owen destroys his own argument by demonstrating how Irish place-names carry within them a whole history and culture built up over centuries that cannot be found in substitute names such as "the Crossroads." By removing the name Tobair Vree, Owen would be loosing part of himself, his memory and what it means as to having been passed down by his grandfather. Any substitute would be worthless with none of the significance carried by the Irish place-name.
The Tobair Vree scene highlights that replacing even the sound of a name removes something of the social history- the heritage of a place. Translation closes off rather than discloses the past hidden within the original name. Tobair Vree or Brian’s Well is certainly not a well of any significance to Ireland or even Ballie Beog, but its name holds a link to the past, a heritage buried deep within its name which is lost in the English translation.
Through this small passage, Friel concludes that there is more to a name than just a reference. In Ireland’s place-names, the presenting of a name to a location establishes a relationship between the word and the place unlike the simple referent the English would have applied. Where is the meaning behind a name such as ‘’Swinefort’’? The place-name should never be reduced to a referential function only and it should be recognized that with every place-name there is identification in the form of historical, social and cultural referral, tied up within it. Friel reveals through this scene that the loss of such knowledge – the loss of the Irish names results in reducing the identity of Ireland and thereby loses part of the culture which composes Ireland’s individuality and uniqueness.