Translation has been modelled primarily as a process of selection and substitution, a metaphoric process; as a consequence, it has been devalued as a fairly mechanical activity. Roman Jakobson's distinction between the metaphoric and the metonymic offers a point of departure for valorizing the metonymic aspects of translation - the creation of connections, contiguities, and contextures in and through translation. A metonymic approach to translation is key to seeing the translation of early Irish literature into English as one chapter of the history of the colonization and decolonization of Ireland. The case studies of the translation of early Irish literature into English illustrate how translation in a postcolonial context challenges some of the basic theoretical principles about translation.