Belfast In Ireland Research Articles

Brian Moore: An Ambassador of Feminism

The present research paper explores the significance of Brian Moore as an angel of feminism through the study of his portrayal of female characters with special context of Irish novels in the 20th century Ireland. He is grown up in a Catholic family. He is one of his parent’s nine children. This paper studies his depiction of women characters with special context to the novels The Feast of Lupercal and Lies of Silence. He has raised the true voice of women of contemporary society at Belfast in Ireland through his fiction. The Feast of Lupercalis the story of a Catholic school teacher, Diarmuid Devine and his girlfriend a Protestant girl, Una Clarke. She is the main female character in this novel. She has been exploited mentally and physically by her ex-boyfriend Michael who was a married man. Later she meets Diarmuid Devine who plays with her emotions and leaves her due to Catholic restrictions. Moore in his next novel Lies of Silence (1990) presents the struggle among the Catholicism, the Protestantism and political uncertainty in Belfast. The main characters in this novel are Michael Dillon and his wife Moira Dillon. Moira Dillon is an innocent, beautiful and well educated unemployed woman. Her husband deceives her and wants to divorce her. She accepts the reality of life and emerges as liberal, bold and patriotic. This paper brings out Brian Moore’s true ability to reveal the world of women through his Irish fiction.

On Walzer's hermeneutics of justice, Gadamer's criterion of openness and northern Ireland's Belfast agreement

In this article, I draw on the work of Michael Walzer and Hans‐Georg Gadamer to develop a hermeneutic, or interpretative, approach to the question of a just constitutional settlement for Northern Ireland. I move away from Walzer's ‘shared meanings’ approach to questions of justice, and instead focus on different unionist and nationalist interpretations of the principle of self‐determination. I argue that Gadamer's hermeneutic criterion of openness can be used to adjudicate between various older and contemporary unionist and nationalist interpretations of this principle. I also analyse Northern Ireland's Belfast Agreement as an attempt to accommodate different, legitimate unionist and nationalist interpretations of the principle of self‐determination.

The Historical Setting of Milton's Observations on The Articles of Peace, 1649

Just three centuries ago, in January, 1649, thirteen days before the execution of King Charles, his Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, the Marquis of Ormond, proclaimed a peace with the Catholic Confederacy of Kilkenny which seemed to promise ultimate virtual independence for the Irish, subject only to a tenuous loyalty to the English crown. The promise was fallacious, for both Ormond and Charles were bargaining for Irish support with pledges that they hoped never to have to keep. At the height of the Irish negotiations, in November, 1648, Charles had professed to the commissioners of Parliament that he disapproved of Ormond's work, and had even offered to “publish such a declaration against his power and proceedings” as Parliament might desire.1 But the treaty was ratified and when Ormond proclaimed Charles II in Ireland, its terms became a matter of practical politics, if not as the immediate basis of a working constitution for a free kingdom, then at least as incentives for the Kilkenny Confederates to put their forces into the field for Charles in Ireland, and perhaps ultimately in England also. One of Parliament's first measures of defense was to order Milton to prepare them and three other highly relevant documents for publication in the form of the pamphlet that was printed by Matthew Simmons in Alders-gate Street and published on or before 16 May 1649, under the title: Articles of Peace, made and concluded with the Irish Rebels, and Papists, by James Earle of Ormond, for and in behalfe of the late King, and by vertue of his autoritie. Also a Letter sent by Ormond to Col. Jones, Governour of Dublin, with his Answer thereunto. And A Representation of the Scotch Presbytery at Belfast in Ireland. Upon all which are added Observations. Publisht by Autority.