Forcing Change: The Challenges of Loyalist Paramilitaries in the Post-Good Friday Agreement Drama of Gary Mitchell

Authors

  • Megan W. Minogue Queens University Belfast, English Department, University Road, BT7 1NN, Belfast image/svg+xml

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.24.10

Keywords:

Irish drama, Northern Ireland, Garry Mitchell, The Troubles

Abstract

While the momentous Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was welcomed by many, others firmly said ‘No’, perhaps none more adamantly than the men and women involved in Loyalist paramilitary organizations. As Gary Mitchell depicts in his plays As the Beast Sleeps and Trust, the traditional roles of the UDA and other Loyalist paramilitary organizations were forced to undergo abrupt changes in the wake of modern promises of peace and prosperity. As politics become more predominant, the foot soldiers of the past were forced to make a choice as to whether or not they would continue the armed struggle or give way to the terms of the Agreement. The clash between the armalite and the ballot box, Mitchell suggests in these plays, has not yet been settled.

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Author Biography

Megan W. Minogue, Queens University Belfast, English Department, University Road, BT7 1NN, Belfast

Megan W. Minogue uzyskała tytuł doktora na Uniwerytecie Queen’s w Belfaście na podstawie rozprawy Performing Protestantism: Representations of Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist Identities in Selected Northern Irish Drama. Obecnie zajmuje się problematyką genderową w literaturze irlandzkiej od dziewiętnastego wieku do współczesności, kobiecym pisarstwem w Irlandii oraz problematyką tożsamości narodowej w Wielkiej Brytanii i Irlandii

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Published

2014-06-30

How to Cite

Minogue, M. W. (2014). Forcing Change: The Challenges of Loyalist Paramilitaries in the Post-Good Friday Agreement Drama of Gary Mitchell. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica, 24(2), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.24.10