Home-Grown Politics: The Politicization of the Parlour Room in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama

Abstract

In Stewart Parker’s Pentecost (1987), Christina Reid’s Tea in a China Cup (1983) and The Belle of the Belfast City (1989), and Gary Mitchell’s Loyal Women (2003), the home and nation become inextricably linked, as one serves as a microcosm for the other. Within the volatile political landscape of Northern Ireland, the private space of the home becomes a public forum for the characters in these plays, almost all of whom are women. Often unheard by the predominantly male presence in Northern Irish politics, these women find their voice in the domestic comfort of their homes, with the support and encouragement of other women. Yet despite this reign over the domestic sphere, the women’s perceived power and dominance is continually subverted, through economic, sexual, and political means.