The main challenge in the entirely student produced and directed production of Carthaginians was to present an Irish subject to an American audience and to create a feeling of connection with that subject. It is, however, important to remember that the human capacity for emotion and feeling is the same everywhere, perhaps even heightened in areas that have experienced the political hardships that Northern Ireland has. The events of 30 January 1972 forever shattered the emotional conscious of the people of Derry, Northern Ireland. Carthaginians deals with the after-effects of Bloody Sunday on seven Derry characters who were present that day. The play explores the psychology of mourning, remorse, and hope through these seven characters.
All belief is fundamentally irrational.
Epistemologists, those who study knowledge, have struggled for millenia with the problem of finding a satisfactory basis for justifying belief. Actually, what they've done is try to avoid the fact that perfectly clear and valid criteria have been known for millenia, but that no belief can ever satisfy them. They have avoid this because this view leads to skepticism. This view is also known as irrationalism, anti-rationalism, or rational nihilism, although I object to the latter terms, as I argue that acceptance of this view does not necessarily lead to a rejection of rationality. Various attempts to provide support for beliefs are discussed and demonstrated to be insufficient.