PATRICK GRANT is Professor of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of several books, including Breaking Enmities: Religion and Culture in Northern Ireland, 1967-97, and of a trilogy on literature and the idea of the person, comprising Personalism and the Politics of Culture, Spiritual Discourse and the Meaning of Persons and Literature and Personal Values.

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction: At War With Words The Iron Circle: On the Core Mechanisms of Violence Equivocations of the Fiend: Self-Deception and Poetic Diction The God of Battles: Violence and Sectarianism Shoot the Women First Breaking the Circle Conclusion Index

PATRICK GRANT is Professor of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of several books, including Breaking Enmities: Religion and Culture in Northern Ireland, 1967-97, and of a trilogy on literature and the idea of the person, comprising Personalism and the Politics of Culture, Spiritual Discourse and the Meaning of Persons and Literature and Personal Values.

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction: At War With Words The Iron Circle: On the Core Mechanisms of Violence Equivocations of the Fiend: Self-Deception and Poetic Diction The God of Battles: Violence and Sectarianism Shoot the Women First Breaking the Circle Conclusion Index

PATRICK GRANT is Professor of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of several books, including Breaking Enmities: Religion and Culture in Northern Ireland, 1967-97, and of a trilogy on literature and the idea of the person, comprising Personalism and the Politics of Culture, Spiritual Discourse and the Meaning of Persons and Literature and Personal Values.

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction: At War With Words The Iron Circle: On the Core Mechanisms of Violence Equivocations of the Fiend: Self-Deception and Poetic Diction The God of Battles: Violence and Sectarianism Shoot the Women First Breaking the Circle Conclusion Index