Join the Fitzwilliam Belfast Reading Group

A new outlet for discussion in Ulster

A key Fitzwilliam belief is that intellectual activity is undersupplied. Despite the internet having driven the marginal costs of accessing information almost to zero, it’s far from trivial to find stimulating high-effort discussion in person, or to surmount the coordination problem of learning together as a group.

For almost two years, I’ve been organising a meetup called the Belfast Progress Reading Group. We meet near Botanic Avenue and discuss assorted topics in history, economics, and technology. Some previous meetups have been about AI’s scaling era era, what ails the British economy, and Austin Vernon’s blog.

We’re very pleased with the community that has blossomed around the Fitzwilliam Reading Group in Dublin, and its sister meetups, the Fitzwilliam Maths Circle and the Fitzwilliam AI Circle.¹ In a city as large as Belfast, there’s no reason we can’t have a similar community.

Speaking personally, as someone from Northern Ireland, a lot can and should be done to raise standards and aspirations here. Most of the arguments we make about how the Republic of Ireland could be doing better apply even more so north of the border.

Belfast has a surprisingly strong tradition of literary and intellectual societies. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, dozens of academic groups were founded, from the Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge to the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.²

We have a group of dedicated attendees with a range of interests, but we want to expand our reach. With that in mind, it’s time for a rebrand: we are relaunching as the Fitzwilliam Belfast Reading Group.

We will meet once a month on weekday evenings. The first meetup will be on the 18th of June, and we will be discussing Samuel Hughes’s writing about urbanism:

1. The Great Downzoning

2. Urban Expansion in the Age of Liberalism

3. The Merits of Unified Ownership

And on the 9th of July, we will be discussing a selection of essays by C. S. Lewis:

1. The Weight of Glory

2. The Inner Ring

3. Is Progress Possible?

If you would like to join, please email fergus@thefitzwilliam.com with a short bio to be added to the mailing list. There is also a WhatsApp group for light chatter, and a channel in the Fitzwilliam Slack. We look forward to seeing you there!

1. Sam’s previous reading group in Edinburgh was also a success, which he then handed off to our friend Sean.

2. Another intellectual flowering was the Belfast Group of the 1960s, a gathering of poets including Seamus Heaney associated with Queen’s University.