Students of politics will learn about elections, constitutions and government, but also about sovereignty, conflict, political economy, human rights and public policy.  In studying politics and international relations, we try to understand what happens, to figure out what should happen, and to determine how this might be realised. Much of political study involves seeking to understand national and international political institutions, systems and forces – parliaments, presidents and power, votes, vetoes and violence – but it also seeks to explain the changes that occur in these and to articulate what further possibilities for change exist.Politics equally involves what is called political theory, examining what institutions, options and lives we ought to have: what justice demands, what freedom requires, what democracy could be. This is equally true on the international scale – we can explain war, trade and global poverty, discuss the existing mechanisms for coping with these issues and examine what moral demands these facts place on individual nations and individual human beings.  Politics students will leave the program with a solid substantive understanding of politics as well as being equipped with the tools to analyse and critically write about contemporary political topics that they gain through lectures and tutorials, and the completion of continuing assessment and exams. The School offers a broad and diverse range of modules across the three levels.  Single honors politics will typically explore modules and develop expertise across the five core areas of the school: international relations, comparative politics, Irish politics and elections, political theory, and political methodology.

1 - • Understand the structure and actors of national and international politics
2 - • Engage with contemporary political debates.
3 - • Analyse political topics with both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
4 - • Identify political rationale for social, political and economic outcomes.
5 - • Think critically and analyse political issues drawing on perspectives from contemporary political theory and the history of political thought.
6 - • Prepare clear and concise written work across a range of political subject areas.
7 - Achieve an in-depth understanding of multiple subject areas within Politics and International Relations
8 - Contribute to political life nationally and internationally through reasoned and critical interventions.