Learning Outcomes:

This module will critically analyse key aspects of Ireland’s past and present with a specific focus on societal, literary and linguistic traditions. Students will be encouraged to develop their problem-solving skills, creative and critical abilities, and information and communication capacities. It will also aim to enhance their student experience by bringing students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines together to work in small groups, thereby developing core skills while also increasing their sense of belonging to the university community.

On completion of the module, students should be able to:
1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of Ireland in a societal, literary and linguistic context;
2: Engage in oral and written discussion and analysis of aspects of Irish society, literature and language;
3: Express a more nuanced and deeper understanding of Ireland from pagan times to twenty-first century society;
4: Understand and appreciate the complexities of Irish culture and society through the ages.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1 Introduction

Week 2-3 Special Topic A: Exploring Perceptions of Ireland's Language and Landscape

Week 4-5 Special Topic B: Exploring Early Ireland and the Celtic Context
Optional tour: Guided tour of the prehistoric collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street.

Week 6-7 Special Topic C: Exploring Ireland’s Manuscript Traditions
On-campus visit to UCD Special Collections

Week 8-9 Special Topic D: Exploring Irish Folklore
Tour of National Folklore Collection at UCD

Week 10-11 Special Topic E: Exploring Modern Ireland: Language and Literature
Optional tour: Self-guided tour of literary exhibition

Week 12 In-class exam (90 minutes)

Student Effort Type	Hours
Lectures	22
Specified Learning Activities	22
Autonomous Student Learning	56
Total	100

Not applicable to this module.

Incompatibles:
IRST30170 - Language, Literature & Society


 

Assessment Strategy  

Description	Timing		Component Scale		% of Final Grade
Not yet recorded.

 

Remediation Type	Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit	Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

Learning Journal: Individual feedback through Brightspace post-assessment Group Project: Group feedback through Brightspace post-assessment

**Required reading for each lecture topic will be made available through Brightspace. Additional sources for further exploration are provided below.

Bartlett, T. (ed.), Irish Studies: A General Introduction (Dublin, 1988)
Beckett, J.C., Confrontations: studies in Irish history (London, 1972)
Boyd, E., Ireland’s Literary Renaissance (London, 1923)
Brown, T., Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-2002 (London, 2004)
Connolly, C. Theorizing Ireland (Hampshire, 2003)
Coulter, C., The Hidden Tradition: Feminism, Women and Nationalism in Ireland
(Cork, 1993)
Cronin, M. and Ó Cuilleanáin, C. (eds.) The languages of Ireland (Dublin, 2003)
Cunliffe, B. The Celts: A very short Introduction. (Oxford, 2003)
Deane, S., Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing since 1790
(Oxford, 1997)
Ferriter, D. Occasions of Sin. Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. (London, 2009)
Ferriter, D. The Transformation of Ireland, 1900-2000. (London, 2004)
Flanagan, D. and Flanagan, L. Irish Place Names. (Gill and Macmillan, 1994)
Foster, R.F., The Oxford History of Ireland (Oxford, 1989)
Irish Studies Review: Special issue on Organised spaces: revival activism and print
culture (Vol. 22, No. 1, February 2014)
Kelly, F. A Guide to Early Irish Law. (Dublin, 1988 repr. 2009)
Kiberd, D. and Mathews, P.J. (eds.) Handbook of the Irish Revival. An Anthology of
Irish Cultural and Political Writings 1891-1922 (Dublin, 2015)
Lee, J.J. Ireland, 1912-1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge, 1989)
Leerssen, J., Mere Irish and Fíor-Ghael, (Cork, 1996)
MacLysaght, E. The surnames of Ireland. (Irish Academic Press: 1985)
Mallory, J. The Origins of the Irish (Dublin: 2013)
Munck & Fanning (eds.), Globalization, migration and social transformation: Ireland
in Europe and the world (Farnham, 2011)
Ní Úrdail, M. The scribe in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland: motivations
and milieu (Münster, 2000)
O’Leary, P. The Prose Literature of the Gaelic Revival 1881-1921. Ideology and
Innovation. (Pennsylvania, 1994)
Raftery, B. Pagan Celtic Ireland. The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. (London, 1994)
Whelan, A. ‘Language revival and conflicting identities in The Irish Independent,
1905-1922’, Irish Studies Review (Vol. 22, No. 1, February 2014)
Whelan, A. ‘‘Irish Ireland’ and the Irish Independent, 1905-22’, in O’Brien and Rafter
(eds.) Independent Newspapers: A History (Dublin, 2012, 67-80)
Whelan, K., ‘Between: The Politics of Culture in Friel's Translations’, Field Day
Review, Vol. 6 (2010), pp. 6-27

Name	Role
Dr Connor McCabe	Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Aoife Whelan	Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Ms Fiona Lyons	Tutor