Module Specifications.
Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025
All Module information is indicative, and this portal is an interim interface pending the full upgrade of Coursebuilder and subsequent integration to the new DCU Student Information System (DCU Key).
As such, this is a point in time view of data which will be refreshed periodically. Some fields/data may not yet be available pending the completion of the full Coursebuilder upgrade and integration project. We will post status updates as they become available. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Date posted: September 2024
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Description This modules explores the politics of Ireland in the years 1900 to 1923, a period of profound political instability marked by protest, war (on the island and in Europe) and revolution. The students will assess the chain of events that witnessed the establishment of an independent Irish state within the British Empire and the partitioning of the island. They will examine the conflicts that developed within Ireland, while placing these in their British, European, imperial and global contexts. The students will assess the influence of polticial ideologies upon change in Ireland, including nationalism, republicanism, unionism, syndicalism, female suffragism, liberalism, and imperialism. In doing so the students will engage with a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including digitised primary material. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Demonstrate a knowledge of the key events in Ireland in the years 1900 to 1923 and their relationship to events beyond the island. 2. Exhibit an understanding of the key movements and ideologies that influenced change in Ireland during those years. 3. Critically engage with primary and secondary sources so as to develop an understanding of the various and changing interpretations of events. 4. Assess aspects of change in Ireland during this period supported by the relevant academic sources. 5. Interrogate how this period in Irish history is remembered and commemorated. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Indicative ContentThe Gathering Storm: This section will explore the developments within Irish nationalism, trade unionism and the labour movement, and female suffragism during the early years of the twentieth century and explores their relationship to developments in British politics and beyond. The Third Home Rule Crisis: This section will examine the developing crisis surrounding the Third Home Rule Bill. The opposition amongst unionist and conservatives and the response of nationalists and separatists, including the growth of paramilitarism. World War One: The section will assess the recruitment of the Irish during World War One, the experiences of the soldiers, the effects of the war on Irish society and politics, the experience of those soldiers who returned, and memory of the war. Rebellion: This section will investigate the developments that led to the 1916 Rising, the events of the Rising, and the consequences of the methods deployed in its suppression. It will also assess the changing ways in which the Rising has been remembered. A Political Revolution? This section will critique the rise of Sinn Féin and the decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party, culminating with the general election of 1918. It will explore the ongoing attempts to find a political settlement for Ireland, the role of two years of protest and repression, and the consequences of the changed franchise. State and counter-state/Terror and counter-terror: This section will explore the events of the years 1919 to 1921, examining the attempts by the revolutionaries to use political and violent methods to achieve Irish independence. It will assess the responses of the British state, of unionist politicians, and of ordinary people. Among the topics examined will be the ambitions of Sinn Féin’s counter-state, the fate of servants of the state in Ireland, the geography of violence, the targets and nature of violence, the role of sectarianism, the place of the prisons, the effects on ordinary life (including sport), the propaganda conflict, and the role of class division. It will ask whether the events in Ireland have international parallels during this period. Seeking a Settlement: This section will explore the period July 1921 to June 1922 following the political developments through truce, negotiations, the signing of a Treaty, and the efforts to avoid new conflict. This task will be undertaken mindful of the international and imperial politics of settlement in Ireland. Further, it will assess the Craig/Collins pacts, disturbances along the border and within Northern Ireland, the de Valera/Collins pact, the drafting of the Free State constitution, and the eventual outbreak of Civil War within the Irish Free State. Civil War: This section will analyse the course of the Irish Civil War, assessing the military and political developments that marked mid-1922 to mid-1923. It will explore the strategies of revolution and repression deployed by each side. Further, it will assess the social conflicts that accompanied the Civil War. It will ask what divided the pro-Treatyites from the anti-Treatyites. Finally, it will examine how the Civil War has been remembered (or not remembered) in the intervening period. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List
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Other Resources 0, In Class/Online, 0, Reading Lists (primary and secondary sources) will be made available in class and/or on loop, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||