Unit information: Nationalism, War and Revolution: Ireland, 1870-1921. (Level H Special Subject) in 2008/09

Unit name	Nationalism, War and Revolution: Ireland, 1870-1921. (Level H Special Subject)
Unit code	HIST37012
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

During the first two decades or so of the twentieth century Ireland experienced revolution, war and a bitter civil conflict that created the partitioned Ireland that we know today. This unit traces the development of Irish nationalist ideology from the second half of the nineteenth century through to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. We will examine the emergence of a separatist republican ideology in the aftermath of the Famine and explore the interplay of constitutional and radical nationalism within the Home Rule movement. Central to this unit will be an examination of the causes of revolution in 1916. Had the radical politics of the early twentieth century created a revolutionary culture in Ireland? What was the role of women in Sinn F�in, suffragism and the co-operative movement? To what extent did the cultural revival from the 1890s onwards (including the poetry and plays of W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge and others) influence Irish nationalist politics? Why did Ulster Unionist politicians push Ireland to the brink of civil war in their defence of the Union? The unit will conclude by addressing the writing of Irish history and how the revisionist controversy has affected historians approach to this period. We will make extensive use of a wide range of sources, including parliamentary reports, newspaper articles, political cartoons, memoir (including recently released documents from the Bureau of Military History), poetry and fiction and the unit will reflect on broader themes of nationalism and revolution within modern British and European history.

Teaching Information

• 10 x 2 hour seminars

• 1 x 5,000 word essay

Assessment Information

1 x 3-400 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Reading and References

• P. Bew, Ireland: the politics of enmity 1789-2006 (2007).

• F. Campbell, Land and revolution: nationalist politics in the West of Ireland 1891-1921 (2005).

• D. Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life: provincial experience of war and revolution, 1913-1923 (1977)

• R.F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (1988).

• A.C. Hepburn, The conflict of nationality in modern Ireland (1980).

• A. Jackson, Ireland 1798-1998

• P. Maume, The long gestation: Irish nationalist life 1891-1918 (1999).

• L. Ryan & M. Ward (eds), Irish women and nationalism: soldiers, new women and wicked hags (2004).

• C. Townshend, Easter 1916: the Irish rebellion (2006).