Please note:
You may wish to read some background material in advance of the
Summer School programme. We realise it may be difficult to obtain books but the websites listed will give a very useful introduction.
It is entirely up to you how much or little material you want to read in advance.

General Political and Historical Information
For academic research and links to organisations in Northern Ireland such as libraries, the media. local government etc, please visit the Institute of Irish Studies website at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/IrishStudiesGateway/Research/ResourceLinks/
For information on the troubles, the background to the Northern Ireland peace process and much more, visit the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) website: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk
In particular, look at the section called ‘Background on the Northern Ireland Conflict’ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/index.html
In this section you can read:
John Darby’s article ‘Northern Ireland, The Background to the Peace Process’ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/darby03.htm
Also on the CAIN website in the section ‘Key Issues on the Northern Ireland Conflict’ (Parades) you can read:
1. ‘Drumcree: An Introduction to Parade Disputes’ a chapter from the book Orange
Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control by Dominic Bryan (2000) http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/parade/bryan/bryan00.htm
2. ‘The Endless Parade’ a chapter from the book Material Conflicts by Neil Jarman (1997) http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/parade/jarman.htm

Books: General Background to Politics and History in Northern Ireland
Fraser, Tom ‘Ireland in conflict 1922 – 1998’ (London: Routledge, 1999)
Hennessey, Thomas ‘A history of Northern Ireland 1920-1996’ (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997)
McKittrick, David and McVea, David ‘Making sense of the troubles’ (Belfast: Blackstaff, 2000)
Mulholland, Marc ‘Northern Ireland: a very short introduction’ (Oxford University Press: 2003)

Environment and Landscape
Evans, E. Estyn ‘The personality of Ireland : habitat, heritage and history’ (Blackstaff Press, 1981)
Aalen, Whelan, Stout (eds) 'Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape ’ (Cork University Press 1997)

History
Bardon, Jonathan ‘A History of Ulster’ (Blackstaff, 1992)
Bartlett, Thomas, Ireland: A History (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Bew, Paul, Ireland, the Politics of Enmity, 1789-2006 (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Ferriter, Diarmaid, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (Profile Books, 2004)
McIntosh, Gill ‘The force of culture: Unionist identities in 20 th Cen tury Ireland’ (Cork University
Press, 1999)
Gray, Peter, The Irish Famine (Thames and Hudson, 1995)

Literature and the Troubles
Seamus Heaney, ‘Selected Poems’ (Faber, London 1980)
Wilson, Robert McLiam, ‘Eureka Street’ (Secker & Warburg, London, 1996)

Recommended Literature Websites: http://www.iasil.org/
This is the website for the main academic organisation dealing with Irish literature. Many interesting things here, plus links to a host of other Irish literary resources, archive and website. http://islandireland.com/Pages/lit.html
A very good opening link which will lead you to many other places, such as the ones below http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/

Sourcing Books
If you have any difficulty sourcing the above books, you can try to get them from Abe Books at the following website: http://www.abebooks.com/
You should also refer to the Institute’s website for information on local organisations, archives, libraries and community groups etc at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/IrishStudiesGateway/Research/ResourceLinks/
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