School of Humanities
Discipline
Course Title
History
Bachelor of Arts (Omnibus), CONNECT BAs
Module Coordinator
Module Title
Dr. Mary Harris
Dr. Gearóid Barry
HI111 War & Society: Europe and Ireland in the Age of the
Great War
Semester Two
3 x 1 hour lectures for 12 weeks; plus weekly tutorial.
Lecture times
Teaching Format
Brief outline of
content
Learning
Outcomes
Assessment Types
and Deadlines
Required Text
This team-taught course aims to examine war and revolution in
Ireland and Europe in the period circa 1910-23. The First
World War occasioned nationalist mobilizations across
Europe. Itself the product of growing international tension
since the 1890s, this ‘total war’ transformed the lives of
women and men, from battlefields and factories to the cinema
house. Particular attention is paid to the British and German
experiences of the war. In Ireland, a militarization of politics
preceded the war with divisions between nationalists and
unionists over Home Rule in 1912. The war effort in turn
divided Irish nationalists and was the backdrop to the 1916
Rising. The course will provide a clear narrative of the
radicalization of politics in Ireland, culminating in the creation
of a new state by Sinn Féin, albeit with the drawbacks of
partition in the north (from 1920) and civil war between old
comrades in the south in 1922.
At the course’s end, the committed student should have:
 Developed a critical approach to reading and
interpreting sources, both written and visual
 Developed the ability to organise and prioritise material
 Attempted writing four short document commentaries
 Discerned common themes in Irish and European
history
 Acquired a grasp of the narrative of events in Ireland,
Britain and on the continent in the period of the First
World War.
2 x 1,000-word essays during term/
2-hour Examination.
Helpful reading:
Charles Townshend, Easter 1916. The Irish Rebellion
(Penguin, 2006)
Hew Strachan (ed.), The Oxford illustrated history of the First
World War (OUP, 2004)
John Horne (ed.), Our War: Ireland and the Great War (RIA,
2008)
School of Humanities
Discipline
Course Title
Module Coordinator
Module Title
Lecture times
Teaching Format
Brief outline of
content
Learning
Outcomes
History
Bachelor of Arts (Omnibus), CONNECT BAs
Dr. Mary Harris
Dr. Gearóid Barry
Writing the History of War and Society
Semesters One and Two
Weekly one-hour history tutorial: sign-up in September for
year.
In this course, students learn to engage with primary source
material and develop a critical awareness of historical
scholarship with a view to developing their own writing skills.
Engaging with source material that relates to the subject areas
of their two other modules – on Ireland and Europe in the ages
of the French Revolution and the First World War – students
will learn how to analyse different types of document, textual,
visual and audiovisual, and to begin the learning experience of
independent reading and writing. Facilitated by means of
weekly small-group teaching, this module will be assessed by
means of four written assignments designated by the course
instrucutors. A Writing Skills section will also be given in
Semester Two.
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Assessment Types
and Deadlines
Required Text
Develop reading and library skills beginning with core
books adverted to in lectures
Take first steps in independent reading by retrieving
other material on the course reading list
Discussion of primary sources in tutorial setting
Developed a critical approach to reading and
interpreting sources, both written and visual
Write coherent short essays
4 x 1,000-word essays plus 1 Writing Skills test taken during
second semester
See the readings indicated for the two other First Year history
modules.