Irish Studies BA (Hons)

This module introduces students to a broad range of Irish Literature from Swift to Joyce and to the idea of an Irish Literary Tradition in English. A new author is introduced and apart from Joyce and Swift, and the module is taught in a lecture/seminar format.

This module enables students to understand the historical background to the development of the Troubles in Northern Ireland with reference to the underlying political, social, economic, cultural and religious context. It gives an overview of the main events and underlying causes of the outbreak of violent conflict in the late 1960s and examines the motives of main participating elements including the Northern Ireland and British governments, extra-parliamentary and political movements.

This course will provide an introduction to Ireland’s indigenous language, offering the chance to deepen your understanding of the culture and history of Ireland and to begin exploring Irish-language art, writing and film. Starting with some basic words and expressions, the course will guide students through the first steps towards achieving an A1 ‘beginner’ level in Irish (following the European framework for language learning). No previous knowledge of Irish is required.

This module introduces students to a key skill in literary study, that of precise and informed analysis of text (close reading).

The aim of the course is to give you grounding in analytical skills, an appreciation of the significance of film as a medium, and an ability to write about film in an accessible and well informed way for different audiences and different purposes.

Furthermore, the course will introduce you to the basic components of the audiovisual ‘language’ which film uses to communicate with its audience, and to the methods that you should use when analysing how any one film uses this language. We will look at a wide variety of films selected for their particularly innovative or influential treatment of different aspects of this ‘language’.

This module covers a period of crucial significance for European history, including interactions between Europe and other parts of the world in the premodern period. Much of it will be unfamiliar to many of you, but, we hope, will be all the more interesting for that reason. At its broadest, this module covers more than a millennium, from the rise of Christianity to the European arrival in and settlement of the Americas. We start with the origins of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean, before moving on to the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam. In Europe, we chronicle the rise of post-Roman kingdoms, the settlements of Vikings in Europe and more distant locations, the launching and objectives of the crusades. In light of the expansion of the papacy, we assess the emergence of new forms of spirituality and heresy, political conflicts between nascent states, and the impact of the Reformation and Catholic Reformation on other parts of the world. Underlying these events are some continuous themes, such as the foundation of the Christian Church, the development and evolution of notions of holiness, and the effect of religious belief on methods of education, ideas of difference and deviance, and responses to natural disasters. Another theme that runs through the module is to assess how gender mores affected the experiences of and possibilities for individuals who lived in these periods. Course content also looks at the practice of, and ideology behind, political activity and war. We aim to give you an appreciation of world views and of methods of representation based on the mental horizons possible in the age before modern technology.

The module covers the ideas, policies of the main political parties in UK politics and how they are conditioned by wider ideologies. It examines the key reasons why people vote the way they do, analysing recent elections. The module assesses the importance of the media and political rhetoric and also analyses the importance of gender.

This module is intended for first year students taking the Irish Studies programme. It explores a range of perspectives and methods in Irish Studies through detailed exploration of one city or region in Ireland/ linked to Ireland.

This module will introduce you to literature written in English by Irish writers and published between 1914 and 2014. It surveys a wide range of texts – novels, poetry, and plays – each of which might be appreciated as a radical literary and/or cultural experiment with far reaching impact.
Our course covers the greater part of the twentieth century and comes up to the near present; our readings of literature will necessarily be situated within their specific social, political and historical contexts. We will also explore major developments in Ireland in the discipline and practice of literary criticism as a way of shaping how we talk about the texts we read. We will consider work by writers including James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Sean O’Casey, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Edna O’Brien, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh, and Eimear McBride.

This module aims to explore the various ideas that have contributed to the development of modern Ireland. It will explain how these ideas have interacted with one another and how they have shaped political debates and brought about social change.

This course follows on from IRIS141: Beginners’ Irish Language 1, bringing students to a more detailed understanding of Irish. We will continue to cover themes based on the TEG (Teastas Eorpach Gaeilge) syllabus and will delve further into key aspects of Irish language, literature and culture.

This module will allow students to develop critical methods of reading and contextual analysis of literary texts. Lectures and tutorials will explore a range of critical methodologies (for example psychoanalysis and postcolonialism) as well as topics focused on the modes, attitudes and concerns that underlie the production of literature in relation to politics, society and culture. In doing so students will be introduced to key debates within literary study, as well as addressing topics important to different periods including issues of race, gender, sexuality, literary form, environment and economy.

This module aims to develop and challenge accepted modes of reading in order to expand and strengthen original critical enquiry while also improving students’ written, oral and digital communication skills.

The aim of this course is to introduce you to key theoretical and conceptual debates within Film Studies. It will develop your ability to apply these concepts to close readings of film texts and, in doing so, enhance your skills of critical analysis and independent thinking.

This module provides students with an introduction to modern British history.   It broadens their existing understanding by first considering factors of a general importance in the development of modern Britain, and then looking at particular events and themes.   In this way, students will be given a grasp both of broad themes in British history – such as demographics, political units, ideologies and social change – and of the specific way history unfolded at key moments and turning points.

This introductory politics module focuses on the distribution of power in Britain and the nature of the British state. It outlines the traditional conception of the British political system as the ‘Westminster Model’ and considers the implications of this model for how democracy is conceived and how political power is mobilised, in whose interests and with what consequences, primarily in the UK but also in former British colonies and dependencies. The module examines the various component parts of the British political system including the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service , regional and local government and devolved institutions, from both a constitutional and political-sociological perspective. It also assesses the emerging impact of Brexit on the UK political system and for the distribution of political power within it, including consideration of the role of ‘imperialist imaginaries’ in shaping discussion of the UK’s post-Brexit future. The module assumes no prior knowledge of the British political system or the particular issues under consideration.

This module provides an overview of research methods used in Irish Studies. For Irish Studies single honours students, it creates a bridge between the case study research of IRS102 Field Trip to Ireland and IRIS310 / IRIS400 third year dissertation in Irish Studies.

The module provides an opportunity for students to work with a range of staff in Irish Studies on a theme within their research area. Each theme will engage the student in writing up a short report that can map onto learning how to do more sustained research projects in third year.

This course will provide an introduction to Ireland’s indigenous language, offering the chance to deepen your understanding of the culture and history of Ireland and to begin exploring Irish-language art, writing and film. Starting with some basic words and expressions, the course will guide students through the first steps towards achieving an A1 ‘beginner’ level in Irish (following the European framework for language learning). No previous knowledge of Irish is required.

Not to be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with IRIS141.

This course follows on from IRIS242: Beginners’ Irish Language 1, bringing students to a more detailed understanding of Irish. We will continue to cover themes based on the TEG (Teastas Eorpach Gaeilge) syllabus and will delve further into key aspects of Irish language, literature and culture.

Not to be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with IRIS142.

This course is aimed at those students who already have a beginners’ level (A1) knowledge of Irish language. Students will continue learning Irish language and grammar, with an emphasis on Irish culture, history and literature. Students wishing to take this module must have either completed IRIS241 and IRIS242 or have completed studies in Irish language to GCSE/Junior Certificate level or equivalent.

This module will look at the history, context and content of some of the late 19th and early 20th century’s most important ‘little magazines’. Using the library Special Collections and Brown University’s Modernist Journals Project this module seeks to understand the role that literary magazines play within a culture and the historical background to their production. It will examine their material and print cultures, history and content in order to gain understanding of the role magazines played in their exploration of, or engagement with, various literary and historical movements. Topics covered will include sexuality, censorship, Modernism, the manifesto, State interference, and literary content, amongst others. Some of the magazines examined may include: The Savoy, To-Day, Blast, The Criterion, Ireland To-Day and Weird Tales. This module will suit students interested in journalism, magazine material and print cultures, censorship, and historical contexts. The module aims to engage students with primary historical research through classes in special collections and through digital resources.

The legislative and management structures related to heritage, and the purpose, scale and effectiveness of these varies greatly across the globe, and is constantly being changed in response to economic, social, cultural and legislative forces. This module examines current agendas, policies and practices in a historical perspective, and then concentrates on a critical review of current practice. Aspects of the varied UK systems are considered within a comparative international context, considering the management issues associated with sites, monuments and buildings, and objects, museums and archives. Heritage managers mediate between remnants of the past and political, cultural and economic structures in the present. Whilst the module contains much that relates to practice within current legislative, cultural and economic systems, it also reflects on the ethical and socio-political dilemmas often facing heritage management.

This module aims to prepare and empower students to participate successfully in professional work experience, such as a year in a placement or internship, or volunteering opportunity, and to develop, in a pro-active way, life-long skills, attitudes, and behaviours. Students will have the opportunity to engage in inter-disciplinary, team-based research, gain the knowledge, confidence, and self-awareness to source and successfully apply for professional work opportunities.

This module introduces students to the study of elections and voting behaviour. It uses post-war British elections and referendums as the focal point for introducing key political science debates about voting and party competition and as a context for analysing political change in Britain. In place of seminars, students attend required data lab sessions, in which they are taught quantitative skills (e.g. t-test, Chi- Square test, statistical correlation, linear regression) through the analysis of key election datasets (e.g. vote shares, opinion polls, election surveys, candidate spending) in guided PC sessions. These sessions involve the use of both Excel and SPSS software and students will need to be confident in their ability to undertake basic mathematical procedures and to learn introductory statistical methods.

Work placement module.

This course follows on from IRIS243: Continuing Irish Language 1. It will move beyond A2 level and begin to introduce the knowledge needed for achieving a B1 ‘Intermediate’ level in Irish. Students wishing to take this module must have either completed IRIS243 or have completed studies in Irish language to GCSE/Junior Certificate level or equivalent.

This module seeks to consider the history of literary censorship from France of the 1850s to postwar Britain and Ireland. It will examine issues such as ‘bad language’, decency, morality and ‘cancel culture’ in writers ranging from Gustave Flaubert to Edna O’Brien.

This course will explore the history and culture of the Gaelic-speaking world and neighbouring territories from the end of Roman Britain to the beginning of the Viking Age—a period of immense social, political and religious change in these islands. Students will be introduced to the literature of early medieval Ireland – stories of miracle-working saints, visions of hell, and voyages across wondrous and monstrous seas. A special comparative lecture will draw out common threads in the history of Ireland and Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia), two non Roman territories that became Christian at roughly the same time. Students will also explore the connections between Irish territories and the neighbouring Pictish, British and English kingdoms—this will provide an opportunity to explore how the peoples of this era defined themselves and to reflect on the later regional and religious identities of Ireland and Britain.

From the 1970s, scholars working across the humanities and social sciences have made increasing use of firstperson testimonies to investigate how ‘ordinary’ individuals and groups experience, think and act in the social world. This level 5 module introduces students to this ‘turn to the personal’ via consideration of the development of Oral History as one of the most dynamic and powerful methodologies for studying human experience in history. Combining close reading of seminal theoretical texts with in-depth historical case studies and practical exercises in the analysis and interpretation of oral history narratives, students will acquire critical understanding of the historical development of oral history as a form of research practice and social activism; epistemological debates concerning the special credibility of oral history and the problem of subjectivity in history; and different approaches to the analysis of oral narratives with special reference to notions of everyday life, the self, memory and emotion. Culminating in an extended case study of the uses of oral history in researching personal experiences of modern war, Experience, Memory and Emotion provides students with practical and theoretical understanding of an exciting and adaptable historical methodology, enhancing their capacity to employ autobiographical sources on other history courses and in the development of independent research projects.

This module introduces you to aspects of life in Britain and Europe between about 1740 and 1815. This period is often seen as the beginning of the modern world, when the ideas about human nature and society that still shape our own lives came into circulation and when the global entanglements generated by trade and colonisation began to have a lasting impact on everyday life in Europe. The module is taught by tutors from French, German and English Studies, and History, as well as staff from the National Museums Liverpool. It gives you an insight into the range of materials and methods that are used in research in eighteenth-century studies. Interactive lectures, seminars and fieldwork encourage a hands-on approach to learning. You start by inventing an 18th-century character and you follow that character through various experiences typical of the period: shopping, reading, travelling, thinking about political issues of the day. Images, artefacts and contemporary texts in English and other languages are made available to support your research. The aim is for you to develop your capacity for asking questions (curiosity) as well as for answering them (research skills).

This module considers display and public interpretation in museums and galleries on the one hand and publicly accessible sites and monuments on the other. This module examines current UK interpretation theories, policies and practices in an international comparative perspective. Heritage interpretation and display brings understanding of the past to peoples in the present, though what aspects of the past to reveal and emphasise can be highly political and controversial. The module concentrates on current practice, but it also reflects on the selectivity of heritage interpretation decisions, and the ways interpretation can exclude as well as include various sectors of society.

We, as a society, confront narratives of migrant experience daily. The rhetoric of crisis, disaster and emergency often defines the stories of those who have fled or been forced out of their homelands as powerfully as it pervades related debates around conflict, climate change and the Coronavirus pandemic. In recent years, as the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe and the rest of the world has been radically reconceived, our islands are imagined, by some, as places of refuge and, by others, as bastions vulnerable to invasion. But the complex ways in which migrants themselves experience, interpret and represent their settlement histories in Britain rarely feature within public accounts of the making of contemporary British society. This new interdisciplinary module takes a long view of the migrant experience in postwar Britain, guiding students through relevant aspects of social theory, moments in modern history, and literary texts. We will encounter the migrant experience through literature, film, performance, journalism, critical writing, and first-hand accounts. The module also features an alternative assessment: students will be guided by experts in creating oral history and verbatim theatre practitioners to generate new analyses and narratives of migration.

War Writing addresses the ways that wartime and peacetime are imagined by writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. We consider the topic by looking at a diverse range of texts that address war directly or indirectly. We ask our students to ask exactly what it is that war means and the ways in which writers have attempted to answer that question. We actively look to expand our definition of war writing and to include a wide spectrum of writers and writing.

Why do ordinary people resort to war to achieve their political aims? What are the personal impacts of political violence for members of a divided society? And how do communities emerging from protracted conflict live with its emotional legacies? This module explores human experiences of the Northern Ireland Troubles, using personal narratives to re-tell the history of the conflict from the standpoint of individuals, families and groups who participated in, lived through, and were impacted by its 30- year history of violence. Focusing on the relationship between conflict, culture and human subjectivity, Civil War & the Self shows how historical analysis of personal perspectives, motivations and memories can enrich understanding of the causes, experience and consequences of civil war, and considers the value of such ‘human histories’ for the work of post-conflict reconciliation.

Combining close readings of key historical debates with in-depth case studies and practical exercises in the analysis of oral history narratives, students will acquire critical knowledge of the contested historiography of the Troubles, gain expertise in using personal narratives to research the human history of civil war, and deepen their understanding of the ethical, emotional and political importance of history for divided and post-conflict societies. Themes addressed include the human histories of Provisional IRA volunteers and British military personnel; civilian experiences of trauma, sectarian intimidation, and residential displacement; migrant histories of settlement and personal adaption in Troubles-era Britain; and the creative uses of oral history as a method of ‘conflict transformation’ in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

This module aims to acquaint students with terrorism and counter-terrorism in today’s world. It starts by examining key concepts, theories, and history and then moves on to looking at a range of issues that have been the subject of particular debate, such as whether terrorism works, whether there are regularities in how campaigns end, and the necessity and contributions of literature on ‘Critical Terrorism Studies’. The module concludes by looking at whether we are at the end of the religious wave of terrorism and what we might expect to occur next.

Northern Ireland is justifiably considered a place apart in UK politics. The region experienced thirty years of violent conflict, known as ‘the Troubles’ (c.1968-1998), and it remains a deeply divided society. Northern Ireland’s devolution settlement was designed by international treaty, its party system is unlike any other in the UK, and its model of government is unusual even by international standards. This module introduces students to the principal debates associated with the conflict, politics, and governance of Northern Ireland. Topics explored in the module include: interpretations of the conflict; the strategy and evolution of paramilitary organisations; British state policy; the use and effectiveness of consociational powersharing since 1998; and ‘post-conflict’ politics and community relations in Northern Ireland.

This module will explore the art of writing for radio. At the same time, it will introduce students to the history of literature on the radio in Britain and Ireland. With a focus on the early and mid-twentieth century, we will survey essays, documentaries, lectures, radio plays, adaptations, poems and sound experiments. We will contextualise these works by discussing major events in the development of radio as a medium across the period: from the founding of national broadcast networks such as the BBC and RTÉ to the launch of the World Service; from the establishment and decline of the hugely influential BBC Third Programme to the histories of radio guides and magazines such as The Listener. The course will be underpinned by significant studies of media history produced by scholars including Chris Morash, Emily Bloom, Jürg R. Schwyter and Kate Murphy. Certain questions will preoccupy us throughout: is there something special, in an aesthetic sense, about writing for the radio? Do familiar writers have a ‘radio voice’? How have political and social changes shaped the programming of literature on the radio? And what role has literature on the radio played in forging national cultural identities in Britain, Ireland, and across the world? Writers and broadcasters to feature on the course might include: Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Louis MacNeice, Elizabeth Bowen, Dorothy Sayers, E.M. Forster, Dylan Thomas, Laura Riding, J.B. Priestley, Philip Larkin and Ewan MacColl.

This module examines the life and work of Ireland’s greatest and most influential fiction writer, James Joyce, from his 1914 collection of short stories, Dubliners, through his first novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and onward to his later masterpieces, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
Historical and biographical context will form a key part of our studies.

Semester long undergraduate dissertation working with supervisor towards a 10,000-word thesis.

Year long undergraduate dissertation working with supervisor towards a 10,000-word thesis.