Short courses

Summary

Northern Ireland, though barely 100 years old, has endured a difficult history. From its traumatic origins and Ulster's own ‘civil war’ 1920-22, bombardment during Second World War, sectarian discrimination to the rise of domestic conflict in the ‘Troubles’ from the late 1960s, in just 77 years of its existence until the Peace Process in 1998, Northern Ireland sustained extensive violence and loss. These dramatic economic, social and cultural upheavals forged a distinctive and contradictory identity over this period: from the premiership of Terence O’Neil to the rise of civil rights movement, from the growth of Sinn Fein and the provisional IRA to the opposition, the DUP, led by Dr Ian Paisley. How did a nation with such divided loyalties as Northern Ireland journey from partition through conflict to the cusp of peace?  

Join this 10-week course to investigate the key question this history raises to this day: can two identities and national allegiances be accommodated in the same state without oppression, rebellion, or violence? 

Over a series of talks our expert tutor will explain: 

• Key events in the History of Northern Ireland from its origins in 1921 to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 

• the key political, social and military developments that shaped these events 

• the key archives, sources and first-hand accounts available 

• the main historical debates concerning these times 

You will also have the chance to discuss and reflect on what you learn with other students and the tutor in seminars. 

Choose this course if you want to learn: 

• more about the major events and figures during this period including the origins of Northern Ireland and impact of the Seocond World War. 

• the causes and consequences of sectarian discrimination, the civil rights movement and 'the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland 

• The radical challenge to British rule in Ireland in the shape of Sinn Fein and the I.R.A, and the role of key individuals and movements including the DUP, Iain Paisley, Terence O’Neil, Martin McGinnes, Gerry Adams and others.  

• The circumstances leading up to the Peace Process