Short courses

Summary

The turbulent early decades of the Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britian in 1800 were marked by rebellion, repression, and famine. After the ill-fated uprising of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen in 1798, the famine reshaped 

every aspect of Irish life from mass emigration, the growth of a rural middle class and the decline of the Gaelic language and culture. It was hard to imagine, amid the emergence of a powerful ultramontane Catholic Church in the 1850s, how Irish nationalism would persevere. Yet a growing Home Rule movement would eventually deliver 85 seats for Charles Stewart Parnell’s party in 1885 and a residual paramilitarism persisted (most notably in the shape of Fenianism). How did these brutal years reshape society and impact the social and political struggles to come? 

Join this 10 week course to explore this momentous period from 1798-1885 as rebellion failed, famine took its toll and Irish nationalism reemerged as a prominent political force, both in terms of the persistence of residual paramilitarism and engagement with parliamentary politics. In particular, this course offers the opportunity to challenge the received paradigms on either side of this much contested history and consider, over two centuries later, the lasting imprint of this period on our world. 

Over a series of talks our expert tutor will explain: 

• Key events of this period from rebellion in 1798 to 1885 including the Irish famine and the emergence of the Home Rule movement 

• 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 causes and consequences of the Irish famine  

• The rise of Irish nationalism during this period in the form of political and paramilitary movements  

• The challenge to British rule in Ireland in the form of Wolfe Tone, the Home Rule movement and Charles Parnell