Welcome to our web page!!!!!!
Rayan
The site, in a way, is a culmination of what I’ve learned while being enrolled in this class. Prior to this class, I had little to no knowledge of Irish history. At the start of this class, I found it a bit difficult to connect with the content that I was being taught, primarily because I didn’t have this shared heritage or collective memory of 20th century Irish history. I had not realized that Irish history to some Irish-Americans was so important. It wasn’t until a week before the class ended did I realize the importance of learning of Ireland’s plight with both identity and freedom. I’ve taken a lot from this course and learned a lot about myself and Ireland. I think the one thing that interested me the most in this class was the struggle that Ireland has had with understanding what it means to be truly Irish if a part of who they are was influenced from an outside source. This class, undoubtedly, has provided me with a newfound appreciation for Irish history and culture.
Drew
Rayan is actually the person who told me about this class, and I am incredibly thankful that he was at my dorm watching Game of Thrones on the last night of add / drop this semester. I’m a junior here, but my last college did not have any Irish studies classes — the closest I got was an anthropology research paper on Ireland’s loss of indigenous culture as a result of membership in the European Union. As someone who is deeply and profoundly tied to her Irish ethnicity, I really appreciated that this class gave me the opportunity to both gain a deeper understanding of the recent history of my country and think critically about the legacy on which the Republic of Ireland has built its future. It is undeniable that the 1981 hunger strike occupies a precarious and often uncomfortable space within the larger framework of Irish nationalsim, especially now that the island is supposedly post-conflict. As Ireland increasingly takes active strides to become a secular, globalized, cosmopolitan country, I really appreciate these opportunities to acknowledge and study Ireland’s strange position as a nation that is simultaneiously European and post-colonial.
Administrators
Drew Arnum and Rayan Ramirez