Lecture 1: Interpreting Irish History
This lecture comes in three parts of about 20 minutes each and covers various perspectives that historians have used when attempting to make sense of Irish history. The first part focuses on the concept of boundaries and borders, the second part explores historians’ approaches to Ireland (also known as historiography), and the third part provides a basic grounding in pre-modern Irish history.
Lecture 2: Early Modern Ireland
This lecture comes in three parts of 20 minutes each and covers the history of Ireland from the start of the Tudor conquest of the 16th century through the imposition of the Penal Laws at the end of the 17th century.
Lecture 3: The Long Eighteenth Century
This lecture comes in three parts of 30 minutes each and covers Ireland during the Penal Law Period. It covers Ascendancy culture, developments in rural Ireland, and the crises of the 1790s, including the 1798 Rising and the Act of Union.
Lecture 4: Famine and Nationalisms
This lecture consists of three parts of about 30 minutes each. Part 1 covers condition in Ireland prior to the Famine, including the political reforms pushed by Daniel O’Connell and the Young Ireland movement. Part 2 covers the Famine years of 1845-1852 and Part 3 looks at the transformation of Irish nationalism in the second half of the 19th century, with a focus on the diversity of nationalist strategies.
Lecture 5: 20th Century Ireland
This lecture consists of four parts of about 20 minutes each. Parts 1 and 2 cover the events of the early 20th century, from the controversies over the Third Home Rule Bill, through the 1916 Easter Rising, the Anglo Irish War, Partition and the Anglo Irish Treaty, and the Civil War. Part 3 will cover political, social, and cultural developments in the 26 counties of the Free State/Republic from 1922-present and Part 4 will explore the 20th century history of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland, including the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Troubles, and the peace process.