THE HISTORY OF CONFLICT
IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Transition Year History / Stair na hIdirbhliana

Transition Year History builds on the interest and enthusiasm for History acquired at Junior Cert level. These lessons focus on evaluating sources and making arguments from evidence and each week includes a class debate. Transition Year students have the opportunity to debate with other students across the country and beyond.

 

TĂłgann Stair na hIdirbhliana ar an suim agus an dĂ­ograis a fhaigheann daltaĂ­ ag leibhĂ©al an Teastais ShĂłisearaigh. Sna ceachtanna seo, tĂĄ bĂ©im ar foinsĂ­ a mheasĂșnĂș agus argĂłint a dhĂ©anamh Ăł fhianaise, agus bĂ­onn dĂ­ospĂłireacht ranga san ĂĄireamh gach seachtain. TĂĄ bua ag daltaĂ­ na hIdirbhliana dĂ­ospĂłireacht a dhĂ©anamh le daltaĂ­ eile ar fud na tĂ­re agus thar lear.

 

English to Irish translation of key words

Northern Ireland

Coursework

If you are teaching History at A Level, International Baccalaureate or Scottish Advanced Highers, this resource will help your students with any of:

Coursework (Edexcel), Historical Investigation (AQA), Thematic study and historical interpretations, and the Topic Based Essay (OCR), Project Dissertation (Advanced Highers), Historical Investigation (IB)

The presentation:

  • maps out the historiography of the conflict in Northern Ireland
  • examines different historians’ interpretations of a specific debate: was partition a natural development or a result of British interference?
  • demonstrates how to analyse a historian’s interpretation
Northern Ireland

Further reading

Here are some further reading suggestions, covering a range of interpretations:

 

  • Patrick Sarsfield O’Hegarty, A history of Ireland under the Union 1801-1922 (1952)
  • F.S.L Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (1971)
  • Tim Pat Coogan, The Famine Plot: England’s Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy (2012)
  • Ronan Fanning, Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution, 1910-1922 (2012)
  • Paul Bew, The State in Northern Ireland, 1921-1972: Political Forces and Social Class (1979)
  • Brendan Bradshaw, ‘Nationalism and historical scholarship in modern Ireland’, Irish Historical Studies (1989)
  • Roy Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (1988)
  • Marianne Elliott, The Catholics of Ulster: a history (2000)

 

Here are two essays which look at the historiography of Northern Ireland, examining why different historians wrote what they did:

 

  • Ian McBride, ‘Dealing with the Past: Historians and the Northern Ireland Conflict’, link
  • John Whyte, ‘Interpretations of the Northern Ireland Problem: an Appraisal’, Economic and Social Review Vol.9, No.4, 1978