HI3435 Ireland in the Age of O’Connell, 1775-1847

Module Organiser: Dr Sylvie Kleinman
Duration: All year
Contact hours: 3 hours per week
Weighting: 20 ECTS
Assessment: 20% Essay; 80% Examination

Who made the greater contribution to Irish history: Daniel O’Connell or Robert Emmet? Henry Grattan or Wolfe Tone? This module debates the competing views of Irish nationalism in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from the radical republicanism of Tone and Emmet to the constitutional nationalism of Grattan and O’Connell. Key events covered in this module include the 1798 Rebellion, the Act of Union, Emmet’s Rebellion, the winning of Catholic Emancipation, and the monster meetings of the 1840s. But, more importantly, it attempts to engage with and debate some of the central questions about the making of the modern Ireland.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Define the key changes in parliamentary and popular politics (as well as the revolutionary alternatives) in the period 1775-1847
• Identify and describe the shifts in Irish nationalism from legislative independence to the campaign for repeal
• Research and investigate the rise of O’Connell in the 1820s and the failure of his repeal movement in the 1840s
• Critique the political actions of the dominant figures from the period and the rate and review their actions based on the documentary evidence
• Undertake an advanced analysis of a wide range of primary sources relating to the principal interpretative problems of the period
• Apply different techniques of evaluation and interpretation to these sources
• Synthesize the main historiographical interpretations and interpret them against a range of primary sources
• Defend such a synthesis in written and oral presentations.