Unit 15: Ireland, 1966-Present

Readings and Activities

• Read Moody, chapters 22-24, pages 288-344
• Read Dunne, Emigration (157-158), Hunger Strike (305-309), The Corpse That Sits Up and Talks Back (297-300), A New Ireland (315-316), The Body of an American (432-433).
• Retrieve and read the following articles from UMD’s electronic database:
  O’Brien, Harvey. Culture, Commodity, and Cead Mile Failte: US and
  Irish Tourist Films as a Vision of Ireland. Eire-Ireland: A Journal of
  Irish Studies, Spring-Summer 2002, page 58-75.
  White, Timothy J. Nationalism vs Liberalism in the Irish Context: From
  a Postcolonial Past to a Postmodern Future. Eire-Ireland: A Journal
  of Irish Studies, Fall-Winter 2002, page 25-40.
• Read the following (electronic reserve):
  Aisling Gheal
  The Díseart
  Gaeltacht
  Tusa
  

Assignments

• There is a project deadline this week--it may be deferred for one week (week 16). You should be prepared to present your final product.
• At the time you turn in your final project, be prepared to speak your Irish phrases. You'll also want to be familiar with the basic geography of Irish history. On a blank map of Ireland, you'll be able to indicate approximately where the following are:
  • Dublin
  • Belfast
  • The Pale
  • Cork City
  • Emain Macha
  • The Hill of Tara
  • The Battle of Kinsale
  • Glendalough
  • Armagh
  • The cities the Vikings established: Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Dublin and Cork
  • The basic territory of the four provinces
  • The Battle of Clontarf
  • The Battle of the Boyne
  • The 6 counties of Northern Ireland
• Describe the continuing conflict in Northern Ireland and explain the divergent viewpoints of the SDLP, IRA, unionists, and the British crown.
• Explain the Republic of Ireland's social and economic advances in the latter half of the 20th century.
• Define "Celtic Tiger."
• Define the dominant political parties in the Republic and their perspectives.
• Complete your timeline of Irish history that you last updated in Unit 10. Not every blip on the radar screen will be included; select events carefully to give the broad historical strokes.
• What does Harvey O'Brien mean,"Tourism is a two-way process of exploitation."? What are the paradoxes of tourism? What is cultural tourism?
• According to Timothy White, what are the origins and nature of Irish nationalism? What brought about the challenge of liberalism? What does he mean by, "Modernism is seen to erode those forms of community that provide for identity."? What is White's conclusion?
• Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is one of Ireland's leading poets. She writes only in Irish. How does it change your reading of her poem "You Are" knowing she is Irish? What elements or references do you see in the poem that have special meaning for the Irish?
• Gabriel Fitzmaurice writes poetry in both Irish and English. He also translates Irish to English. Compare and contrast "Aisling Gheal" with the two aislings you read in unit 10. In his poem "The Díseart," how does he play on the double meaning of the word (a retreat, and also the name of a Celtic studies center in Dingle)? (It may help you to know that Díseart Celtic Studies Institute is housed in a convent, and in the chapel there are twelve stained glass windows by Harry Clarke. People come from all over the world to take a look at them.)