MA (Irish Studies)

Course details

The MA in Irish Studies is a one year interdisciplinary programme drawing on the disciplines of English, History, and Irish and including sociological and political science perspectives. The programme focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and seeks to provide for participants a critical interrogation of key junctions and issues in the historical, cultural and social development of modern Ireland. The approach will be interdisciplinary throughout, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of the Irish experience since the early nineteenth century to the present day.

A wide range of political and literary texts and other forms of cultural representation will be studied as primary material, and students will be encouraged to make interconnections between the various strands of their course.

The Centre for Irish Studies

The Centre for Irish Studies, which offers this MA, has established itself as one of the premier locations worldwide for interdisciplinary research and advanced teaching on the cultural, social and political endeavours of Irish people, in Ireland and beyond. As the only centre dedicated to Irish Studies in Ireland, its integrated, interdisciplinary programme of learning explores key aspects of the Irish experience in its historical and contempoary settings.

Another programme feature is that in addition to the Irish-language module, students attend two intensive Irish language weekend courses in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Field trips, guest seminars and workshops are also scheduled throughtout the academic year, with additional Graduate Research Training provided in Galway and Dublin to support and direct MA dissertation research.

Key facts

Entry requirements

NQAI Level 8 degree at H2.2, GPA 3.0 or equivalent international qualification. IELTS score of 6.5, or equivalent if applicable.

Course outline

Modules include:

• Ideology, Politics and Society in Ireland 1800–1921 (10 ECTS)
• Young Ireland to the Free State: Writing in English 1849–1922 (10 ECTS)
• Decline and Revival: Language, Literature and Society 1800–1939 (10 ECTS)
• pided Ireland: Politics and Society since 1921 (10 ECTS)
• The Politics of Modernity: Writing in English 1922 to the present (10 ECTS)
• Gaelic and Free: Cultural Politics and Writing in Irish since 1939 (10 ECTS)
• Dissertation (30 ECTS) Irish language classes at levels appropriate to students’ needs run in both semesters. Continuous assessment is employed and all students must be deemed Satisfactory in Irish in order to graduate.

Irish language classes at levels appropriate to student's needs run in both semesters. Continuous assessment is employed and all students must be deemed satisfactory in Irish in order to graduate. The teaching language of the MA progrmame is English.

Requirements and assessment

Course assessment of all modules is by continuous assessment during the year. A dissertation is submitted at the end of the year. Essays, dissertations, and oral presentations may be in either English or Irish at students’ own discretion.