This module will be team-taught by lecturers in the School of Art History & Cultural Policy. Dublin is home to a rich variety of museums, whose collections survey the entire history of Irish art but also include outstanding examples of European and non-Western art. The purpose of this module is to create an enhanced appreciation of art among students who are not majoring in art history by fostering a direct engagement with these works of art and architecture. Two one-hour meetings a week incorporating both slide lectures and discussion will focus upon art in Dublin museums. Although short readings will be assigned, the principal demand made upon students outside of class hours will be to visit the collections in which the works discussed in class are displayed. Assessment will be designed to give students the maximum flexibility while introducing them to analytical skills specific to art history. The grade for this module will be based upon one essay assignment and an end-of-semester slide test.

This module examines the range of art and architecture produced in Ireland in the medieval period from its early beginnings in the fourth century AD to the 16th century and the revivals and re-interpretations of this ‘Celtic’ art in the 18th to 20th centuries. It addresses how Insular art and monastic culture was affected by events in Irish history such as the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century and the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. The impact of antiquarianism and Celtic Revivalism in the 19th and 20th centuries in reviving awareness and interest in early Irish art is a major theme in the course, as is the notion of an ‘Irish Imagination’ in modern Irish art. Setting these within international contexts, the course analyses how these major manifestations of Irish art have contributed to and challenged notions of Irish cultural identity. The course includes site visits to major museums and galleries in the city of Dublin and to the Irish Folklore collection in UCD.

This module is intended for students new to Ireland and so largely unfamiliar with Irish archaeology and indeed Irish history. It aims to show how the Irish landscape can be read as a document to reveal many clues about Irish identity, whether that be ancient, medieval or modern. The module is focused on the idea of heritage: cultural landscape as a key element of Irish heritage. It is not based on traditional classroom lectures but on on fieldtrips, supported by materials available through our Virtual Learning Environment. But the best way to understand a landscape is to visit it, thinking and reading about it in advance and then thinking and reading about it again having experienced it. Two fieldtrips are normally part of this module, both concentrating on ancient and medieval landscapes within reach of Dublin by coach.

This introductory module provides students with an overview of the origins, languages, literatures and mythologies of the Celts from prehistoric to medieval times. It forms a solid foundation from which students can progress to study the legacy of the Celts in greater detail at stages 2 and 3. The first half of the module begins with a survey of the main periods of Celtic archaeology and then considers how the Celts were portrayed by Classical Greek and Roman authors, our only written sources for the history of ancient Celtic Europe. Following this, English translations of legal and historical texts composed in Ireland from the seventh century onwards are drawn upon to build up a picture of life in the medieval Celtic world, considering topics such as the structure of early Irish society and the role of women.

In the second half of the module, students will be introduced to the main genres of early Irish literature. This rich tradition will complement insights gained in the first half of the module. Students will focus on reading texts within the contemporary medieval context and will become familiar with the diversity of the early Irish literary tradition. The module will also address recent scholarship in relation to the interpretation of the relevant literature.

Following an examination of approaches and sources, the module will focus on selected genres. One approach categorises the literature into four main sections. These are: The Ulster Cycle, the Mythological Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the Cycle of the Kings. Students will also examine particular tale types involving voyages, death, love and other central themes.

All texts will be read in translation, supported by critical reading, and no previous knowledge of a Celtic language is required. Beginners’ modules in medieval Irish and Welsh are also available for those wishing to study the languages of the primary sources.

This course will consider the Viking experience of the Celtic-speaking lands and how the Vikings, through both confrontation and collaboration, had a transformative impact on that world between c. 780-1020. The Vikings were largely a silent people and it is largely through the eyes of those they encountered ‘peoples who were already literate’ that we first get to know them. Many of our enduring images of the Vikings are based on sources from the Celtic world, and some of the earliest and most complete accounts of the initial Viking raids are found in the Irish annals.

As the Vikings become a permanent presence in these lands, the Celtic and Norse views of the spiritual, heroic and economic world intersected and, at times, collided. We will look at the manner in which the Vikings are treated in literature and how this changes over time. We will trace the survival of rituals and beliefs brought from Scandinavia as exemplified by the decorated slabs and burials on the Isle of Man, where legends from Norse mythology feature on Christian crosses and a warrior was buried with a sacrificed slave.

There were personalities, both Norse and Celtic, who straddled both worlds, and many of these men and women were nurtured in both traditions and reflect the enduring and transforming contacts made through intermarriage, fosterage and political alliances.

The emergence of new dynasties and kingdoms is a product of the special circumstances of this period and we will consider how they arise and what their impact was on the wider Norse and Celtic worlds. Towns develop in the west and the north as a result of the Vikings’ new raiding/trading activities, and the connections between the contemporary developments of Dublin, Waterford and Limerick in Ireland and Kaupang, Birka and Hedeby in Scandinavia will be surveyed.

This multifaceted course will provide students with a clear understanding of this fascinating and dynamic period in the history of the Norse and Celtic worlds.

The Ulster Cycle tales are among the best-known narratives of Early Irish literature (c. 700-1200 AD). The tales depict the heroic society of pagan Ireland and the rivalry for supremacy between Ulster and Connacht. We will study, in translation, not just the centre-piece of the cycle (The ‘Táin’ or ‘Cattle Raid of Cooley’), but also other major and minor tales, which offer an introduction to the wide variety of themes, genres, and literary styles of one branch of this uniquely early literature. Among the most attractive and accessible of the Early Irish tales are those dealing with the lives of legendary or early historical kings and heroes, such as Cormac mac Airt, about whom many tales have survived. We will read these sagas in translation, to discover how legendary and historical kings are presented as admirable or otherwise, what the desirable characteristics of an ideal king were, and how the demands of kingship were reconciled with the king’s human needs. More generally we consider what were the pressing concerns of the social and political ruling elites of Early Ireland, and how how they were encoded and explored in a memorable literature.

This module provides an opportunity for students to become familiar with the art music tradition of Central Java by performing in the gamelan ensemble. The core focus of the module is on traditional Javanese forms and techniques, which students will become familiar with through practical experience with the various instruments and vocal parts that make up the gamelan.

Classes will include regular discussion of the core concepts of gamelan music theory. There will also be an opportunity for students to compose and arrange new music for the ensemble.

The module culminates in a end-of-trimester concert. Students will be evaluated based on an ongoing assessment of their progress throughout the term, and on their performance in the final concert.

This course examines new Irish theatre from the 1980s forward, with particular emphasis over the past twenty-five years, during a time of profound economic and social change. The disintegration of a unified national consciousness is reflected on Irish stages, and the proliferation of forms, themes, and styles signals trans-national concerns, urban consciousness, recreation of ‘traditional’ images and themes, and an interrogation of narrative, identity, and empathy.

This interdisciplinary module introduces students to a variety of questions, methods, and concepts underlying Irish Studies. A central theme of the lectures examines the processes through which identity is constructed through time. The course material raises a series of provocative and stimulating questions about concepts of Ireland and Irishness. This introductory module incorporates themes and methods from a broad range of related disciplines including history, archaeology, literature, film, art, music, sport, politics and folklore. The intersection between digital resources and traditional humanities research methods is explored through specified coursework. Active learning will be incorporated through reports on cultural site visits and reviews of cultural events.

The aims of the course are as follows:
1) To introduce students to an understanding of the breadth of cultural and historical knowledge and perspectives on ‘Ireland’ and ‘Irishness’;
2) To enable students to grasp the complex and dynamic ways in which Ireland and Irishness have been conceptualised;
3) To facilitate students’ engagement with the field of Irish Studies;
4) To develop students’ writing skills, research skills, digital competence and cultural awareness.

This module will explore a range of children’s literature by an eclectic set of writers from different cultural and historical contexts, surveying the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through a series of lectures, students will read a variety of different texts. By the end of the course, through close reading and analysis, students will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of major children’s authors, identify different categories of children’s literature, and illustrate an understanding of how these works reflect key social, political and cultural issues.