The module content has been selected to encourage participants to wear their 'Boasian' anthropology, culture glasses. Participants are encouraged to engage in Irish culture through visits to exhibitions, museums, cultural events and above all through contact with native Irish citizens particularly through conversation, debates and discussion. Classes have been devised to facilitate as much interaction as possible so that participants become
active actors in the classroom.
The assessments seek to engage students in academic and scholarly research in the library and beyond the classroom by having students conduct surveys and interviews with Irish residents or collecting data from sources lying outside the college library: thus, students engage in real world and pedagogic tasks.
Indicative syllabus to include:
Politics and government; Religion, faith & practice in Ireland
Education; Youth culture; Health service provision
Language in Ireland (Hiberno-English & Gaelic); Sociolinguistics of language and society; Hiberno-onomastics – toponyms; genealogy.
The Irish family; demographics and social mobility; social class, etc.
Social challenges-poverty, inequality, crime & punishment
The Economy – past present and future; The media- print, web and other
Irish literature in Irish and English; Music and the Arts in Ireland; Folklore & fairy tales
History (ancient, medieval and recent); Heritage & Geography – human, political, economic and physical
International relations; Emigration & immigration
Cities, towns, villages; Northern Ireland – politics, economy, culture and people
Sports in Ireland: golf, Gaelic games, soccer, rugby and equestrian pursuits
