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15 credits, Semester one
Module leader 2024-25: Colin Reid
Module summary
Module summary
Irish republican politics are associated with violence. There is a long lineage of organisations that have waged armed campaigns against the British state in Ireland, from the United Irishmen of the 1790s to the Provisional Irish Republican Army of the modern 'Troubles'. While the violent, anti-state activism is Irish republicanism's most obvious feature, this has obscured the nature of republican ideas in Ireland. What was distinctly 'Irish' or 'republican' about Irish republicanism? How was the 'Republic' imagined? Which political languages did Irish republicans deploy to articulate their worldview? This module offers an intellectual history of Irish republicanism to examine various republican thinkers and organisations in context, and question the extent to which we can speak of a singular and unbroken 'tradition' of Irish republicanism across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, you will be able to:
Engage with Irish republican ideas in their wider contexts
Understand continuities and changes within the intellectual history of Irish republicanism across time
Demonstrate a critical awareness of the historiography of Irish republicanism between 1798 and 1998
Demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate complex arguments in verbal and written form
Assessment methods
Assessment methods
Assessment type - % of final mark
3,000 word essay - 100%
You will complete a 3,000 word essay on a topic related to one of the module's key themes. You will define your own essay topic in discussion with your tutor.
Additional learning and teaching information
Additional learning and teaching information
Teaching and indicative seminar plan:
The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutor in order to discuss your assessment for this module.
Selected reading:
Adams, Gerry, Selected Writings (Dingle, 1997)
Augusteijn, Joost, Patrick Pearse: The Making of a Revolutionary (London, 2010)
Comerford, R. V., The Fenians in Context: Irish Politics and Society, 1848-82 (Dublin, 1985)
Elliott, Marianne, Wolfe Tone: Prophet of Irish Independence, 2nd edn. (Liverpool, 2012)
Honahan, Iseult, Civic Republicanism (London, 2002)
Honohan, Iseult (ed.), Republicanism in Ireland (Manchester, 2008)
Honahan, Iseult, and Jeremy Jennings (eds.), Republicanism in Theory and Practice (London, 2005)
Kinealy, Christine, Repeal and Revolution: 1848 in Ireland (Manchester, 2009)
McGarry, Fearghal (ed.), Republicanism in Modern Ireland (Dublin, 2003)
McGarry, Fearghal and James McConnell, (eds.), The Black Hand of Republicanism: The Fenians and History (Dublin, 2009)
Patterson, The Politics of Illusion: Republicanism and Socialism in Ireland (London, 1989)
Pettit, Philip, Republicanism (Oxford, 1997)
Porter, Norman (ed.), The Republican Ideal (Belfast, 1998)
Smyth, Jim, The Men of No Property: Irish Radicals and Popular Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century (Dublin, 1992)
Quinn, James, John Mitchel (Dublin, 2008)
White, Robert W., Provisional Irish Republicans: An Oral and Interpretative History (Westport, CT, 1993)
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