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I. THE BURDENS OF IRISH HISTORY.
A. The National Narrative. The “800 Years” of English Domination 1. Early Modern Ireland (1500-1691). 2. Ascendancy (1691-1800). 3. The Union to the Famine (1790-1846). 4. Post-Famine Era (1846-1914). 5. Revolution and Partition (1914-1969. 6. The Northern Troubles (1969-present).
B. The Post-National Narrative. 1. Post-Imperial Ireland -- Multiculturalism & Religious Sectarianism. 2. European Irelands – European Union. 3. Revisionism – A Break from the Past?
II. THE LAND & THE PEOPLES
A. Land. Size: 32,000 mi2. Location: lat. 52o-55o N; long. 6o-10o W. 350 mi. across; 2,200 mi. of coastline. Highest point: Carrauntoohil (3,414 ft.) in Co. Kerry. Wicklow Mountains, Armorican Mtns.; drumlin (Irish, druim = hill), esker. Rivers: Shannon, Lagan, Boyne, Liffey, Slaney, Barrow, Suir, Blackwater, Lee. Largest lake: Lough Neagh (147 mi2) near Belfast. Climate; Soils; Vegetation; Bog.
B. Peoples. 1. Early Habitation. Earliest settlement = mesolithic in Co. Antrim, fourth millennium BC. Neolithic age --> megaliths (large stone structures): court cairns, passage graves (Newgrange, Co. Meath), fourth and third millennia BC. Metalworking ca. 1800 BC. 2. The Celts. Theories: literary, archeological, linguistic. Celts arrived in late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, first millennium BC. La Tène culture (Switzerland). Angles, Saxons, Jutes--> England. Celtic lands: Cornwall, Brittany, Isle of Man, Ireland. Arrival of St. Patrick (432 AD); center at Armagh, the center of Christian Ireland. Early Irish Christianity: calendar differences from Rome; centered on monasteries; strong missionary zeal. 3. The Heroic Age. Four provinces: Leinster, Munster, Ulster, and Connacht. Viking invasions (830-1014 AD); Vikings; Anglo-Norman Invasion (1170) by Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare, earl of Pembroke, called "Strongbow."
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