IRSH 101 - Elementary Irish. 4 Credits.

Offered autumn or spring. This course represents an introduction to modern Irish in both its spoken and written forms: basic principles of grammar and sentence structure are covered. Emphasis is placed on the application of these principles in every-day situations. This course is housed in the English Department. The GenEd Foreign Language can be fulfilled by successfully completing IRSH 101 and IRSH 102.

IRSH 102 - Elementary Irish II. 4 Credits.

Offered autumn or spring. Prereq., IRSH 101. The primary objective of this course is to build on the foundations laid in Elementary Irish I. Students will expand their vocabulary with a special focus on verbs; they will also engage new themes that demand a corresponding increase in their store of nouns, adjectives, idioms and expressions. Students will also learn more songs and poems from the Irish tradition and thus increase their idiomatic and syntactical knowledge of the language. This course is housed in the English Department. The GenEd Foreign Language requirement can be fulfilled by successful completion of 102.

Gen Ed Attributes: Language Requirement

IRSH 201 - Intermediate Irish I. 4 Credits.

Offered spring semester. Students will continue their study of the verbs; engage more complex syntax and grammatical constructions; and consult the prose and poetry of the written and oral literary traditions.  For proficiency equal to the 202-level, students must take the three semester sequence (101, 102, 201, & 202) of Irish language study.  

Gen Ed Attributes: Language Requirement

IRSH 202 - Intermediate Irish II. 4 Credits.

Offered fall semester. Prereq. IRSH 201 or its equivalent from another university. Students will expand their knowledge of Irish language verbs: they will study the five declensions of the nouns; and acquire the vocabulary and language necessary to engage more abstract ideas and topical issues on an intellectual level.  For proficiency equal to the 202-level, students must take the four semester sequence (101, 102, 201, & 202) of Irish language study. 

Gen Ed Attributes: Language Requirement

IRSH 249 - The Irish. 3 Credits.

IRSH 250 - An Introduction to Irish Gaelic Literature. 3 Credits.

Offered every other autumn. This course will introduce students to the riches and delights of the literary tradition of Gaelic Ireland from the earliest times down to the Great Famine. Consulting texts in translation, students will read stories from the Heroic Literature of Ireland; they will learn of the impact of Christianity, the Viking Raids, the Norman invasion and the Tudor conquest on the canons of Irish literature.

IRSH 255 - From Warrior Training to National Sport: a History of Hurling. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring. Unlike most modern sports, the Irish game of hurling is a very ancient game, going back, some scholars suspect over 3,000 years. This course will examine the history of the game; its place in the literature of Ireland; and role of hurling clubs in the creation of young rebels who would go out to fight for Irish freedom. This course will be of particular interest to students at UM as the UM hurling team has won four out of the past five USA national championships.

IRSH 265 - From Bulls to Bullets: the Course of Irish History. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring. This course surveys the history of Ireland and the Irish, from the enduring myths and legends of the island’s first inhabitants where the potent social and political representation of the Bull was used to demonstrate power, to the bullets and bombs that defined the lives of many in the northern part of the country in the twentieth century. Like any place, Ireland has a complicated and complex history, where many different groups coalesced and divided along social, economic and political grounds.

IRSH 291 - Special Topics. 1-4 Credits.

IRSH 292 - Independent Study. 1-3 Credits.

IRSH 345L - Literature in the Irish Lang. 3 Credits.

Offered intermittently. This course acknowledges Irish as the oldest documented vernacular in Europe and its literature as a voice that is over 1500 years old. Examines the literary response of Gaelic Ireland to invasion, conquest, and colonization as articulated by its literature.

Gen Ed Attributes: Literary & Artistic Studies

IRSH 350 - The Literature of pre-Norman Ireland. 3 Credits.

Offered every other autumn. The objective of this course is to locate and examine Irish Gaelic literature of the pre-Norman period in the context of the native tradition and universal Church literature, to explore the ways in which the monks redacted ancient tales to achieve consensus for the new dispensation, and to analyze the impact of Christian culture on the canons of Irish literature.

IRSH 355 - The Politics of Culture: Irish America, the Gaelic Revival, and the Easter Rising. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring. This course will examine the origins and formulation of this new vision, the Gaelic revival in Ireland and America, and at the role of Irish America in the formation of modern Irish identity and the achievement of an independent Irish republic.

IRSH 365 - Ireland and America in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution. 3 Credits.

Offered every other autumn. A number of ideas, circumstances and events tended to unite individuals and groups in eighteenth-century Ireland with colonists in British North America. This course examines the connections and events that shaped these opinions. The course begins by looking at the ‘Atlantic world’ which brought people in Ireland, Britain and America closer through trade and emigration.

IRSH 370 - The Irish Conflict: 1968-1998. 3 Credits.

Offered every other autumn. This course examines the evolution, nature and context of the chronic civil and political unrest that erupted in the North of Ireland in 1968. When a civil rights movement aimed at securing such modest demands as ‘one man, one vote’ met with vehement state resistance, Ireland was pitched into the most sustained political violence in post-World War Two Western Europe. The longest deployment of the British Army in history failed to contain the most sophisticated insurgency ever known. O’Donnell will identify and explain the major political forces in play; not least the agendas of all major combatants. Account will be taken of the international dimension of the ‘Long War’, including the role of both private and state actors in the USA. Students of this course will receive a comprehensive overview of an inter-generational conflict from its inception to the seismic Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which resulted in all major forces adopting purely political modes of contest. Printed primary, manuscript and online resources will be utilized on a case study basis. Subthemes include political propaganda; tactics and strategy of the Irish Republican Army; hungerstriking; counterinsurgency; ‘The Dirty War’; justice and the law and ‘peace processes’. On completion students will be well situated to pursue high level courses in programmes concerned with political science; military studies and jurisprudence.

IRSH 375 - The Irish and their Language. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring. This course will examine the fortunes of the language from the earliest records to the present day. Students will consult the native record as well as the writings of the English invader. Their study will include an examination of the language and the worldview it presented - a worldview at variance with that of the English. They will learn about the role of the Irish of America in the movement to preserve and revive the language; and they will come to understand how the language we use not only unites us as a group, but also provides a philosophical foundation for our understand of the world.

IRSH 380 - Topics in Irish Studies. 3 Credits.

Offered intermittently. Prereq., WRIT 101 (or higher) or equivalent. A rotating variety of special topics in Irish Studies, including Irish and Irish-American cinema, major Irish/N. Irish authors, Irish cultural studies, and transatlantic and comparative studies.

Gen Ed Attributes: Writing Across the Curriculum

IRSH 381 - Contemporary Irish Women's Writing. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring semester. This course is designed to provide students with the rhetorical knowledge and cultural perspectives necessary to be successful writers at the college-level and more specifically within the field of Irish Studies. This course emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, reading, and composing in an academic context. To do this, students will explore research practices within the field of Irish Studies and related disciplines (such as feminist rhetorical practices, women’s and gender studies, and postcolonial studies) and successful composing methods to bring these insights to the page. Students will expand their purview by examining the literary, historical, national, and gender contexts for interpreting Irish texts.

Gen Ed Attributes: Writing Across the Curriculum

IRSH 382 - Rockin' Rebels: Popular Irish Music from Traditional to Punk. 3 Credits.

Offered every other spring semester. This course explores the concept of Irishness through generative works of music by artists such as Seán Ó Riada, The Wolf Tones, The Pogues, Sinéad O’Connor, U2, The Cranberries, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, and Soulé (not an exhaustive list). To do this the class will begin with an examination of traditional Irish music as a cultural form. Next, we will move through genres and decades charting political and cultural shifts as represented in folk, rebel, rock, punk, and pop music. We will explore concerns of authenticity and hybridity in Irish popular music and apply theoretical ways of understanding the reproduction and marketing of Irishness in a global context.

Gen Ed Attributes: Writing Across the Curriculum

IRSH 391 - Special topics. 1-6 Credits.

(R-9) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics;

IRSH 398 - Internship. 1-6 Credits.

Prereq., consent of department. Extended classroom experience which provides practical application of classroom learning during placements off campus. Prior approval must be obtained from the faculty supervisor and the Internship Services office. A maximum of 6 credits of Internship may count toward graduation.

IRSH 490 - Research. 1-9 Credits.

Level: Undergraduate-Graduate

IRSH 491 - Special Topics. 1-3 Credits.

Level: Undergraduate-Graduate

IRSH 492 - Independent Study. 1-3 Credits.

(R-9) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics. Level: Undergraduate-Graduate

IRSH 498 - Internship. 1-6 Credits.

Prereq., consent of department. Extended classroom experience which provides practical application of classroom learning during placements off campus. Prior approval must be obtained from the faculty supervisor and the Internship Services office. A maximum of 6 credits of Internship may count toward graduation. Level: Undergraduate-Graduate