History

Aims

  • To develop knowledge and understanding of human activity in the past
  • To promote understanding of the present in the context of events of the past
  • To develop knowledge and understanding of Irish, European and world history
  • To develop students’ understanding of historical concepts
  • To provide students with a perspective of change in a world of change

Syllabus Structure:

The Leaving Certificate History syllabus is broken into two courses:

  • Early Modern Field of Study (1494-1815)
  • Later Modern Field of Study (1815-1993)

The vast majority of students in Ireland (over 95%) opt for the Later Modern Field of Study.

The Later Modern Field of Study consists of six modules of Irish History and six modules of World History. Student s are required to study two modules from each section and of those two, one module will be prescribed from the Department of Education as a topic on which Leaving Certificate candidates will answer a question with historical documents

Later Modern Field of Study -Irish History (1815-1993)

  • Ireland and the Union 1815-1870
  • Movements for political and social   reform 1870-1914
  • The pursuit of sovereignty and the   impact of partition 1912-1949
  • The Irish diaspora 1840-1966
  • Politics and sociaty in Northern Ireland   1949-1993
  • Government, economy and society in the   Republic of Ireland 1949-1989

Later Modern Field of Study – History of Europe and the wider world (1815-1992)

  • Nationalism and state formation in   Europe 1815-1871
  • Nation states and international tensions   1871-1920
  • Dictatorship and democracy 1919-1945
  • Division and realignment in Europe   1945-1992
  • European retreat from empire and the   aftermath 1945-1990
  • The United states and the world   1945-1989

Assessment

Assessment will have two components:

  • The reseach study report (RSR) 20%
  • The terminal examination 80%

The research study report will be pre-submitted in April of examination year and is worth 20% of the total marks. The terminal examination will require students to answer four questions on examination day (one from each four topics studied). All questions are of equal value (100 marks) and one of the questions will be documents based.