• Trinity College Dublin

Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland's History 1912-1923

Explore the lives of men, women and children living through war and revolution and social changes that made modern Ireland.

47,964 enrolled on this course

Election meeting in Dublin
  • Duration

    6 weeks
  • Weekly study

    5 hours

How do people experience war and revolution? How does political change, violence, total war, affect life in its most basic ways? Looking at Ireland through war and revolution, this course considers these and other questions about Irish life between 1912 and 1923.

The course looks beyond the familiar names and the famous faces. It explores how the events that shaped the nature of modern Ireland - the Great War, the Easter Rising, the Irish war of independence and civil war - were experienced by the people who lived through them or in spite of them.

Download video: standard or HD

Skip to 0 minutes and 10 seconds Ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Between 1912 and 1923, Ireland experienced radical changes that reverberate still. It was marked by revolution, guerrilla warfare, civil war, and partition.

Skip to 0 minutes and 29 seconds The history of this period has been told, retold, and constantly contested. But this course will attempt to do more than just focus on the familiar dates and faces. You will encounter a different kind of war and revolution with multiple voices and multiple truths.

Skip to 0 minutes and 51 seconds Over six weeks, leading historians in the field will challenge your understanding and certainties about what people thought they were fighting for. Why did people fight? What was won and lost, and by whom? What were the consequences for the ordinary man and woman? I think often when you see one historian in front of the camera, that impression is almost built in to whatever they say, that they have the right answer, and that there is only one answer. And in a sense, I think what this MOOC should be about is maybe being honest enough to say sometimes we often don’t have an answer and we never will have an answer. What’s actually exciting about it is the pursuit of the material itself.

Skip to 1 minute and 30 seconds Everybody experiences history, whether it’s the prime minister or whether it’s the street cleaner. History is happening to all of them. Nobody knows on Tuesday what’s going to happen on Wednesday. And you have to recapture that kind of sense of being alive. The phases and changing nature of conflict will be examined. The influence of total war in Europe from 1914 to 1918, rebellion in 1916 and the British response, the IRA’s ruthless guerrilla warfare, and the bloody civil war from 1922. Rich archive material will not only give you an understanding of events, but also the challenges faced by the historians working with often contradictory sources.

Skip to 2 minutes and 17 seconds The assumption that the lives of those of the great and the good and the powerful are in some ways more worthy of interest than the lives of ordinary people. And I think one of the reasons I got excited about getting into this in the first place is the opportunity actually to imagine ordinary lives in the past. The sources that we can use in the 20th century, I think the fact that people taking part in this MOOC can actually plug into those sources themselves and do things that couldn’t have been done a few years ago. We can now approach history looking at original documentation and asking their own questions. Learn to engage with the past on its own complex terms.

Skip to 2 minutes and 53 seconds Irish lives in war and Revolution. What will you discover when political, social, economic, and cultural histories collide?

What topics will you cover?

Through videos, assignments and discussions, through innovative approaches, this course introduces you to the history of Ireland in one of its most tumultuous periods. Considering the choices of those who fought in all sorts of ways for all sorts of causes, looking at the continuities of everyday life, this course allows us to question our broader understanding of these years.

Looking at the intricate and complex tapestry of lives lived, often in the midst of chaos, we might begin to ask different questions of these years. Do we understand war better if we consider the motivations that took a single soldier to the front, whether that front was in Flanders or Dublin? Does our sense of the entire period change when we examine general social and cultural trends or when we investigate their effect on private lives?

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify the main chronological events of the 1912-1923 period in Irish history
  • View historical events from multiple perspectives
  • Consider history in a thematic way (fighting, politics, society etc.)
  • Analyse on-screen content (videos, articles, images) for evidence of the main themes
  • Interrogate digitised historical materials in other national and institutional repositories
  • Apply learning in written assignments and online discussions
  • Question your own understanding of history

Who is the course for?

A basic interest in Irish and modern European history as well as a curiosity about how conflict shapes civil society. No prior knowledge or expertise is required.

You can find out more about what to expect from this course in Ciarán Wallace’s post for the FutureLearn blog: “Do you know what’s going to happen tomorrow?

Join this course as we begin to consider these and other questions.

What software or tools do you need?

No software or tools are required.

Who will you learn with?

Ciaran Brady is Professor of Early Modern History and Historiography, Anne Dolan is Assistant Professor of Modern Irish History and Dr Ciarán Wallace is in the Centre for Contemporary Irish History.

Part of the Academic Team on the 'Irish Lives in War and Revolution: 1912-1923' course.

Member of the academic team of Irish Lives in War and Revolution 1912-1923 MOOC.

Who developed the course?

Trinity College Dublin

Founded in 1592, Trinity College Dublin is Ireland’s highest ranked university. It promotes a diverse, interdisciplinary environment to nurture ground-breaking research, innovation, and creativity.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...

You can use the hashtag #FLirishlives to talk about this course on social media.