Early Modern Ireland

Hist 317a is a course with a mostly chronological structure that takes students from the creation of the Irish kingdom, the English attempt to enforce the Protestant Reformation and the beginnings of English colonialism in Ireland to the Acts of Union. This lesson is scheduled at the very end of the semester. It introduces students to the ways in which political cartoonists interpreted Prime Minister William Pitt's proposed union of Britain and Ireland in 1799. 

By the time students engage with these cartoons, they have already encountered all the major developments of early modern Irish history, and they are familiar with the social, economic, and religious situation in early modern Ireland. Students have also had ample opportunity to engage with primary sources, including visual primary sources. Among others, students have studied textual and visual depictions of the Irish by English people, for example John Derricke’s The Image of Irelande (1581) and Edmund Spenser’s A View of the Present State of Ireland (1596). 

In Hist 317a, this lesson thus marks the end of both the students’ exploration of English and British attitudes toward—and treatment of—the Irish and their exposure to increasingly more challenging primary sources over the course of the semester. 

During this lesson, students learn how British cartoonists depicted William Pitt’s efforts to pass the Acts of Union. In particular, students analyze how these cartoonists conveyed to the public various labels and stereotypes about the Irish and depicted the Irish as either reluctant or willing to enter a Union with Britain.  

By first closely observing this primary source, students record the visual and verbal techniques employed by cartoons to convey these messages about the Union. By reflecting on a series of guided questions, students identify the messages contained in these cartoons—ranging from analogies between a political union and marriage to references to taxes and the alleged exploitation of the Irish by the Catholic clergy. Students thus piece together how the cartoons ascribed a variety of attitudes toward the Union to the Irish and generate follow-up questions. 

Students thus engage in research as a three-step process: first, recording of as many variables as possible through careful observation; second, reflecting on a primary source in the context of secondary sources and other primary sources and thereby coming to a conclusion about the meaning of the primary source; and third, developing further questions. 

Discipline(s)

History, Irish Studies

Time Needed

One class period of 75 minutes, or two class period of 50 minutes each

Original Course

HIST 317a: Early Modern Ireland

Lesson Plan Created By

Dr. Ute Lotz-Heumann, Department of History and Division for Late Medieval & Reformation Studies, and Mary Feeney, University of Arizona Libraries