No of Sets in 2023/2024: 2 No of Periods per Week: 5

Department Staff: Mr. Barry Finn & Dr Fergus Robson

Brief Summary of Course Content

At Leaving Cert.,  we study modern European, US and Irish history and 20% of the course is coursework in which each pupil prepares work on a subject of their choice well in advance of the final examination.

The Leaving Certificate course consists of five modules. In the Fifth Form we study ‘Dictatorship and Democracy in Europe, 1920-1945’ which essentially consists of studying the fascist regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, Stalin’s totalitarian state, the Second World War and Britain in the inter-war period. This is a popular and interesting part of the course. It is sometimes possible to visit relevant places of historical interest: we have visited the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, Auschwitz in Krakow, and the British Museum, the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum in London. We then look at the History of the United States 1945-1989 which covers topics such as American foreign policy, the Civil Rights Movement and the U.S. economy during the period.

At the end of the Fifth Form we begin work on the Research Study Report; pupils undertake to write a report on an area of independent research and topics have ranged from the historical importance of Anna Parnell to the Battle of Stalingrad. Essentially students can choose any historical topic they wish (within very broad parameters) and produce an essay of 1500-1800 words reporting on the results of that research. Students have performed very well on this module, generally securing in the range of 97-100% in a module which is worth 20% of their overall grade. In the Sixth Form we will study courses on Modern Irish history – Parnell, Unionism, the Home Rule Crisis, the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the history of the Irish State from 1922 onward. Finally we study a document-based module (DBQ), which is prescribed and changes every two years. The DBQ is on either Irish, European or American history or the history of Decolonisation, and examines limited aspects of the particular topic  in depth with a view to developing document analysis skills. In the Leaving Certificate for 2024/2025, the DBQ will be based on the Dictatorship and Democracy topic.

Comparison of Results with National Figures

The overwhelming majority of students sit the final examination at Higher Level (100% compared with 75% nationally in 2023). Again, the results have been consistently excellent in recent years (68% achieving H1 or H2 grade compared with 26% nationally in 2023).

Possible Career Areas for which this Subject is Useful/ Essential

Employers tend to see those with a history education as independent thinkers, open-minded and objective, disciplined good communicators, able to analyse issues and problems and able to put together logical arguments. History training imparts vital transferable skills. Typically historians are to be found in the law, politics, teaching, museums, journalism and the media, business, commerce, finance, sales and marketing, the armed forces, diplomacy, the Civil service and the Church.