Most international students take courses in the Irish Studies program. International students are also welcome to take a wide range of courses in any of the six colleges, including:
College of Business
Accounting and Finance, Communications, Economics, Insurance, Management and Marketing
Faculty of Education
Education, Engineering and Physical Education
College of Engineering
Industrial Design, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Technology
College of Humanities
Culture and Society, Geography, Irish Studies, Languages, Literature, History, Public Administration, Politics, Social Sciences and Computers and Sociology
College of Informatics and Electronic Engineering
Computer Engineering, Computer Systems, Electronic Engineering and Mathematics
College of Science
Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Equine Science, Food Technology, Microbiology, Physical Education, Physics and Sports Science
Details on these and other unique offerings, as well as courses in other disciplines, are available by request from AIFS.
Students may be interested in some of the unique offerings the University provides. The University of Limerick is the only Irish university to offer these subjects at the undergraduate level: Aeronautical Engineering; Equine Science; Insurance; Physical Education and Sports Science, and Public Administration. (Students wishing to take Equine and Sports Science classes should meet with the Course Leader upon arrival at the University. This meeting is arranged for you by the International Education Division to determine if you are eligible to enroll for particular classes.)
Irish Studies
This multi-disciplinary program provides a comprehensive overview of Irish life and culture including Irish language and literature, history, folklore, traditional music, politics and sociology. Scheduling is organized so that conflicts are unlikely for students pursuing these courses. The University course numbers are in parentheses after the American equivalent.
| Fall Courses | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Gaelic 101 (GA 4115) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Language – Elementary Level |
| Course Description: | |
| Vocabulary, verbal forms and syntactical patterns used frequently in conversational Irish. History of the Irish language and an introduction to early Irish literature. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | History 303 (HI 4053) (3) |
| Course Title: | Ireland: 1750-1850 |
| Course Description: | |
| Discusses Ireland’s diverse societies economies and cultures; the disunited kingdom and discontented colony. The modernization of industry, breaking and making of the union as well as Anglicization 1750-1914 and the failure of economic capacity through to the triumph of capitalism will be examined. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature 201 (EH 4111) (3) |
| Course Title: | The Irish Literary Revival |
| Course Description: | |
| Examines Irish writing in English at a crucial stage in its development. It concentrates on poetry and drama with special attention to the work of W.B. Yeats; the fiction-writing tradition is also studied. Background and context form an integral part of the course. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature/Sociology 307 (GA 4105) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Folklore |
| Course Description: | |
| Definitions of folklore, collection and classification, verbal arts, minor genres, storytelling and narrative genres, indigenous and international tale types in Ireland, customs and beliefs. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature 320 (EH 4158) (3) |
| Course Title: | From James Joyce to Maeve Brennan: 20th century Irish Fiction |
| Course Description: | |
| The intersection of Irish cultural and social identities and the texts of James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Franc O’Connor, Kate O’Brien and their less well known counterparts such as the recently rediscovered Maeve Brennan is addressed. The efforts to create an “Irish national culture” in the period will be examined through contemporary perspectives in literary and cultural theory. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Music 309 (MU 4135) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Traditional Music – Part One |
| Course Description: | |
| Sources of traditional music in Ireland, composition and improvisation as creative process, dance music tradition, tune types, instruments, stylistic features, contemporary developments, changing concepts of harmony, emergence of formal group playing and dynamics by incorporating practical instruction in traditional music, dance and song performance. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Political Science 323 (PO 4023) (3) |
| Course Title: | Comparative European Politics |
| Course Description: | |
| Introduction to comparative European politics, a basic understanding of the organization of European governmental systems, the role of political parties, party families, voting behavior, majoritarian and consensual Democracies and the politics of individual European states. | |
| Spring Courses | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Gaelic 201 (GA 4116) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Language – Intermediate Level |
| Course Description: | |
| Based on texts and other materials used in Irish post-primary schools. Content includes aspects of Irish culture. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Geography 312 (GY 4018) (3) |
| Course Title: | Historical/Cultural Geography of Ireland |
| Course Description: | |
| Interpretation of cultural markers. Study themes of decoding the landscape, names of places, signatures and people, signs and symbols, landscape as a clue to culture, seeing things and history matters. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | History 314 (HI 4018) (3) |
| Course Title: | Ireland: Revolution and Independence 1914-1972 |
| Course Description: | |
| Irish nationalism in 1914, war, revolution and the end of the Union, the Civil War, independent Ireland and the two states, the economic and social impact of independence and partition, the post-war economy of northern Ireland, economic development, industrialization and relationship with Europe. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature 305 (EH 4135) (3) |
| Course Title: | W.B. Yeats, Heaney and the Politics of Irish Identity |
| Course Description: | |
| Applies the theories of Derrida and Lacan to writings of Yeats and Heaney, seen as pluralizing the politics and poetics of Irish identity. Post-structuralist and post-colonial analysis shows Yeats and Heaney’s works as they intersect with political forces of republicanism and nationalism. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature/Sociology 307 (GA 4105) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Folklore |
| Course Description: | |
| Definitions of folklore, collection and classification, verbal arts, minor genres, storytelling and narrative genres, indigenous and international tale types in Ireland, customs and beliefs. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature 316 (EH 4126) (3) |
| Course Title: | Imagined Spaces: Irish Cultural Texts |
| Course Description: | |
| Provides a critical and theoretical examination of Irish culture (both literary and media) ranging from early 20th century efforts to create an “Irish national cultures” to contemporary ways of imagining contemporary Irish identities within culture. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Literature 318 (EH 4116) (3) |
| Course Title: | Contemporary Irish Writing in English |
| Course Description: | |
| Contemporary Irish writing as it relates to the literary scene of the early part of the century. Major literary, political and social forces that helped shape it since then. Selections from contemporary poetry, drama and fiction. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Music 322 (MU 4136) (3) |
| Course Title: | Irish Traditional Music – Part Two |
| Course Description: | |
| Regional styles in instrumental and vocal traditions in Irish song tradition—repertoire and style, tradition and change in the music of the Irish harp, traditional music and society in contemporary Ireland. Practical instruction in traditional music, dance and/or song performance. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Political Science 311 (PO 4013) (3) |
| Course Title: | Government and Politics of Ireland |
| Course Description: | |
| Economic, social and political change, political culture, constitutional development, evolution of the party system, electoral behavior, social bases of party support and an overview of principal political institutions including the presidency, oireachtas, government, taoiseach and civil service. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Political Science 315 (PO 4015) (3) |
| Course Title: | Government and Politics of the European Union |
| Course Description: | |
| Development of the European Community/European Union (EC/EU) as a political system from the aftermath of the Second World War until the Maastricht Treaty. The institutional system of the EC/EU including the decision-making procedures, the interaction between the EC/EU and the politico-administrative systems of the member states and the ongoing debate on institutional reform in the EC/EU. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Political Science 316 (PO 4016) (3) |
| Course Title: | Issues of European Integration |
| Course Description: | |
| The main problems and obstacles encountered since the end of the first transitional period of the EC Treaty in realizing the principles and objectives of the European Community. Political- institutional problems that the Community faces including three major initiatives aimed at constitutional reform: Draft Treaty on European Union, the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty. Economic and political problems, the completion of the internal market, reform of the common agricultural policy, proposals for economic and social cohesion, the community budget and own resources, foreign and security policy and enlargement. | |
| Course Code and Credits: | Sociology 326 (SO 4016) (3) |
| Course Title: | Issues in Contemporary Irish Society |
| Course Description: | |
| Power, control and legitimacy in Irish society, social differentiation, the media and social control and processes of empowerment, forms of social conflict, dispute processing, dispute context and the public sphere. | |
