The Irish Identity: Independence, History, and Literature

Course Overview

Course No. 8740

Explore Ireland’s cultural renaissance through its revolutionary history and literary masterpieces with Professor Marc Conner.

This 36-lecture course examines:

• The political struggle from British rule to independence
• Literary giants like Yeats, Joyce, and Lady Gregory
• The Abbey Theatre’s role in cultural nationalism
• How historical events shaped Irish identity
• The artistic legacy of the Irish Revival

Video Lectures

01: Roots of Irish Identity: Celts to Monks (35 min)

Trace Ireland’s ancient foundations from Celtic tribes to medieval monastic culture.

02: Gaelic Ireland’s Fall: Vikings to Cromwell (34 min)

Witness the Norman invasions and centuries of oppressive English rule.

03: The Penal Laws and Protestant Ascendancy (31 min)

Examine anti-Catholic laws and Jonathan Swift’s political critiques.

04: Ireland at the Turn of the 19th Century (31 min)

Discover Wolfe Tone’s republicanism and cultural preservation through poetry.

05: Daniel O’Connell and the Great Famine (32 min)

Analyze the emancipation leader’s activism and Ireland’s devastating famine.

06: The Celtic Revival (31 min)

Understand how interest in Gaelic traditions fueled nationalist movements.

07: Shaw and Wilde: Irish Wit, London Stage (31 min)

Explore how these playwrights navigated Irish identity in English theater.

08: W. B. Yeats and the Irish Renaissance (31 min)

Meet the poet who became the heart of Ireland’s cultural revival.

09: Yeats in the 1890s (30 min)

Study Yeats’ occult interests and unrequited love for Maud Gonne.

10: Lady Gregory: The Woman behind the Revival (29 min)

Discover the folklorist who co-founded the Abbey Theatre.

11: J. M. Synge and the Aran Islands (32 min)

Experience the isolated communities that inspired Synge’s plays.

12: James Joyce: Emerging Genius of Dublin (31 min)

Begin exploring Joyce’s exile artistry through Dubliners’ stories.

13: Joyce’s Dubliners: Anatomy of a City (30 min)

Analyze “Araby,” “The Dead,” and other piercing portraits of Dublin life.

14: The Abbey Theatre (30 min)

Learn how Ireland’s national theater became a cultural beacon.

15: Lady Gregory as the People’s Playwright (30 min)

Appreciate her politically charged works like The Rising of the Moon.

16: Early Plays of J. M. Synge (30 min)

Study In the Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea.

17: Synge’s Playboy of the Western World (30 min)

Understand why this masterpiece sparked riots at its 1907 premiere.

18: The Dublin Lockout and World War I (31 min)

Examine labor struggles and Ireland’s complex wartime role.

19: The 1916 Easter Rising (31 min)

Relive the pivotal rebellion that changed Ireland’s destiny.

20: Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist (30 min)

Begin analyzing Joyce’s semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman.

21: Joyce’s Portrait as Modernist Narrative (30 min)

See how Stephen Dedalus “forges” Irish consciousness through art.

22: Yeats as the Great 20th-Century Poet (32 min)

Track his evolution from romantic dreamer to modernist visionary.

23: Michael Collins and the War of Independence (31 min)

Follow the guerrilla leader’s fight against British rule.

24: The Irish Civil War (31 min)

Witness the tragic conflict over the 1921 treaty terms.

25: Ulysses: A Greek Epic in an Irish World (32 min)

Grasp Joyce’s monumental novel’s structure and themes.

26: Three Episodes from Ulysses (31 min)

Dive into “Hades,” “Nausicaa,” and “Circe” chapters.

27: Molly Bloom: Joyce’s Voice of Love (29 min)

Explore the novel’s groundbreaking feminine perspective.

28: Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy (30 min)

Appreciate this playwright’s working-class tragicomedies.

29: Life and Legacy of Lady Gregory (30 min)

Revisit her remarkable contributions to Irish culture.

30: Yeats: The Tower Poems and Beyond (33 min)

Discover his later spiritual system and poetic masterworks.

31: Blasket Island Storytellers (29 min)

Meet rural writers preserving vanishing Irish traditions.

32: Finnegans Wake: Joyce’s Final Epic (32 min)

Navigate the dreamworld of Joyce’s most challenging work.

33: Patrick Kavanagh: After the Renaissance (31 min)

See how new poets critiqued revivalist nostalgia.

34: Modern Ireland in Paint and Glass (31 min)

Celebrate visual artists like Jack Yeats and Harry Clarke.

35: De Valera’s Ireland: The 1930s (33 min)

Assess the challenges of early independence years.

36: Seamus Heaney’s Poetry of Remembrance (37 min)

Conclude with this Nobel laureate’s earthy, profound verse.