3rd Year: Europe After World War I

The Treaty of Versailles was named for the palace it was signed in.
You've been here before.

Main Page: International Relations in the 20th Century

You begin your look at 20th century Europe at the end of World War I. You'll be learning about World War II at the end, but before you do that you must understand what caused it to happen in the first place. Well, the first seeds of WWII were sown in 1918 when WWI ended.

World War I broke out after years of suspicion across Europe. Britain and Germany each built up their armies and navies, both wanting to out-do the other. Alliances were made across Europe, with larger countries promising to defend smaller countries if they were invaded. A war was going to break out eventually, but the fuse was finally lit in 1914 when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead by a Bosnian-Serb group of assassins. As a result, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, France declared war on Germany, and Germany invaded Belgium in order to attack France... so Britain declared war on Germany.

The "Great War" was expected to be over "over by Christmas" (Europe was used to wars at this point), but it ended up going on for four years. Britain, France, Germany and Russia had colonies all over the world which also fought each other, and in 1917 the United States joined in, which is why the war is known as the "First World War".

By 1918, Germany was ready to surrender to Britain, America and France. Everyone wanted to punish Germany for the war, but how would they do it, and how would the Germans end up feeling? That's for you to find out...

Continue to Italy under Mussolini

• Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau: what did they each want?
• The Treaty of Versailles: terms and conditions, Germany's reaction.
• The League of Nations: set-up, successes, how it failed.

Europe in 1914. Important countries are named. Click to make bigger.

Europe in 1919. Click to make bigger.

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

Éamon de Valera, President of the Assembly of the League of Nations,
1938-9

FirstWorldWar.com
This website has hundreds of images from the war, and details on every key figure, event and battle which took place. 

The White House: Woodrow Wilson
The White House's biography of America's 28th President (who was first elected 100 years ago this year).

Number 10: David Lloyd George
The 10 Downing Street website has a biography of David Lloyd George.

Georges Clemenceau
The History Learning Site has a page on the French leader nicknamed "the Tiger".  

The Treaty of Versailles
The same site has an overview of the treaty and what it meant for Germany and for Europe.

Important Clauses of the Treaty
Here are some of the key clauses from the Versailles Treaty.

The League of Nations (YouTube)
A summary of the League of Nations and Germany after the Treaty.

The League of Nations (UN History)
The League's successor, the United Nations, has a little piece on its history.

The League of Nations (History Learning Site)
Another overview from the HLS.

The Failure of the League of Nations: Speech by Éamon de Valera
The leaders of League countries would each be afforded leadership of the League's Assembly for a year. Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera was leader from 1938 to 1939, the year World War II began. By now, the League was deemed a complete failure, and de Valera's speech addresses this.

The Tiger: "Curious! I seem to hear a child weeping!"
This cartoon is from 1919, just after the peace conference.
The child is labelled "1940 class".  What age would children born in 1919 be in 1940?
What do you think this cartoon means?

 

The Peacemakers (BBC, via YouTube)
An excellent hour long documentary on the personalities and motives of Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau, the three world leaders who took centre stage at the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles. Watch and see what they initially set out to do, and how they all had to compromise in the end while trying to solve a problem "that we are still struggling with today".

Welcome!

The best and brightest of the Renaissance are here to welcome you. The others will be along shortly.

Welcome to the History Blog! This site is designed to help you with your study of Junior Cert and Leaving Cert History. To the left, you'll see links for each year. Click on your year and you will find a list of all the topics you will study. Each topic page has information, tips and links to pictures, games and other useful websites.

How does this site work?

A note for parents and teachers.

As well as the topics you study in school, the In the News, Things to Watch Out For and On This Day sections below give you information on other things that happened in history, from the Stone Age as far as yesterday.

In the news...

The trailer for Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" has been released. The film is set to cover Abraham Lincoln's time as President of the United States, his efforts to abolish slavery, and the civil war that followed. 

Have you studied Emily Dickinson in English? The Emily Dickinson museum in her home town of Amherst, Massachusetts has revealed what is thought to be only the second known photograph of her. (full story here)

Archaeologists in Britain have excavated a skeleton they believe might belong to King Richard III, who doesn't appear in the History course but is famous for fighting and dying at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. (full story here)



Things to watch out for...
Although it's not really about history (yet), the Apartment Kids documentary on RTÉ One recently shows what urban living conditions can be like in Ireland today. Click on the link to watch it on RTÉ Player.


On this day...

The explorer Marco Polo was born on this day
in 1254.

September 15th


1812
Napoleon's army reaches Moscow.

1830:
The Liverpool to Manchester railway opens.

1916:
Tanks are used for the first time in the Battle of the Somme (World War I).

1935:
Germany adopts the Nazi flag and passes the Nuremberg Laws, depriving German Jews of citizenship.

1997:
Sinn Féin joins the peace talks in Northern Ireland.

coming soon

coming soon

How does this site work?

The site is divided into five main sections: First Year, Second Year, Third Year, Leaving Cert and the Exams.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Year & Leaving Cert
The First, Second and Third Year pages each have separate pages for every topic you study in those years. (e.g. Ancient Rome, the Reformation, World War II).

On each of those pages, there's a short summary of what the topic is about and what you will learn, and then the page is divided into a few parts:

What you need to know: This gives you a short list of the main things you should know by the end of the topic.

You might be asked to...: This has a few sample questions from past Junior Cert papers about that topic, so that you can practice answering exam questions. If there's a People in History question, there will be tips on how to answer it.

Links: The last part of every page has links to different websites which have more information about the topic if you're interested in it. The sites are chosen for being informative and being easy to read for your year in school. So, for example, the Ancient Rome page will have links to other websites about Rome, along with a few Flash games. The 1916 Rising page will have links to witness accounts and overviews, and Leaving Cert topic pages will have links to primary source material and more reading.

Every page also has a lot of pictures, and in some cases, videos, to illustrate different things about the different topics.


The Exams
This doesn't mean there are exams to do behind this link. This section explains the layout of the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert papers (both levels) and provides some advice and tips on answering questions well and on what to avoid doing.

There are "go forward to" and "go back to" links on every page. The menu at the side will always be there. To return to the home page at any time, click the words History Blog at the top of the screen.

Third Year: International Relations in the 20th Century

This is the final section of the Junior Cert course, and the last topics you'll study in History unless you decide to take it in Leaving Cert. You've taken a close look at Ireland during the 20th century, now you turn to Europe and focus on the most dramatic events of that century: The rise of fascism, with Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, the move towards a second world war, and finally the war itself.

After World War II, Higher Level students must study one of the three option topics: either the Cold War, Moves Towards European Union or Asian Nationalism. Your teacher will decide which topic is best for your class, depending on class interest and on how much time you'll have left in the year by then.

And there you have it, the Junior Cert History course. From the Stone Age to the Nuclear Age, you've learned a lot about the world you live in in the last three years. If you enjoyed it, take a look at the Leaving Cert pages to see if continuing to study History looks interesting to you.

I've split this topic into a five sub-pages (plus the three options). Click on the buttons to get the page you want.
or
Go back to Third Year

OPTION TOPICS

You will study one of the following:

 

People in History: An old person describing change in Ireland

An elderly man living in rural Ireland in the 1990s.

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland Exam Questions

This is the only type of People in History question to do with the Social Change in 20th Century Ireland section, but it can be asked a few different ways which can trick people out.

The most recent questions which have appeared are these two:

An old person talking about changes that have taken place in Ireland in the countryside or in the cities since 1900.
(2013 OL, 2012 OL, 2010 OL)

An old person talks about changes in entertainment, housing, transport and communications that have taken place in Ireland since 1950.
(2014 OL, 2009 OL) 

Because they are considered a difficult question to answer, instead of writing tips as I usually do I will give sample answers to these two questions, with the "So, in short" tips underneath them.


An old person talking about changes that have taken place in Ireland in the countryside or in the cities since 1900.

You must choose either rural life or urban life in this question. It is always good to write as a woman for this question, as you can talk about how the changes in the role of women affected you.

I grew up in the countryside in Co. Cork. My parents had a small farm and we lived in small, single-storey houses. Life in the countryside was difficult sometimes, there was a lot of poverty. All our water came from a well, and we had no electricity. My father would work on the land and my brothers would help him, while my sisters and I would help our mother cooking, washing and cleaning. Everyone needed to help as everything was done by manual labour.

Things started to improve in the 1950s when the government introduced rural electrification, which meant that electricity would be supplied to homes in rural areas for the first time. We bought an electric cooker and after a while we bought a washing machine too. This made work easier for my mother. I married another farmer in the 1970s, around the same time Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC). This brought more money into the countryside, which allowed my husband and I to buy a modern bungalow to live in on our own farms. We also bought powerful machinery such as milking machines, silage cutters and combine harvesters, which make the work much easier for my husband than it was for my father.

Social life has changed a lot. When I was young, the whole family would sit by the fire and talk or sing songs. We bought a television for our house and our children grew up watching that. Before I got married I used to enjoy going to dance halls and seeing showbands. By the time my children were teenagers, they were going to discos instead.

My daughter moved to Dublin in the 1980s. She went to university there and works as a lawyer. I never had that opportunity when I was young. Women today are able to do so much more than they were when I was young. When I was very young, my mother wasn't even allowed to vote. There are very few young people in rural areas anymore. A lot of them have either emigrated or moved to urban areas. Cities such as Dublin are getting bigger and holding more people, while rural communities are getting smaller. I wonder what the future will bring.

So, in short...

1. Introduce yourself and give your background. (small farmer, etc.)
2. Living conditions when you grew up: size of house, poverty, no electricity, water in well.
3. Working conditions when you grew up: manual labour etc.
4. Social life and entertainment: families by the fire, how that's changed.
5. Women: your daughter's way of life compared to your mother's way of life.
6. Finish up with the decline in population in rural Ireland.

An old person talks about changes in entertainment, housing, transport and communications that have taken place in Ireland since 1950.

This one is more straightforward, and you can bring both rural and urban Ireland into it. It's very easy to write too much for this answer though, so how can you keep it concise?

I can remember my grandparents living in a small, single-storey house in the countryside in Co. Cork, but I live in a Dublin city housing estate. I moved here because I wanted to go to university and get a good job, which my parents never had the opportunity to do. My parents grew up in small, thatched cottages with no electricity and no running water. They lived without electricity until the 1950s, when the government brought in rural electrification. That means electricity was supplied to rural areas which didn't have it before. Ireland's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) meant that more money could go to rural areas and improve the conditions there. My mother and father bought a modern bungalow when they married, with an electric cooker and washing machine to make their work easier.

When I was growing up, I remember seeing some people still using a horse and cart to get around. I also remember visiting Dublin once when I was very small and seeing the trams. Now, it seems like nearly everyone has their own car. When I was young, people only went on ships to emigrate. Now, people can go on foreign holidays by ferry, or by plane.

I remember my mother telling me about the dance halls and showbands she would go to see when she was younger. They were very popular back then, but by the time I was a teenager we preferred to go to discos and concerts. There was a small cinema in the nearest town which we sometimes went to if the film seemed interesting, but nowadays I can go to the cineplex in the city centre and choose from a list of films.

There was no television in Ireland when my mother was growing up, but in 1961 RTÉ was set up and my mother told me that when someone in the area bought a television, they were the only people there who had one for years. When I bought my own house when I was older, I had a television, and so did nearly everyone else. She also didn't have a phone growing up, but I did and now I even own a mobile phone. Teenagers today use the Internet, which seems to be the next big communications invention. I wonder what the future will bring.

So, in short...

1. Introduction and Background (your own grandparents' house compared to yours, why you moved)
2. Housing: rural electrification, effects of the EEC.
3. Transport: Horse and cart, trams... now cars, ferries, planes.
4. Entertainment: Dance halls and showbands... then discos and concerts. Cinemas and cineplexes.
5. Communications: RTÉ, telephones, the internet. Can also mention newspapers here.

People in History: A person living in Southern or Northern Ireland during the war years, 1939-45

Ration books from the war years.

Main Page: De Valera and Fianna Fáil

This unusual question appeared on the 2009 Higher Level paper, and could appear again in either paper in the future. The first thing to keep in mind about it is it's asking you to pick Northern or Southern Ireland. We'll go with Southern Ireland (the Irish Free State in other words) because there's a little more to write about there.

• As usual, introduce yourself (this will be first person) and briefly give some background: that war broke out, that the government enacted the Emergency Powers Act (explain what that is) and why Ireland stayed neutral. Say that it is 1945 and the war has just ended. That will mean you've had a lot of experience of life like this already.
  

• Next talk about the shortages you have experienced. Don't forget to mention your family and community as well, everyone stayed very close during this time. Talk about rationing: what was Lemass' job? What were the rationing books for? What did glimmer men do? What kind of people used the black market?

• Next, mention censorship. What did the government censor? Why?

• Now talk about being neutral during those years. Were the IRA around? What did de Valera do to them? You must be glad Britain gave back the Treaty ports. What would have happened if they hadn't? Do you live in Dublin or know anyone there? Heard about the North Strand?

• Next, talk about work. Maybe you or someone in your family are in the Irish army. What are they doing? Do you know anyone who's emigrated for work? Anyone who's joined the British army?

• Finally, finish up with Churchill and de Valera's speeches. What do you think of them? How does the future look? Will rationing end?

So, in short...

1. Introduction and Background (neutrality etc.)
2. Shortages and rationing: ration books, Lemass, glimmer men, the black market.
3. Censorship: What and why?
4. Being neutral: The IRA, The Treaty Ports, North Strand.
5. Work: The Irish army, emigration, the British army.
6. Speeches: How people reacted.

Don't...

• write about Northern Ireland if you pick Souther Ireland, and vice versa.
• include anything irrelevant (unimportant).
• spend too long on one topic.
  

Third Year: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland: Exam Questions

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

This is not a complete list of the short questions on this topic from past papers, it is a 
sample amount.

Click here for exam question tips.

 

SHORT QUESTIONS (OL only)
 
1. Name one major change in housing that occurred in twentieth century Ireland. (2011 OL)

2. Name one major change in the lives of women in Ireland during the twentieth century. 
    (2011 OL, 2010 OL, 2008 OL)

3. Mention one major change in farming in Ireland since 1945. (2008 OL)


PEOPLE IN HISTORY (OL and HL)

Both links take you to the same page.

An old person talking about changes that have taken place in Ireland in the countryside or in the cities since 1900.
(2012 OL, 2010 OL)

An old person talks about changes in entertainment, housing, transport and communications that have taken place in Ireland since 1950.
(2009 OL)


LONG QUESTION (Q.6) (HL)

2012 HL Q.6B

1. Give three major changes in entertainment during the 20th century. (2x3)

2. Identify three major changes in housing since 1945. (2x3)

3. Give three major changes in road and transport since 1945. (2x3)      

4. What are the main changes in the world of work since 1945? (12)


2011 HL Q.6B

1. Mention two types of primary source a historian could use to find out about social history in Ireland.
    (2x2)

2. Identify three changes in agricultural life since the 1930s (2x3)

3. Write about changes in two of the following areas since the 1940s: (10x2)
      (a) Transport.
      (b) Women's lives.
      (c) Sport and leisure.


2008 HL Q.6B

1. Explain how three of the following sources would be useful in studying social change in Ireland:
    Church records;      School roll-books;      Census reports;      Diaries                     (2x3)

2. Identify three changes in urban housing in Ireland since the 1920s. (2x3)

3. Identify three changes in education since 1960. (2x3)

4. Write about the impact on Irish life of the changes in communications since 1960. (12)

3rd Year: Transport and Communications in 20th Century Ireland

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

Dublin trams, then and now.

By now you've seen how many things have changed from the beginning to the end of the 20th century in Ireland. The last two areas you look at (together) are transport and communcations, two areas which have changed a huge amount. People in Ireland in 1900 were barely able to imagine airplanes. The internet didn't exist as an idea until the middle of the century, and that was in America. You'll look at how transport in Ireland went from the horse and cart to the cars and buses we're all familiar with now. We did away with trams for a while, but they came back in 2004 as the Luas. You might remember from learning about de Valera's government that Aer Lingus was created in the 1930s. Here you'll learn more about how Irish air and sea travel grew.

You'll also look at communications, by which we mean newspapers, radio and television (and now, the internet as well), and how their growth and change have affected Ireland.

The Irish Examiner, in 1922 (as the Cork Examiner) and in 2011.

• Transport: Trams, Trains, Ships, Influence of Travel, Modern developments (air, ferries, problems)

• Communications: Telegraph, Telephones, Newspapers, Mass Media, Television.

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

The RMS Titanic in Cork Harbour, 1912

CIÉ: The History of Transport in Ireland
Coras Iompair Éireann (the company that owns Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann) have a feature on the long history of transport in Ireland, complete with images.

Irish Railways, 1946 - 1996
More information on older Irish railways, including older rail companies.

Iarnród Éireann: History
The Irish Rail company, along with the Scouts, put together a PDF document on the history of trains in Ireland, as well as information on how trains work.

Aer Lingus: History
Interested in air travel? Aer Lingus has a page on its history here. The link at the end of that page has a detailed timeline showing when they acquired each type of plane.

Luas: History
Much shorter than the other links, but as new as it is, the Luas still has a history! 

Construction of the Jack Lynch Tunnel, Cork
The Jack Lynch tunnel in Cork was Ireland's first underwater road tunnel. It opened in 1999, the same year Jack Lynch died.

Irish Examiner: Titanic 100
A site launched by the Irish Examiner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, which visited Cork harbour before its fateful maiden voyage in 1912. 

RTÉ TV50: The History of RTÉ
RTÉ are celebrating their 50th anniversary through a website explaining (with images and videos) its history from 1962 to 2012.  

The History of the Irish Times
The Irish Times gives a brief history of itself on its website. 

Irish Newspaper Archive
Using the actual archives requires a subscription, but this site still has a lot of information about the history of each newspaper it features, from the Irish Independent to local papers such as the Limerick Leader and the Westmeath Examiner. It tends to praise the papers, so beware of bias.

3rd Year: Sport, Leisure & Entertainment in 20th Century Ireland

Gay Byrne presented The Late Late Show on RTÉ from
1962 to 1999.
© RTÉ TV50

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

Have you used the RTÉ Player to watch anything before? Even if you haven't, you've at least used YouTube. Twenty years ago, no-one would have thought you could watch things on a computer as if it was a TV. RTÉ Television is 50 years old this year (you might have seen some of their TV50 features).

The channel we now call RTÉ One was launched on New Year's Eve 1961. RTÉ Two followed in 1978. We didn't get a third channel until Teilifís na Gaeilge (now TG4) launched in 1996, and TV3 came by in 1998, the same year Sky introduced digital television to Ireland.

Just as TV has changed, so has cinema. This weekend you might go to the nearest cineplex or omniplex and choose from a large list of films to watch. Your parents and grandparents would have gone to single-screen cinemas to see whatever the biggest film of the time was (such as the latest James Bond film). Most of these cinemas are long closed down. In Cork for example, some of those old cinemas were the Savoy (now a shopping centre and nightclub), the Colosseum (now a Leisureplex) and the Pavillion (now HMV).

Jack Charlton, Republic of Ireland football
team manager, 1986-1995
Picture from Goal.com

One thing that hasn't changed (much) is sport. Gaelic games become popular towards the end of the 19th century and only became more popular after independence. Other sports have become important as well: in 1990, the Irish football team made it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and Irish athletes have always done well in the Olympics.
 
Maybe you prefer to stay in. Do you sit with your family around the fire, talking, playing cards and singing songs? This is how people in rural communities at the start of the century spent their leisure time. Now, across urban and rural areas, more and more people (young and old) are using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, mobile phones and digital TV. Entertainment has changed in a huge way over the last century.

Imagine what the students of 2112 will think of us!

Continue to Transport and Communications in 20th century Ireland

• Leisure in the countryside and in the city in the early 20th century.
• Theatres, music halls, cinemas and radio.
• Rock 'n' Roll and showbands.
• The arrival of television (and digital, videos, DVDs)
• Cinemas being replaced with Cineplexes.
• Sport (beginning of the century, government promotion, economy)
• Youth market (concerts, PlayStation, etc.

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

Slane Castle has hosted concerts since 1981.

RTÉ TV50: The History of RTÉ
RTÉ are celebrating their 50th anniversary through a website explaining (with images and videos) its history from 1962 to 2012.

Ireland Information: Cinema

Remember Jack Lynch?
Before politics, he was a Cork hurler.

This site gives an overview of the history of Irish cinema and films.

A Short History of Irish Cinema
Another overview like the one above. 

The History of the GAA
The GAA tells its history here. The grey menu on the left has links to a timeline, past presidents and GAA All-Stars going as far back as 1971.

The History of the FAI
And here, the FAI tells its story, divided into sections.

The Dancehall Era (YouTube)
This short video tells the story of dancehalls and showbands in Ireland in the mid 20th century.

The Showbands of the 50s and 60s
This site has as much information about Irish showbands as you're ever going to need, and it goes on to the present day.

3rd Year: The Role of Women in 20th Century Ireland

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

1st row (l to r): Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Countess Markiewicz, Sinéad de Valera, Dana
2nd row (l to r) Bernadette Devlin, Maureen Potter, Mary Black, Anne Doyle
3rd row (l to r) Mary Robinson, Mary Harney, Sonia O'Sullivan, Miriam O'Callaghan
4th row (l to r) Veronica Guerin, Mary McAleese, Joan Burton, Katie Taylor

You've probably noticed that women don't seem to feature very much on the History course. That's History's fault. Men have always tended to take centre stage, no matter where the place or time. There have been important women throughout History, of course: you studied the lady of the manor in First Year, who might not seem like much, but then in Second Year you learned about Queen Isabella of Spain, and Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I of England, who both ordered plantations of Ireland. Marie-Antoinette was an important figure in the French revolution, while Martha Washington is just as famous as her husband George.

Going forward in time, you learned about life and work in Queen Victoria's industrial England, and in more recent decades you learned of Countess Markiewicz in the 1916 Rising and the role Margaret Thatcher played as British Prime Minister at the height of the Troubles.

This part of the course concerns how life has changed for women in Ireland since the beginning of the 20th century. A hundred years ago, women in Ireland were not allowed to vote. Even fifty years ago, women could not be employed as teachers if they were married. Several Irish women (such as those in the picture above) have made their mark on history, from the independence struggle to today. The role of women has come a long way in a hundred years.

Continue to Sport, Entertainment and Leisure in 20th Century Ireland

• Women as second-class citizens.
• Women in the workplace (then)
• Votes for women.
• Restrictions on women after independence. (marriage ban, pay, the constitution)
• Recent times.
• Women in politics.
• Women in the workplace (now)

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

A poster campaigning for votes for women. Click on it to make it bigger.

Hanna's House
Hanna's House is a group which works for women's rights. It is named for Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and it has a page dedicated to her and the history of the suffragette movement, which is what this link will bring you to.

UCC: Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
A UCC biography of Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.

Countess Markiewicz
Read a biography of Countess Constance Markiewicz here.

Overview of the Women's Liberation Movement
This was a feminist group set up in 1970s Ireland in the wake of the report of the Commission for the Status of Women in 1972. Scoilnet provides an overview.

Uachtaráin: Mary Robinson (TG4 - YouTube)
A full-length documentary on Ireland's first female president. Mary Robinson served for one term between 1990 and 1997. (Irish with English subtitles)

Uachtaráin: Mary McAleese (TG4 - YouTube)
The documentary series also has Mary McAleese, who served two terms from 1997 to 2011. (Irish with English subtitles)

3rd Year: Rural and Urban Work in 20th Century Ireland

A modern combine harvester and tractor.
In 1900, this work would have had to be done by hand.

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

Go back to: Rural and Urban Life in 20th Century Ireland

You've learned how people lived in urban and rural areas in Ireland, next you'll look at how they worked. Farmers would work by hand (manual labour) until the decades after the 1920s when tractors and electricity were introduced to farms. The grants given by the EEC in the 1970s allowed for the use of modern farming machinery (such as the combine harvester), but with these conveniences come new challenges that farmers must face, such as competition and animal diseases.

Conditions improved for urban workers as well, with machinery being used in manufacturing jobs and service jobs becoming more important. By the 1980s people could work as software engineers or chemists. Unemployment has always been an issue, and now that the Celtic Tiger years are gone, it will be an issue once again, but work in rural and urban areas is continuing to develop.

Continue to The Role of Women in 20th century Ireland

• Rural Work since 1900: Manual Labour, Whole family involved, Market.

• Rural Work in Recent Times: Tractors, Electrification, EEC, Modern machinery, Modern farming.

• Urban Work since 1900: Skilled and unskilled labour, Women at work.

• Urban Work in Recent Times: Inventions, Service industries, Unemployment.

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

Urban workers in Dublin took part in the 1913 strike organised by James Larkin

Traveltalks: Glimpses of Erin (1934) (YouTube)
This 10-minute newsreel video was designed to show foreign audiences what life in Ireland is like. It focuses a lot on rural life and work, and shows exactly how people got by at the time. Well worth watching.

Life on a Small Irish Farm
This detailed website has a lot of information about life on small farms in Ireland, both in history and today. 

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
The Department of Agriculture has the job of taking care of farming in Ireland now. Their website has a lot of information on farming in Ireland today.

The Farmers' Journal
More information on farming in Ireland today can be found here.

UCC: The 1913 Strike and Lock-out
UCC have a detailed overview of the events leading up to, during and after the strike and lock-out nearly a hundred years ago. 

3rd Year: Rural and Urban Life in 20th Century Ireland

A modern urban housing estate.

Main Page: Social Change in 20th Century Ireland

When you studied the Great Famine at the end of Second Year, you learned that most Irish people lived on farms or simply wandered the countryside looking for work. Between then and the beginning of the 20th Century the only major change was the huge decline in the population caused by the Famine. There was still widespread poverty, and many people lived in small, two-room houses.

This began to change by the middle of the century, when the government supplied electricity to many parts of the countryside which had not had it before. When Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, European funds helped to improve the living and working conditions of farmers across Ireland.

Meanwhile, in urban (town or city) areas, the bad living conditions you learned about from the Industrial Revolution still existed, but conditions improved from the 1930s as new and better houses were built and cities such as Dublin were developed.

Continue to Rural and Urban Work

What's the difference between rural and urban?
Rural means anything to do with the countryside. Urban means built-up areas such as towns and cities. You learn about the differences between rural and urban life in Geography as well.

• Rural Life since 1900: Life in the early 20th century, types of farmer, bad conditions.

• Rural Life in Recent Times:  Rural electrification, the EEC, Social Life.

• Urban Life since 1900: Suburbs, Bad conditions, Health.

• Urban Life in Recent Times: Better conditions, Corporation Housing, Middle-Class, Dublin City.

Click here for exam questions you can be asked about this topic. (Higher and Ordinary)

A rural farmer's cottage in the early 20th century.

The National Archives: 1901 and 1911 Census Returns
Do you know where your great or great-great grandparents were a hundred years ago? Search for them in the census returns and find out more about how they lived.

Central Statistics Office: Students' Corner
The CSO keeps records on Ireland's population and economy. They are responsible for the census forms we fill in every five years (you might remember the forms that went around in 2011). Have a look through some of their data on Ireland today here.

Dublin Then and Now
This photography site has pictures of Dublin city from the 1960s. Hover your mouse over the pictures to see what those places look like today. It shows how much Dublin has changed even in the last 50 years.

Cork City in the 1970s (YouTube)
This 10-minute video documentary of  Cork city was filmed in the 1970s. It talks about the different kinds of housing in and around the city, and it also shows many old features of the city which are now gone, such as Dunlop's Factory, the Ford plant and the Queen's Old Castle shopping centre (now Dealz and Argos). It also shows Cork University Hospital and CIT under construction. Really worth a watch.