Dr Timothy Bowman, Reader in Military History in the School of History has co-authored a new A-Level resource on Northern Ireland 1900-1925 with the History Teachers Association of Northern Ireland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
Provided and compiled by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), this online resource, ‘Ireland 1900-1925: Crisis, War and Revolution’, is designed to support the Northern Ireland Council for the Currriculum, Education and Assessment (NICCEA) A2 module, ‘Partition of Ireland 1900-25’.
The resource covers some of the most significant events in Ireland’s modern history, from the introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill to the First World War, Easter Rising, and partition of Ireland and creation of two new states.
The resource provides accounts from a range of sources and perspectives, featuring 57 transcribed original documents and 15 historical images, drawn from the PRONI archive, including the speech of King George V delivered at the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament on the 22nd June 1921.
Though the content is tailored for A-Level use, the resource is accessible for all people interested in exploring the period, whilst examples drawn from recent scholarship carefully place historic examples in their wider context. This new resource replaces the ‘Steps to Partition’ pack, first published 40 years ago.
As co-author, Dr Bowman provided a series of introductory essays, emphasising the importance of the documents selected and their context within recent historical research.
Dr Bowman said: ‘For many years the teaching of Irish history in Northern Ireland has been seen as important in shaping political culture and civic society. Our hope is that those studying history will appreciate the origins of current political problems in Northern Ireland and will appreciate the views of all political actors, which should, eventually, lead to a de-escalation in political and sectarian tensions. The years 1910-25 did much to shape modern Irish society and the roots of modern paramilitary violence and political instability are all to be found there.’
The resource pack ‘Ireland 1900-1925: Crisis, War and Revolution’, is co-authored by Dr Bowman of the University of Kent’s School of History, Jim McBride from the History Teachers Association of Northern Ireland and Ian Montgomery from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.