AL Paper 3 SOW Ireland_and_the_union_scheme_of_work

AL Edexcel booklet Ireland_and_the_union_Topic_booklet

Paper 3, Option 36.2: Ireland and the Union, c1774–1923

Overview

This option comprises two parts: the Aspects in breadth focus on long-term changes and contextualise the Aspects in depth, which focus in detail on key episodes. Together, the breadth and depth topics explore the Irish struggle for constitutional change, and the ways in which the Irish economy and society changed and their impact on mainland Britain. This was a difficult period in the development of Irish society and for Anglo-Irish relations, involving passion, tensions and commitment to different causes that were in many ways irreconcilable, and an outcome that, by 1923, left many dissatisfied and eager for further change.

Aspects in breadth: the struggle for constitutional change, c1774-1923

Themes Content · Agitation and rebellion, c1774–c1870: the demands of the Irish Volunteers and the United Irishmen (key development: the constitution of 1782 and the rebellion of 1798); the role of Daniel O’Connell and the Repeal Association; the Tithe Wars; the impact of Young Ireland and of the Irish Republican brotherhood (key developments: the 1848 rebellion and the 1867 Fenian Rising and executions). 1 Irish nationalism: from agitation to civil war · The campaign for Home Rule, c1870–1910: the role of Isaac Butt and the Home Rule League; the role of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary Party. Towards civil war, 1910–23: Edward Carson and the UVF (key developments: the Ulster Covenant, the Curragh incident); changing attitudes and nationalist responses (key developments: the Easter Rising, the War of Independence/Anglo-Irish war, civil war and partition). · Evolving government policies c1774–1922: reasons for changing approaches to the government of Ireland (key developments: the Act of Union 1801, increasing the Maynooth Grant 1845, the Irish Coercion Act 1881, Gladstone’s conversion to Home Rule 1885; the Home Rule bill of 1914, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922). 2 British reaction: from resistance to acceptance · Changing attitudes of British politicians to agitation and rebellion in Ireland c1774–1922; the significance of Pitt the Younger, Gladstone, Asquith and Lloyd George.

Aspects in depth: societies in change Key topics

Content

• The significance of the Penal Laws and reasons why they were amended in Catholic Relief Acts, 1774–93. · Daniel O’Connell and impact of the Catholic Board 1811 and the Catholic Association 1823; the County Clare elections, 1828 and 1829; the passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 through parliament and its impact. 1 Towards emancipation, 1774–1830 · The significance of the campaign in the Irish parliament to remove restrictions on Irish trade, 1778–82; the impact of the removal of the restrictions on the Irish economy. · The importance of the textile industry in Ulster; the decline of the woollen and cotton industries; the impact of railways and mechanisation on the linen industry. · The development of shipbuilding; the importance of the Charles Connell and Sons and the Thompson and Kirwan yards; the work of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. 2 Industrialisation in Ulster, 1825–55 · The roles of Robert Hickson and Andrew Mulholland in the industrialisation of Ulster; its impact on working and living conditions; the Belfast cholera epidemic, 1848; discrepancies between Catholics and Protestants in employment. · The role of absentee landlords, middlemen, landholdings, monoculture and blight; impact of famine on populace. · The impact of government response to the Famine; Peel’s response; Russell’s response; the Irish Poor Law Extension Act 1847; the problem of export of food from Ireland; the roles of Charles Edward Trevelyan and John Mitchel. 3 The Irish Famine, 1843–51 · Social and economic impacts of depopulation; migration and emigration; consolidation of land holdings and importance of the Encumbered Estates Act 1849. · The significance of the Dublin Land Conference 1870; the reasons for the Land Act 1870 and its significance. · The impact of the ‘long depression’ on Irish agriculture, the problem of tenancies, evictions and rent strikes. 4 The Irish land issue, 1870–82 · The roles of Michael Davitt, William Edward Forster and Charles Stewart Parnell during the Land Wars; the impact of the Irish Land League; the Land Act 1881, reaction in Ireland and the Kilmainham Treaty 1882. · Working and living conditions for unskilled urban workers; the significance of the founding of the National Union of Dock Labourers 1907, and the ITGWU 1909; the roles of Jim Larkin, James Connolly and William Martin Murphy. · Events and significance of the Dublin general strike 1913– 14; the lock-out and implications for workers and employers. 5 Improving working and living conditions: trades union militancy in Ireland, 1907–14 · The role of British trade unions in the attempts to unionise workers in Ireland and in the Dublin general strike.