Current course offerings
Courses offered in Winter 2025
The Irish in Montreal / IRST 205 AA / HIST 213 AA
Monday 17:45-20:15
Drawing on a diversity of historiographical materials, this interdisciplinary course examines the story of the Irish in Canada with a particular emphasis on Quebec, from the French colonial period through the City of Montreal’s golden era of mercantile prominence in the mid-19th century to the break-up of its older Irish neighbourhoods a century later. Starting with the demographics of Irish immigration and settlement, it devotes special attention to social and cultural relations between the Irish and other ethnic groups.
Research Methods in Irish Studies / IRST 300 (3 credits)
Thursday 14:45-17:30
Intended for students who have completed some previous coursework in Irish Studies, this small seminar-style course will sharpen your understanding of Irish Studies as a cutting-edge interdisciplinary field that addresses a host of compelling questions about Irish history, culture, identity, memory, and politics, to name a few. Additionally, this course is designed to provide students with critical tools and skills necessary for cross-disciplinary research, analysis, synthesis and forms of presentation – written, oral, and visual – that can be of enormous benefit beyond Irish Studies. Course approaches and activities will include: readings and discussions around some of the key debates that have shaped Irish Studies; guest presentations by Irish Studies faculty that highlight the methods of research and analysis used in their own areas of study; research activities and projects that combine reading and research across two or more disciplines; and training in the rudiments of scholarly research – from effective library research and field work, to research project development, to essay writing or other research outcomes.
Sexualities in the Irish Diaspora / IRST 304 A / HIST 398 E / SOCI 398 B / ANTH 398 B
Monday 11:45-14:30
This course investigates the rich history that sex and sexual identities have played in shaping the Irish Diaspora over the past two hundred years. Representations of Irish sexualities and gendered expectations have been a controversial constant in the story of the Irish abroad and their descendants in the global Irish Diaspora. Key themes may include marriage and divorce, homosexuality, asexuality, racism, virginity, media scandals, heroism, alcoholism, sexual assault, nationalism, propaganda, punishment, gender-bending, and religion.
Troubles in Northern Ireland / IRST 315 A / HIST 398 D
Tuesday, Thursday 10:15-11:30
After surveying the historical roots of the divisions in Northern Irish society, the course traces the successive phases of the prolonged “Troubles” (1968 to 1998): the Catholic civil rights movement; the period of armed conflict between the IRA, loyalist paramilitaries, and security forces; and the recent peace process, as well as post-conflict issues including power-sharing, peace and reconciliation, and constitutional change. Attention is also given to cultural expressions of the Troubles and its legacies.
Irish Cultural Traditions in Quebec / IRST 371 A / HIST 398 F / SOCI 398 D / ANTH 398D
Wednesday 14:45-17:30
For over three centuries, the Irish have played a seminal role in the political, economic, religious, and cultural life of Quebec. During the eighteenth century, Irish Wild Geese soldiers arrived in New France as part of the French military and colonial establishment. A century afterwards, Irish ideologues, journalists, and revolutionary figures helped shape the political contours of both patriotic Quebec and the emergent Canadian confederation, while victims of the Great Irish Famine added a new and tragic chapter to the history of the province. Throughout the twentieth century, Irish communities continued to flourish in rural and urban Quebec, while individual Quebecers of Irish origin made formidable contributions to the life of the province. Drawing on historical, ethnographic, musical, and literary sources, this course will explore the story of the Irish in Quebec since the early 1700s, from small community settings in the Gaspé peninsula and the Gatineau Valley, to larger working class and mercantile enclaves in metropolitan Montreal, Quebec City, and Sherbrooke. Particular attention will be given to Irish commemorative practices in Quebec and the manner in which Irish communities have shaped and maintained their own sense of cultural memory and historical place in La Belle Province.
Irish Traditional Music in Canada: A Cultural History / IRST 373 A / HIST 398 G / SOCI 398 E / ANTH 398 E
Wednesday 11:45-14:30
The cultural history of Irish traditional music in Canada is inextricably linked to a matrix of Irish immigration and settlement that began in the late 1600s and that stretched from Newfoundland to the Yukon, from Hudson Bay to the Great Lakes, evidenced in music played by Irish, French, Scottish, and First Nation communities across Canada today. Exploring the music history of the Irish in the Atlantic provinces, Lower and Upper Canada, and the Western provinces, this course draws on analytical models in history, anthropology, and cultural studies, as well as ethnomusicology and music criticism.
Literature of Northern Ireland / IRST 398 CC / ENGL 398 GG
Wednesday 17:45-20:15
Since its formation through the partition of Ireland in the beginning of the 1920s, the six counties of “Northern Ireland” have experienced significant periods of ethno-nationalist conflict between its two major communities: nationalists and unionists. Writers from both communities have often attempted to make sense of this conflict, colloquial known as “The Troubles,” through their work. This course will examine the literature of Northern Ireland with a particular focus on both depictions of “The Troubles” and the possibilities of post-conflict reconciliation. Students will encounter novels, plays, short fiction, and poetry from a wide range of authors, including Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Brian Friel, Lucy Caldwell, and Anna Burns.
The Gaelic Literature of Ireland / IRST 398 E / ENGL 398 F (3 credits)
Monday 11:45-14:30
Through the medium of English translation, this course explores more than 1,500 years of stories, songs and poems composed in the Indigenous language of Ireland, Gaeilge. We will read inscriptions on stone carvings, lyrics written by monks, bardic poems, heated essays and all sorts of fiction, as well as listening to folk song in the Irish language and looking at films based on important books. Taking as its starting point the contact and conflict between the island’s native tongue, Irish, and its lingua franca, English, students will explore the many ways in which language can reflect and shape art, politics, culture and identity. With an emphasis on the discourse of indigeneity in Ireland, students will consider in particular the roles of poetry, prose, journalism, oral literature, song and film in sustaining a modern language. By drawing on their own linguistic experiences, especially in the context of Montréal/Québec, students will be expected to augment course discussion on topics such as minoritised languages, bilingualism, government policy, Indigenous culture, and the politicisation of speech.
Contemporary Irish Literature / IRST 398 F / ENGL 353 A
Tuesday, Thursday 13:15-14:30
This course examines a selection of Irish literary texts reflecting the social, economic, political, and cultural transformations in both the North and the South, written since 1960. The course will feature novels, memoirs, and personal essays from writers such as Edna O’Brien, John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Emilie Pine, and Anna Burns.
Irish Horror / IRST 398 G
Tuesday, Thursday 11:45-13:00
This course digs into folklore, mythology, film, theatre, literature, social media, and TV to excavate ancient and contemporary Irish fears. We’ll look at how beliefs about the Tuatha dé Danann or good people persist in the Irish psyche, at the supernatural in storytelling traditions, at contemporary horror films, and ghostly literature. And, most importantly, we’ll create some horrifying art of our own.
Irish Performance Studies / IRST 498 A
Friday 11:45-14:30
Special permission required. This course is intended for students in their final year. Performance Studies is a radical field. Some consider it an “anti-discipline.” Arising in the ’70s at the intersection of theatre and anthropology, it had a double impetus: first – to challenge the dominion of the western canon and give due scholarly consideration to ‘other’ cultures; second – to use performance as a lens through which to understand human activities outside the realm of art. In this course we use the insights of Performance Studies to address Irish culture and identity, from history-making Irish political speeches to modern day street protests, from religious rituals to St Patrick’s Day parades, from Gaelic games to gendered experiences. Irish Performance Studies offers embodied and intellectual tools to address questions of cultural identity and cultural evolution. Students should be prepared for a combination of creative and theoretical work.
Complete list of Irish Studies courses
For an entire list of possible Irish Studies courses, please view our list of other possible course offerings.
