The Decades Project Reflection
Ireland in the 1970's
I learned a lot about Ireland that I didn’t know before. In history classes I never learned about Ireland and didn’t know any of their history until now. At first I thought that since it wasn’t the largest country that not much would have really happened in this time. After researching more about this decade and location I came to learn that there was much more than I had originally thought. At the time there was a lot of violence and chaos because of the troubles. Before this project I had no idea about the culture and political state of Ireland whatsoever. Now I know a lot about the type of music that was popular then, the social divide between Protestants and Catholics, and the political issues.
One thing that has not changed since this time is that the troubles originally began for Northern Ireland to be freed from Britain’s rule. What has not changed is that Northern Ireland is still a part of Britain. The Good Friday Agreement ended the violence, however it did not allow Northern Ireland to be independent. There is still a divide between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The conflict didn’t exactly accomplish what Northern Ireland intended, however the Good Friday Agreement did end the violence. Something that has changed is the conflict, though the troubles were a very violent time, the Good Friday Agreement did benifit in that the violence ended which prevented many more from dying.
My personal favorite of the artifacts that we made was either the propaganda poster or the diorama. I think that both held a lot of symbolism and portrayed the events at this time very well. The propaganda poster was for the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and had several different pieces of symbolism. The three fists are the colors of the Irish flag and the slogan is simple and to the point. The diorama was a really good depiction of what the troubles were like as it also had any points of symbolism. The street with houses on both sides represented how the neighborhoods were divided based on religion which caused conflict, the two different flags which also represented the division, and the broken cross representing the religious conflict, as well as many others.
We definitely learned more about the political side of this decade, though we did learn a lot about social and economic, the majority of news at the time was political. The troubles were a very difficult time, therefore there was a lot more news recorded about it. The political conflicts affected a lot of the social and economical state as well, making it so the other topics basically depended on the political state of Ireland. One example is a lot of the music at the time was sung about the fallen soldiers or about the violence, as well as the economic state getting worse as the violence increased.
The only thing that I would change about the project would have been the amount of time that we were given. The days were understandably pretty scrambled as the schedule was adjusted to give us more work time. Although the extra work time was very helpful, I do think that a lot of the students could have used just one or two more days as a some people’s work looked a little rushed. I would have also picked a different book as the one that we chose was uninteresting and difficult to read in my personal opinion.
The book that we read was called A Stone’s Throw, a Story of the Troubles by Lee Watts. It is a story about Roy Ferguson and Marty McKenna who live on different sides of the street. In this decade the neighborhoods were often divided by people who shared different opinions. The two teenagers live in Ireland around the 1970's and the book is about their trials with the political state of Ireland and how it affects their lives.
I learned a lot about Ireland that I didn’t know before. In history classes I never learned about Ireland and didn’t know any of their history until now. At first I thought that since it wasn’t the largest country that not much would have really happened in this time. After researching more about this decade and location I came to learn that there was much more than I had originally thought. At the time there was a lot of violence and chaos because of the troubles. Before this project I had no idea about the culture and political state of Ireland whatsoever. Now I know a lot about the type of music that was popular then, the social divide between Protestants and Catholics, and the political issues.
One thing that has not changed since this time is that the troubles originally began for Northern Ireland to be freed from Britain’s rule. What has not changed is that Northern Ireland is still a part of Britain. The Good Friday Agreement ended the violence, however it did not allow Northern Ireland to be independent. There is still a divide between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The conflict didn’t exactly accomplish what Northern Ireland intended, however the Good Friday Agreement did end the violence. Something that has changed is the conflict, though the troubles were a very violent time, the Good Friday Agreement did benifit in that the violence ended which prevented many more from dying.
My personal favorite of the artifacts that we made was either the propaganda poster or the diorama. I think that both held a lot of symbolism and portrayed the events at this time very well. The propaganda poster was for the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and had several different pieces of symbolism. The three fists are the colors of the Irish flag and the slogan is simple and to the point. The diorama was a really good depiction of what the troubles were like as it also had any points of symbolism. The street with houses on both sides represented how the neighborhoods were divided based on religion which caused conflict, the two different flags which also represented the division, and the broken cross representing the religious conflict, as well as many others.
We definitely learned more about the political side of this decade, though we did learn a lot about social and economic, the majority of news at the time was political. The troubles were a very difficult time, therefore there was a lot more news recorded about it. The political conflicts affected a lot of the social and economical state as well, making it so the other topics basically depended on the political state of Ireland. One example is a lot of the music at the time was sung about the fallen soldiers or about the violence, as well as the economic state getting worse as the violence increased.
The only thing that I would change about the project would have been the amount of time that we were given. The days were understandably pretty scrambled as the schedule was adjusted to give us more work time. Although the extra work time was very helpful, I do think that a lot of the students could have used just one or two more days as a some people’s work looked a little rushed. I would have also picked a different book as the one that we chose was uninteresting and difficult to read in my personal opinion.
The book that we read was called A Stone’s Throw, a Story of the Troubles by Lee Watts. It is a story about Roy Ferguson and Marty McKenna who live on different sides of the street. In this decade the neighborhoods were often divided by people who shared different opinions. The two teenagers live in Ireland around the 1970's and the book is about their trials with the political state of Ireland and how it affects their lives.