Intro to Irish Geography, Geology, and Anthropology

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course and associated field-trips are designed to introduce the student to the Settlement History and Anthropology of Ireland and the ways in which these have been driven and influenced by both the underlying geology of the island and the combination of physical and human geography left by preceding waves of settlement. The course will take a chronological approach, analysing and interrogating the six recorded migrations/invasions into Ireland since the Mesolithic (see summary of lectures below). The geological and glacial geography of the country had a profound impact on the extent and density of these settlements and their impacts will be woven into the lectures and field trips. Three of the recognised migrations into Ireland date from the Prehistoric Era and must be explored through the lenses of geology, geography, palaeobotany and archaeology while the remainder date from the Medieval period onwards, culminating in the Plantations of Ulster in the early 17th Century by Scottish and English settlers and can also be explored through the conflicting lenses of contemporary historical sources.