Ireland – Life, Literature, History & Culture

Use Your Edge offers a number of innovative and engaging courses for teachers and learners based on Irish life, literature, history and culture.

The sessions on these courses will be in a workshop format, highly interactive, fun and with activities of immediate classroom use. The material will be presented in a variety of innovative ways and all participants will have the opportunity to contribute their ideas and, therefore, develop a creative and supportive learning environment.

Ireland - A Cultural Insight



Ireland - A Cultural Insight introduces participants to Irish life and is designed to present an overview of the contemporary cultural landscape in Ireland. It will focus on the main events in Irish history from the Stone Age to the modern day and present an overview of a wide range of aspects including lifestyle, food, sport, music, cinema and the arts, politics, education, religion, language etc.

Participants will have an opportunity to learn about Newgrange – The 5,000 year old burial grave older than the Pyramids, The Book of Kells, Ireland & The Spanish Armada, The history behind Irish Coffee, Whiskey, and Guinness, how sport in Ireland is more than just a matter of life and death, film and cinema – from Ryan’s Daughter to Game of Thrones and much more. The course will also a brief introduction to the work of some of the more famous contemporary Irish literary figures.

Ireland - Its Literature & Songs

Ireland is commonly known as the “Land of Saints and Scholars” and this course is designed to give participants an insight into the important place of literature, music and song in Irish culture. You'll learn about Pangur Bán, an Old Irish poem, written about the 9th century, the 'Aisling', a poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th century, writers such as Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Sean O' Casey, Roddy Doyle, Brendan Behan, Edna O' Brien, Nobel Prize winners W.B Yeats, George Bernand Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney amongst others.

You will also have an opportunity to explore how our poems, plays, novels, short stories and songs are an essential window into Ireland's rich and varied history. You'll meet modern day poets such as Patrick Kavanagh, Evanan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanain and Paul Durcan, shorts stories from Brendan Behan and Frank O'Connor among others, the plays of J. M. Synge, Sean O Casey and John B. Keane as well as novelists such as Meave Binchy, Colm Tóibín, John Boyne, Sally Rooney and many more.

In addition, participants will discover the characteristics of Hiberno-English and how the English spoken in Ireland has been influenced by the Gaelic language.

Ireland - Herstory

This course provides an introduction to the essential role of women in Irish herstory and society. You will meet famous women such as Queen Meave, the legendary figure in Irish mythology, Granuaile, the 17th century Pirate Queen, Catherine Hayes, the opera sensation of the 19th century, Dr. James Barry who performed the first caesarean section in British Empire, Countess Markievicz, the first woman female cabinet minister, Lady Mary Heath, the record-breaking aviator and athlete, Annie Moore, the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island, Mary Robinson, our first female President, Katie Taylor, Olympic boxer, investigative journalist Mary Rafferty and many more.

You can can find a list of course objectives and more detailed information on the course content from each of the course links the link above.

On these courses teachers and learners are encouraged to participate in discussions and debates arising from the workshop format, and thus to practise and extend their own English language skills. Working either individually or as part of a group, they will also develop short pedagogical projects in areas of their choice.