Exploring Irish history wherever you are
One particularly successful tool has been our digital treasure hunt — a history quiz based on the Letters 1916-1923 database and similar online resources. Originally designed for secondary-school pupils, we have expanded our treasure hunt to suit the interests and needs of adults.In the form of case studies and challenge questions, which can be re-arranged and customized, we introduce first-time users of the Letters 1916-1923 website to the technical features of a digital archive and show them how our search engine and our browse options can take them to exciting content. The worksheets we offer on this page are the results of training sessions we have hosted over the years, and we are still working on their improvement.
If you are a parent, educator, group leader, or someone who has done the treasure hunt at home, please contact us to receive a link to all the answers. To get started, please download our About the Digital Treasure Hunt handout.
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1. Digital treasure hunt — general questions about Letters 1916-1923 and the usage of digital archives |  |
2. Digital treasure hunt — case studies highlighting individual correspondents or topics
a) Women’s stories of the Easter Rising and the Great War
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Marie Martin (WWI, nurses and VADs, life at the front, Catholic family life) |  |
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Augusta Dillon, Lady Clonbrock (WWI, Co. Galway, Anglo-Irish aristocracy, volunteering and philanthropy) |  |
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Dr. Kathleen Lynn (Dublin, Easter Rising, republican women, medical services, city life) | |
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Case study Rebecca Shackleton (family life, business, Easter Rising, religious minorities, city life in Dublin) | |
b) Irish republicans and their networks
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Austin Stack (Co. Kerry, republicanism, Irish politics) | |
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Seán Thomas O’Kelly (Irish politics) | |
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Roger Casement (Easter Rising, Irish links with Germany, imprisonment) |  |
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Charlie Daly and his family (Co Kerry, republicanism, female letter-writers, family life, Civil War) | |
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Thomas O’Rahilly (Co Kerry, politics, Irish Volunteers, nationalism) | |
c) The British administration in Ireland
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Case study Chief Secretary of Ireland (official correspondence, law, judiciary) | |
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Administration and politics in County Kerry (British peace-keeping efforts, local disturbances, the complexity of Irish politics during the Rising and the First World War) | |
d) Ireland and the First World War
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Irish soldiers in WWI (military action, social life, family relations, experiences abroad) | |