Why use Letters 1916-1923 in schools?
Letters 1916-1923 is Ireland’s first crowd-sourced digital humanities project. It has created a new online archive of letters written from, to or about Ireland between 1 November 1915 and 31 December 1923. We are collecting letters from libraries and archives across Ireland and abroad. Many people have donated copies of their private family papers to the archive.
What is the educational objective of this particular lesson plan?
Different private and public letters from our unique collection are used in our lesson plans and bring to life what it was like to live in Ireland in 1916. The lesson plan provided here was initially developed for St. Angela’s School (Waterford), the Hartstown Community School (Dublin) and the Beara Community School (Cork). The sources used cover the Easter Rising of 1916, the First World War, and everyday life in early twentieth-century Ireland. By engaging with original primary documents, students will discover life stories which are not covered in history books and learn about the joys and sorrows in wartime Ireland.
Click here to download Teacher’s Pack (.docx 121kB). All documents needed for the exercises are linked below.
CONTRIBUTORS
Barney Doherty, Maynooth University, Kildare
Danielle O’ Donovan, Bridge 21, Dublin
Dr Brian Hughes, Maynooth University, Kildare
Niamh Crowley, St. Angela’s School, Waterford
Pauline Hurley, Beara Community School, Cork
Thomas Gerrard, Hartstown Community School, Dublin