HistoryHub
Connecting past and present
UCD offers a variety of study options and entry pathways, ranging from full-time degrees to short-term courses for pure interest.
Lifelong Learning offers all adult learners the opportunity to explore history, and many other subjects of their choice, without the pressure of an examination.
Open Learning means you can fit university around your life. Whether you’re looking to progress your career, or you’ve just finished school and wondering if university is for you, Open Learning fits around your schedule and gives you all the benefits of being a full-time student, without the full-time commitment.
For 2025 / 2026 UCD School of History has a range of course options available as part of the Open Learning and Lifelong Learning programmes.
UCD’s Lifelong Learning Programme is a series of specific interest courses that are participative, engaging, and facilitated by experts in their field.
The courses are short in duration, generally running over 4 or 8 sessions, and are open to all adult learners. They provide a unique opportunity to explore a subject without examinations.
The Lifelong Learning options from UCD School of History for Autumn 2025 are:
The Lifelong Learning options from UCD School of History for Spring 2026 are:
The Lifelong Learning options from UCD School of History for autumn 2025 are now available to book. More information on the courses is available below.
For registration and fee details go to the UCD ALL website, call 01 7167123 or email: all@ucd.ie
What is the history of University College Dublin (UCD)? How does learning about this campus help us understand and navigate higher education on a global scale? And what sources do scholars have at their disposal to tell such histories? This course addresses these questions as we will learn about the history of UCD, from its foundations as the Catholic University of Ireland and then University College, to aims and missions of the university as it changed over time. We’ll study the origins of the university from the perspective of staff and students, honing in on their involvement in the Irish War of Independence, the physical moving of the campus from Dublin city centre to a purpose build campus in Belfield (and in the 1990s, Blackrock). We will look at protests movements and occupation on campus in the 1960s and compare these to more recent and ongoing protest movements. The course is hands-on, and will include brief weekly walks around campus to discuss the history and placement of specific buildings and we hone in on the unique and local history of UCD and compare our university to other campuses around the world.
Tutor: Dr Jeremiah Garsha
Location: Belfield
Start date: 29 September 2025
Fee: €195
Book here.
How did people in 1960s Ireland live? What kind of changes did they live through? How did they interact with the wider world? What kind of popular culture did they consume? This course will answer these questions and introduce students to the history of this period. Students will learn about political changes during the period, such as the handover in power from Éamon De Valera and Sean Lemass, the beginning of the Troubles, and the women’s rights movement. The course will also cover key political developments such as the introduction of free secondary education and the Dublin housing crisis. They will also learn about the economic changes that happened during the decade, particularly the rise in standards of living that occurred in the 1960s. An emphasis will be placed on the impact of these changes on “ordinary people”. This course will also look closely at the popular culture of the 1960s. It will look at changes in the showband scene during this time and at newer musical trends such as beat music and folk music. It will also examine the youth subcultures that formed around this music like the hippies, beats, and teddy boys. Students will also learn about the creation of Telefís Éireann and cinema going in the 1960s. This course will also introduce students to a number of important primary sources from the period, like advertisements, television clips, and magazines.
Tutor: Dr Morgan Wait
Location: National Library of Ireland
Start date: 29 September 2025
Fee: €195.
Book here.
This course offers an introduction to family history in Ireland. It acquaints learners with the methods and sources for conducting effective Irish family history research. It places a strong emphasis on examining online Irish genealogical sources, particularly those sources dating to the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include census records, civil records, church records and land records. In addition to these categories of source, some attention will be given to estate records, cemeteries, professional records, and extant Early Modern sources. Students will be given the opportunity to locate and critically analyse and evaluate different types of sources.
Tutor: Dr Sarah Feehan
Location: Belfield
Start date: 29 September 2025
Fee: €160.
Book here.
*There will be a free taster lecture for this course on 20 August 2025.
Book here.
This course offers an introduction to family history in Ireland. It acquaints learners with the methods and sources for conducting effective Irish family history research. It places a strong emphasis on examining online Irish genealogical sources, particularly those sources dating to the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include: census records, civil records, church records and land records. In addition to these categories of source, some attention will be given to estate records, cemeteries, professional records, and extant Early Modern sources. Students will be given the opportunity to locate and critically analyse and evaluate different types of sources. Learners will receive guidance enabling them to conduct their own Irish family history research projects, culminating in the (optional) creation of research outputs (e.g. family trees, presentations on a particular ancestor, genealogical problem solving etc). This guidance will include both practical tips and information about the nature of genealogical sources in Ireland and the historical background to their creation. The course is delivered through contiguous lectures and seminars. The latter involve active learning, including both individual and collaborative learning exercises, often using online databases. The final week of the course is devoted to a discussion of the use of DNA for family history research. The course will be ideal for anyone who wants to get involved in researching their own family’s history using sources available online. It will also of great benefit anyone who wants to understand how family historians use sources to interpret aspects of the past.
Tutor: Dr Thomas Tormey
Location: Dundrum Pastoral Centre
Start date: 30 September 2025
Fee: €195.
Book here.
*There will be a free taster lecture for this course on 20 August 2025.
Book here.
This course is designed as an introduction to early Irish society and culture.
Documented history in Ireland begins in the late fourth and fifth centuries. We will look at our sources for the period. What are they? How were they written and why? Kingship was central to society. We will look at the power of kingship and how it adapted to the radical changes brought by Christianity. Ireland became Christian through contact with the Roman World. We will examine the nature of this contact and the impact that it had upon the Irish.
We will consider the treatment of women and the make-up of the economy. We will look at Armagh and its relationship with the cult of St Patrick and how it emerged as the chief church of the Irish. We consider the nature of the Irish church as it develops – the great monastic complexes with the schools and scriptoria and the ‘work of angels’. We see the role of the Irish church in Britain and on the Continent and consider the impact of Columba and Columbanus. We will visit the ‘Words on the Wave’ exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland which illustrate this contribution. As our period closes we will examine the changes, opportunities and terror brought by the Norsemen. Lastly we will consider the Battle of Clontarf and the propaganda that surrounding it. The chronological range of the course will be essentially between 400 and c.1014. A.D.
Tutor: Dr Linda Doran
Location: Belfield
Start date: 2 October 2025
Fee: €195.
Book here.
America is a vibrant nation drawing together peoples from diverse cultural, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. Together they are the United States of America, however within these United States there is also difference and disparity which has often led to division, division that, it could be argued, though present since the foundation of the nation has deepened and widened as America has moved into the twenty-first century.
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing together the 13 colonies to form the United States of America, this course will explore issues which have been divisive in America since its establishment including race, immigration, and political, social and economic inequality.
Differing political views, social and economic inequality, issues such as civil rights, race, and immigration have all highlighted differences and disparities that exist in America. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries many of these issues have become more critical with people from differing sides trying to push their views to the fore. This has at times led to the widening of the gap between the various perspectives on important issues and the deepening of divisions in American society.
In this course we will examine the differing views and opinions that have played a role in shaping modern American. We will analyse how issues such as immigration, economic inequality, religion, race, and civil rights have been addressed by different groups in American society throughout the period. We will critically assess how, in trying to address the differences and disparities that exist, political and social leaders have brought about the changes that have shaped America over the last 100 years.
The course does not presuppose an in-depth knowledge of American history or politics.
Tutor: Dr Sarah Feehan
Location: Online
Start date: 26 January 2026
Fee: €160.
Book here.
America is a vibrant nation drawing together peoples from diverse cultural, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. Together they are the United States of America, however within these United States there is also difference and disparity which has often led to division, division that, it could be argued, though present since the foundation of the nation has deepened and widened as America has moved into the twenty-first century.
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing together the 13 colonies to form the United States of America, this course will explore issues which have been divisive in America since its establishment including race, immigration, and political, social and economic inequality.
Differing political views, social and economic inequality, issues such as civil rights, race, and immigration have all highlighted differences and disparities that exist in America. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries many of these issues have become more critical with people from differing sides trying to push their views to the fore. This has at times led to the widening of the gap between the various perspectives on important issues and the deepening of divisions in American society.
In this course we will examine the differing views and opinions that have played a role in shaping modern American. We will analyse how issues such as immigration, economic inequality, religion, race, and civil rights have been addressed by different groups in American society throughout the period. We will critically assess how, in trying to address the differences and disparities that exist, political and social leaders have brought about the changes that have shaped America over the last 100 years.
The course does not presuppose an in-depth knowledge of American history or politics.
Tutor: Dr Sarah Feehan
Location: Online
Start date: 26 January 2026
Fee: €160.
Book here.
This course will consider the Viking experience of the Celtic-speaking lands and how the Vikings, through both confrontation and collaboration, had a transformative impact on that world between c. 780 – 1020. The Vikings were largely a silent people and it is largely through the eyes of those they encountered – peoples who were already literate – that we first get to know them. Many of our enduring images of the Vikings are based on sources from the Celtic world, and some of the earliest and most complete accounts of the initial Viking raids are found in the Irish annals.
As the Vikings become a permanent presence in these lands, the Celtic and Norse views of the spiritual, heroic and economic world intersected and, at times, collided. We will trace the survival of rituals and beliefs brought from Scandinavia as exemplified by the decorated slabs and burials on the Isle of Man, where legends from Norse mythology feature on Christian crosses and a warrior was buried with a sacrificed slave.
There were personalities, both Norse and Celtic, who straddled both worlds, and many of these men and women were nurtured in both traditions and reflect the enduring and transforming contacts made through intermarriage, fosterage and political alliances. Towns develop in the west and the north as a result of the Vikings’ new raiding/trading activities, and the connections between the contemporary developments of Dublin, Waterford and Limerick in Ireland and Kaupang, Birka and Hedeby in Scandinavia will be surveyed.
Tutor: Dr Linda Doran
Location: Belfield
Start date: 29 January 2026
Fee: €195.
Book here.
Open Learning means you can fit university around your life. Whether you’re looking to progress your career, or you’ve just finished school and wondering if university is for you, Open Learning fits around your schedule and gives you all the benefits of being a full-time student, without the full-time commitment.
Open Learning allows you to select the modules you wish to study, set the pace of your study, and whether you undertake the module assessment.
The School of History at UCD is the perfect environment for anyone who has a love of history.
The modules – all taught by experts in their field who bring their new research to the classroom – create for everyone the opportunity to explore the past. Sometimes this can mean looking afresh at what might appear to be familiar subjects and on other occasions it means investigating entirely new areas of study. It is this willingness to embrace new ideas and new approaches that defines the School of History.
The details of the Open Learning modules at UCD School of History for 2025 / 2026 are now available at https://www.ucd.ie/all/entrypathways/part-timepathways/openlearning/
Since 2011, researchers from a range of disciplines including History, Irish, English, Archaeology and Art History, have presented papers at Tudor and Stuart Ireland conferences. History Hub, in association with Real Smart Media, has produced more than 320 podcasts from these conferences.
UCD offers a variety of study options and entry pathways, ranging from full-time degrees to short-term courses for pure interest. Lifelong Learning offers all adult learners the opportunity to explore a subject of their choice without the pressure of an examination. Open Learning is a flexible way of studying history part-time at UCD. Explore your UCD History options for the coming year.
LGBT Activism in Ireland, 1973-2023: Looking Back, Going Forward is a UCD project which comprised of two workshops which were organised by Dr Mary McAuliffe (Director, UCD Gender Studies), in partnership with the National LGBT Federation (NXF), and funded by a Research Ireland New Foundations award.
The workshops – History of LGBT Activism in Ireland and Where We’re Going – Backlash, Solidarity, and Mobilising took place in UCD Humanities Institute in April 2025. Podcasts from the workshops are now available on History Hub.
Holocaust Education Ireland’s Holocaust Memorial Lecture for 2025 was given by Prof. Anthony McElligott from University of Limerick. A podcast of his lecture – “Surviving Liberation: Jewish Camp Survivors 1945-1948” – is now available on History Hub.
