History Projects

Sophsxxx

Hi!
I was just wondering if anyone had any topic ideas for a history project?
I'm thinking something to do with the IRA or nationalism but as it has such a vast history, I really don't have any ideas of what aspect to do.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Rebelheart

Sophsxxx wrote: »

Hi!
I was just wondering if anyone had any topic ideas for a history project?
I'm thinking something to do with the IRA or nationalism but as it has such a vast history, I really don't have any ideas of what aspect to do.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Research who was actually in the GPO in 1916, and compare it with the list of people who claimed the IRA pension for being in the GPO in 1916. Then name the chancers in their respective local newspapers to give people all over Ireland a laugh. You'd definitely get great publicity.

You could even write a book on it with the provisional title going something like, 'Hiding Under the bedclothes in 1916' with a subtitle, 'Sunshine Soldiers and Hurlers on the Ditch, 1916-1922'

jetaime

Is this for the Leaving Cert project? Have a look at what happened to Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington's husband Francis in 1916...he was shot in spite of being a pacifist. It's a really sad and interesting story.

Sophsxxx

Yep it is! Unfortunately, I can't submit my project from last year for some stupid reason! Yeah, I'll look into Francis skeffington...that story sounds intriguing.
Thanks!

brianthebard

Thread moved to Leaving Cert forum.

ateam

Look back at the dozens of threads on this very subject of the research topic on boards.ie.

K4t

Do something really obscure.

I was going to do mine on the 'The Noble Experiment' aka the Prohibition period in the US. Didn't do it in the end as it gave me nightmares about not being able to drink...

brianthebard

Obscure doesn't really work at leaving cert level since they'll probably only have access to secondary sources and not a lot of them at that. It might be easier to just go through the different question options and pick something that can't relate to them-from what I remember you can't answer on the same topic twice, so its important that the project isn't something that will feature in another question.

Enid.

I'm doing mine on Harvey Milk, my History teacher had never heard of him and well, let's just say I'm surprised she's OK with it, considering she didn't let past students do a project on Roger Casement cos he's *rumoured* to have been gay. Yeah.

My classmate is doing the hunger strikers in Northern Ireland, it's a different side to the whole IRA/nationalism topic and I think it could be interesting. I'm sorry I don't have any more ideas, I just saw the words "history project" and got excited

spurious

I think Josephine Baker would make an excellent subject. Plenty of stuff available about her and she was way ahead of her time.

brianthebard

Enid. wrote: »

I'm doing mine on Harvey Milk, my History teacher had never heard of him and well, let's just say I'm surprised she's OK with it, considering she didn't let past students do a project on Roger Casement cos he's *rumoured* to have been gay. Yeah.

Are you not worried she'll kick up a stink when she sees what its about?

ateam

brianthebard wrote: »

Are you not worried she'll kick up a stink when she sees what its about?

No she won't, if it's good she won't care. I wonder whether that Roger Casement story is just a school rumour that's untrue. Casement is one of the most popular research topic personalities and if anything, I would advise against studying him for that reason.

PS. Casement was gay :-)

Enid.

brianthebard wrote: »

Are you not worried she'll kick up a stink when she sees what its about?

I was at first, and then once I'd explained his story to her she was actually OK. I was kinda surprised though, she's an extrordinarily backward human being

norwegianwood

I'm thinking of doing mine on Henry VIII and his six wives, I'm reading a book on it now and it's really interesting.

Johnny Giles

Dirty Protests.

Enid.

Enid. wrote: »

I'm doing mine on Harvey Milk, my History teacher had never heard of him and well, let's just say I'm surprised she's OK with it, considering she didn't let past students do a project on Roger Casement cos he's *rumoured* to have been gay. Yeah.

My classmate is doing the hunger strikers in Northern Ireland, it's a different side to the whole IRA/nationalism topic and I think it could be interesting. I'm sorry I don't have any more ideas, I just saw the words "history project" and got excited

I've a friend doing Harvey Milk too! Do you have the names of any good sources on it? He's only got the 1 at the mo, namely that Mayor of Castro St. one.

MeSophie

I did mine on Jesse Owens, Very good topic and I found it interesting, you should look into it

Victoria.

Deleted User wrote: »

I've a friend doing Harvey Milk too! Do you have the names of any good sources on it? He's only got the 1 at the mo, namely that Mayor of Castro St. one.

Try google books for sources. It gives you a good idea of what the book would contain and I found it useful before ordering books from Amazon. For some of the books you can view a chapter or two and others are fully uploaded.

ptrlaurent

The Dieppe Raid 1942

The Battle of Guad Canal

The Nixon visit to China

The Assassination attempts on Gerald Ford

The French 1st indo china war

MangoLime

You can do anything you want, as long as you can make it history(and it's in the time period you're allocated). For example, when I did my leaving I did Arthur Miller the playwright. I talked about a few of his plays and how they impacted society. My teacher also told me that a few years back there was a girl who did the project on shoes!

My advice would be to take something that your interested in, like a hobby, and see if there's anything historical about it that you could talk about.

Best of luck!:)

AG2R

I done mine on Hillsborough. Do it on something that is easy and you relate to. I done that because I'm a pool fan

Corruptedmorals

I would avoid obscure. I did the history and lives of geisha/geiko in Kyoto, Japan. The marking suffered and I definitely would have gotten higher than the B2 overall. (I looked at the paper and project afterwards).

plein de force

Johnny Giles wrote: »

Dirty Protests.

bit of a sh!t idea if you ask me










sorry, couldn't help it

Fireball07

I did mine on Tito. I recommend personalities and you can limit it to certain part of their lives and I think it's quite easy.


If you're doing something on nationalism and the IRA...maybe a flying column leader or something like that??

I would have been interested to do it on someone like Ernie O'Malley, Rory O'Connor, The O'Rahilly or maybe Tom Clarke. Or O'Donovan Rossa.

All interesting characters and famous Irish nationalists. Harry Boland could be a good one too. Depending on the sources...but I know there's loads of books about Ernie O'Malley.

TommyMaher

Im doing my special topic on "the effects of immigration on british music culture between 1960-1970" and I'm wondering would anyone know any good sources I can use for it? Books and newspaper and magazine articles from the time would be perfect, anything generally reliable as a source!
if anyone knows anything could you post on here
thanks,
tommy.:D

spurious

TommyMaher wrote: »

Im doing my special topic on "the effects of immigration on british music culture between 1960-1970" and I'm wondering would anyone know any good sources I can use for it? Books and newspaper and magazine articles from the time would be perfect, anything generally reliable as a source!
if anyone knows anything could you post on here
thanks,
tommy.:D

There are a couple of very good documentaries on this, particularly in this series.

Any reason why you are only starting in 1960?

TommyMaher

spurious wrote: »

There are a couple of very good documentaries on this, particularly in this series.

Any reason why you are only starting in 1960?

theres no particular reason I'm statring in that period, other than Ican use the beatles as an example of this.

would an earlier or later time be more suitable?

spurious

TommyMaher wrote: »

theres no particular reason I'm statring in that period, other than Ican use the beatles as an example of this.

would an earlier or later time be more suitable?

Well the big wave of West Indian immigration started just after the war. they would have brought their own music and aided the development of ska in Britain.

You could also cover the development of reggae, the emergence of two-tone groups, the whole Bhangra scene, even the Irish music scene among immigrant groups. Lots of possibilities.

TommyMaher

I've been searching around and so far can't think of anything I can zone in on specifically to kind of narrow things down for it would The Punk movement be something thats within the time zone I can use for the topic?

spurious

TommyMaher wrote: »

I've been searching around and so far can't think of anything I can zone in on specifically to kind of narrow things down for it would The Punk movement be something thats within the time zone I can use for the topic?

Not sure how you would link the punks to immigration, but there are lots of essays you could do focussing on the influence of the punk movement.

http://rockandrollreport.com/a-history-of-punk-music-and-its-effect-on-british-culture-and-society-2/

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/612/what-riot-punk-rock-politics-fascism-and-rock-against-racism

It makes me feel old that times I lived through are in history essays now.

TommyMaher

I've decided that I'm doing mine on the political involvement of The beatles in america it I think It'd be much more doable and easier to find sources. would you know of any books?

stringer316

I was thinking of doing my special topic on anarchism, any ideas?

stringer316

Hi just wondering could I do my History special topic on the Assasination of Jesse James or on Henry Hill or something like that, thanks!

TommyMaher

stringer316 wrote: »

I was thinking of doing my special topic on anarchism, any ideas?

The general principal of anarchism or a certain time?

TommyMaher

Would anyone know of a certain book I can use relating to John lennons political activism and his deportation attempts etc?

Gothams Bruce Wayne

I really want to do Charles Manson and the Manson Murders for my Leaving Cert history project but the guidelines for it are very specific and you don't have much wriggle room with your chosen topic. I just wanted to get some opinions on what aspect of the Murders I could focus on for the project? My teacher is not much help in this field -_-

Annmarie10987

I was thinking about doing something around film and radio in the U.S with Bing Crosby and Charlie Chaplin does this sound like a good idea ?

spurious

Annmarie10987 wrote: »

I was thinking about doing something around film and radio in the U.S with Bing Crosby and Charlie Chaplin does this sound like a good idea ?

If you're set on that, do one or the other.

Why not do something based on Irish radio?

TheFlayedMan

I did mine on Lucius Sulla, the Roman Dictator. I'm not finished, but I put in most of the work in three hours or so, based purely on my own knowledge and using the internet to back up some dates and facts, and I've mostly completed the bulk of it. Just need to fit certain sources around my information, rewrite the title and do my review.

Really not as daunting as I thought it would be. I did it to take a break from homework :P

Annmarie10987

spurious wrote: »

If you're set on that, do one or the other.

Why not do something based on Irish radio?

I might do Charlie Chaplin
What ideas do you have for Irish radio ?

llamalauren

Hi. I just wanted to know how the history special topic works, I know you don't just write an essay, that there's a specific type of way and paragraphs you're meant to use. My teacher has not shown me this, can someone please tell me?


Also, is something to do with Andy Warhol and the 60s okay to do it on?

willowtrees105

llamalauren wrote: »

Hi. I just wanted to know how the history special topic works, I know you don't just write an essay, that there's a specific type of way and paragraphs you're meant to use. My teacher has not shown me this, can someone please tell me?


Also, is something to do with Andy Warhol and the 60s okay to do it on?

Hi. It might be a good idea to download a copy of the booklet (or else ask your teacher for a copy). You can look at it using this link: http://www.examinations.ie/exam/HistoryCourseworkJournal.pdf The first thing you have to do is write down the title of your research topic. The next section is your outline plan. You should ask your teacher what you need to write for this but it includes things like why you chose the topic, why it's historically relevant, how you plan to research the topic and then you have to cite your sources. The next section is Evaluation of Sources. This is where you need to assess the strengths and weakness of your three main sources. (They should mainly be books written by an historian). The next section is the Extended Essay. This should be no more than 1,500 words (not that big a deal if you go over that but try not to). The essay is formatted in the same way that you write your normal history essays but just keep referring to the sources that you used. eg. Historian JJ Lee wrote that "quote"....

Andy Warhol would be fine I would think but you will need to argue why he has historical relevance...if this is difficult to do, choose someone/something else.

willowtrees105

Gothams Bruce Wayne wrote: »

I really want to do Charles Manson and the Manson Murders for my Leaving Cert history project but the guidelines for it are very specific and you don't have much wriggle room with your chosen topic. I just wanted to get some opinions on what aspect of the Murders I could focus on for the project? My teacher is not much help in this field -_-

Don't do it. My history teacher told us that she was at a talk a few weeks ago given by the chief examiner for history and she said that we should avoid doing topics on mass murderers/serial killers. They don't get high marks as they are very difficult to prove why they are historically relevant.

Run a mile from it.

QueenOfLeon

Some recent threads on the History Project merged, have a look back through previous posts to see if any advice has already been given about your topic

JCHelp

I was thinking of doing the assassination of JFK ???

Annmarie10987

JCHelp wrote: »

I was thinking of doing the assassination of JFK ???

I think this would be a good topic but make sure that you have specific things you want to do on him because you can't cover everything I don't think

SeanyboyQPR

My title is "The impact of Nazi propaganda in the inspiration of Anti-Semitism, Racial Hatred and Discrimination throughout Germany, 1932-1945."

Annmarie10987

SeanyboyQPR wrote: »

My title is "The impact of Nazi propaganda in the inspiration of Anti-Semitism, Racial Hatred and Discrimination throughout Germany, 1932-1945."

That sounds really good good luck

SeanyboyQPR

Thanks! I've done my outline plan and evaluation of sources, just have to pen my extended essay now for the first draft which my teacher wants handed up by Friday! Still bricking it for the actual exam though, need to get this perfect!

MightyMandarin

Hi I was thinking of doing Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Genocide or would I need to do something very few people would think of maybe Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre any thoughts?

spurious

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Hi I was thinking of doing Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Genocide or would I need to do something very few people would think of maybe Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre any thoughts?

Both of those have been done in the past few years by students in our school.
Pick something local and Irish (as the Chief Examiner's Reports recommend) and be almost guaranteed no-one else will have done it.

Nazis, Bloody Sunday, JFK, Civil Rights in the USA - all done to death.