M. Phil in Modern Irish History

AmyTB

Anyone going into this course in September?

Denerick

Mc Donalds are always on the lookout for bright new Trinity MPhil history graduates to service hungry customers. Good luck.

perfectisthe

Hey Amy, I'm starting the course too, looking forward to it.

Denerick - cool story bro, is that joke an original composition or a cover version?

AmyTB

perfectisthe wrote: »

Hey Amy, I'm starting the course too, looking forward to it.

Denerick - cool story bro, is that joke an original composition or a cover version?

Both excited and nervous where did you do your undergrad and what in?

perfectisthe

I did my undergrad in heritage studies at GMIT, and just finished a HDip in Irish history at NUI Maynooth. Yourself?

AmyTB

perfectisthe wrote: »

I did my undergrad in heritage studies at GMIT, and just finished a HDip in Irish history at NUI Maynooth. Yourself?

Did History, Politics and International Relations at UCD. Have you gotten any info from TCD regarding timetables, term dates,etc?

perfectisthe

Not a thing unfortunately. The only correspondence I've had from them was to tell me that if I didn't have my grant letter submitted by September 1st that I'd have to pay half the fees.

What classes are you thinking of doing?

AmyTB

perfectisthe wrote: »

Not a thing unfortunately. The only correspondence I've had from them was to tell me that if I didn't have my grant letter submitted by September 1st that I'd have to pay half the fees.

What classes are you thinking of doing?

I haven't even thought about that yet to be honest, haven't had a chance to look at what's on offer. I just would like to hear from them soon about the logistics and then I'll worry about that end of things.

gutenberg

Taught classes for PG students follow the same dates as undergraduates:

Michaelmas starts September 25th, ending Friday December 16th;
Hilary starts January 16th, ending 6 April.
After that is your research period, right?

Calendar can be found here: http://www.tcd.ie/calendar/assets/pdf/academic-year-structure-2011-12.pdf

Registration for PG students is the week beginning September 12th, here's the schedule for that: https://www.tcd.ie/vpcao/administration/records-awards/assets/pdf/All%20Postgraduate%20Students.pdf

There's also a meeting for all new postgraduates on September 16th from 2-4.30 in the Burke Theatre, Arts Building.

I'm not sure how up-to-date the History dept. website is, but here's the page for the Modern Irish programme: http://www.tcd.ie/history/postgraduate/taught/modern-irish/structure.php

perfectisthe

^^ Good info there, cheers.

Here's a link to the list of classes on offer Amy.

http://www.tcd.ie/history/postgraduate/taught/modern-irish/subjects.php

AmyTB

perfectisthe wrote: »

^^ Good info there, cheers.

Here's a link to the list of classes on offer Amy.

http://www.tcd.ie/history/postgraduate/taught/modern-irish/subjects.php

I'm thinking of The Irish Famine and Violence and Politics in twentieth century Ireland, what do you think?

perfectisthe

Violence and Politics, and, Issues in Anglo-Irish Relations. I'm very much focused on the twentieth century, so I'll be disappointed if either of those classes aren't offered. The Famine class looks interesting but I did a lot of work on it during my HDip and I'm a bit burnt out with it.

AmyTB

perfectisthe wrote: »

Violence and Politics, and, Issues in Anglo-Irish Relations. I'm very much focused on the twentieth century, so I'll be disappointed if either of those classes aren't offered. The Famine class looks interesting but I did a lot of work on it during my HDip and I'm a bit burnt out with it.

Yeah Violence and Politics would be my number one choice anyway. Do you have any idea how many people are going to be on the course?

elixx

*****

perfectisthe

No idea how many are doing it Amy. I'm assuming (and hoping) that it'll be a small class. That assumption is based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever though so it could be massive !

mary_hayes

Hi
Just came across this thread, was wondering how you guys got on with the course? what was it like? also wondering what kind of work you can get out of it at the end? or is it just for progression to further education?
thanks

perfectisthe

Hi.

The course hasn't ended yet, we're all busy writing our dissertations!

Overall I enjoyed the course. There were some organisational problems, that I won't get into here, which marred it a small bit though. Also, and I think I speak for everyone who did the course when I say this, the seminar journal aspect of the course is a total waste of time. Still though, I did quite enjoy it - getting to work with people like David Fitzpatrick, Eunan O Halpin and Anne Dolan etc. is great. I ended up completely falling in love with the topic of my first research paper (you do two major research papers through the year), and am more than likely going to go on to do a PhD in the area, so, for me at least, it was well worth doing.

In terms of work? Like pretty much every arts programme these days, it'll lead to nothing really. Maybe it'll make you more attractive to graduate schemes... It's definitely geared more towards further study.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

head_honcho

perfectisthe wrote: »

Hi.

The course hasn't ended yet, we're all busy writing our dissertations!

Overall I enjoyed the course. There were some organisational problems, that I won't get into here, which marred it a small bit though. Also, and I think I speak for everyone who did the course when I say this, the seminar journal aspect of the course is a total waste of time. Still though, I did quite enjoy it - getting to work with people like David Fitzpatrick, Eunan O Halpin and Anne Dolan etc. is great. I ended up completely falling in love with the topic of my first research paper (you do two major research papers through the year), and am more than likely going to go on to do a PhD in the area, so, for me at least, it was well worth doing.

In terms of work? Like pretty much every arts programme these days, it'll lead to nothing really. Maybe it'll make you more attractive to graduate schemes... It's definitely geared more towards further study.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Jumping in here, apologies! It is good to have opinion of someone who actually did the course.
What are the course hours like? Is it Monday to Friday 9 -5?
I have paid the deposit to enter this course but I am having second thoughts. Firstly, I am not entitled to any finance so will be paying for fees and accommodation myself. Secondly, I am concerned about the work prospects after it. :rolleyes:

perfectisthe

Hey.

There's not that many hours really. It varies, but it's anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on the day. There's plenty of work to do outside class hours though - lots of assignments, seminar journals and also your term research paper. You'll be kept pretty busy.

Job prospects: hey, it's history. People don't really do this for job prospects, unless it's an academic job they want. Job prospects are the same as any other arts course these days - zero, zip, nada.

If you're unsure maybe you should send an email to Eunan, the course coordinator. He's a fairly straightforward guy and might be able to tell you if the course is for you or not. He's still around trinity at the moment.

I have enjoyed the course, it's not perfect, but if you're serious about studying modern Irish history then you should definitely do it. It really opens up the academic world to you. I've met, and worked, with some amazing historians this year, internationally renowned historians like David Fitzpatrick are involved with the course. The history department itself is very welcoming and friendly too (if a touch disorganised!).

head_honcho

perfectisthe wrote: »

Hey.

There's not that many hours really. It varies, but it's anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on the day. There's plenty of work to do outside class hours though - lots of assignments, seminar journals and also your term research paper. You'll be kept pretty busy.

Job prospects: hey, it's history. People don't really do this for job prospects, unless it's an academic job they want. Job prospects are the same as any other arts course these days - zero, zip, nada.

If you're unsure maybe you should send an email to Eunan, the course coordinator. He's a fairly straightforward guy and might be able to tell you if the course is for you or not. He's still around trinity at the moment.

I have enjoyed the course, it's not perfect, but if you're serious about studying modern Irish history then you should definitely do it. It really opens up the academic world to you. I've met, and worked, with some amazing historians this year, internationally renowned historians like David Fitzpatrick are involved with the course. The history department itself is very welcoming and friendly too (if a touch disorganised!).

Thanks so much, I'm not sure what I'm letting myself in for!
You say there are not many hours but are kept busy. To save some money I was considering commuting from home (a round trip of just under 4 hours a day - yes, I need to save money! ). Do you think this would be practical/possible with the work schedule you had? Apologies for all the questions also!

perfectisthe

No problem, I wish someone had answered all the questions I had this time last year!

A round trip of four hours? Possible - yes. Practical - hard to say. You'd probably get away with it for the first half of each semester, but we were all doing quite a bit of work when it came close to the deadlines at christmas. It's a hard question to answer - you might be fine with it, personally speaking I wouldn't do it though. AmyTB, who posted in this thread last year, might be better placed to comment cause she worked throughout the entire course.

One thing to consider as well is that you might be in college till 7 some evenings, so you'll be getting home pretty late.

head_honcho

perfectisthe, sorry for being a nuisance! I contacted the college about this twice and no reply! :rolleyes: can you tell me what the hours were like on the course, were you in classes every day? thanks again...

perfectisthe

head_honcho wrote: »

perfectisthe, sorry for being a nuisance! I contacted the college about this twice and no reply! :rolleyes: can you tell me what the hours were like on the course, were you in classes every day? thanks again...

You're grand.

More than likely you'll have classes four days a week for between 2-4 hours per day. I had most Thursdays off in my first semester. Thing is though, outside of your main topic each semester, the timetable varies each week. Research methods classes and the like don't have a rigid timetable, they can often be on at different times each week.

I'm not surprised you haven't gotten a reply from the department, things have really wound down for the summer at the moment.