Evening

Duration: 10 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 2 April

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

Ulysses, James Joyce’s open love letter to his partner, Nora Barnacle, to his native-city, Dublin, and to the world, is a work that changed literature forever. Regardless of whether you love it or loathe it, regardless of whether or not you’ve even read it, this novel has influenced your life, such is the impact it has had on writers, and film-makers, around the world since its publication in Paris, in 1922.

Set entirely in Dublin, and unfolding over the course of a single day, the 16 June, 1904 (the date the author first ‘walked out’ with Nora Barnacle), it tells the story of Dublin and its inhabitants with un-beguiled love, and does so in such depth and detail that Joyce maintained that were it ever destroyed, Dublin could be rebuilt using his book as a guide.

How many times have you promised yourself ‘I’m going to read Ulyssesthis year’, but never got around to it? Or perhaps you started into it, but couldn’t get beyond the first chapter (or the first page).  You are not alone!  Indeed, this is the real tragedy of ‘the greatest novel ever written’ – so few people actually read it.

This course of classes will take you through Joyce’s novel, chapter by chapter, in a manner that will emphasise the readability of this most comic, and tragic, of modern love stories.

Course Facilitator

Dr James Heaney has been a full-time lecturer in English and Irish Studies at Carlow College, St Patrick’s since 2003.   His teaching is concentrated in the areas of European & World Drama, Modern Irish Writing, and Creative Writing.

Duration: 8 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 19 March 

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125 

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

This short evening course provides an introduction to the origins and evolution of the American political system by analysing the basic principles of the United States Constitution, the processes of the three branches of national government, federalism and the role of voters, political parties and campaigns. It is anticipated that this course will serve as a precursor to a follow-up course in Autumn 2020 that will analyse the state of the 2020 Election in ‘real time’.

Topics covered include:

• The Political / Historical Landscape and US Constitution / the Federalist Debate
• Executive Branch
• Legislative Branch
• Judicial Branch
• Federalism
• Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
• Voters, Political Parties and Campaigns

Course Facilitator

Dr Eric Derr is a history lecturer on the English & History programme at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s. He co-teaches on the following modules: Revolutions in the Transatlantic World, 1763 – 1877; Nation States and Global Conflict, 1877 – 1945; and Europe and the United States in the Post-War World, 1945 – 2000.

Duration: 8 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 19 March 

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

Oral history has become more popular as people become more interested in social history, and find that oral history can access interesting material from human lives that cannot be found in the written records.  It is known as a form of ‘history from below’, a way of exploring people’s opinions and emotions, as well as ‘facts’ from their lived lives.  Used well, it can tell us much about our communities in the past, from the living memory of people around us. This course will introduce participants to the work of some of the key practitioners of oral history, and enable them to acquire the skills and the confidence to practice oral history.  It will cover recording basics, interviewing skills and etiquette, and methods of archiving and using interviews, in a friendly and interactive atmosphere. It will explore, in a clear way, the best ethical practices of oral history, and look at GDPR requirements for interviewing.

Course Facilitator

Dr Ida Milne is an experienced lecturer and practitioner of oral history. She is a social historian, and currently lecturers in European history on the English & History programme at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s. She is a founding member and former director of the Oral History Network of Ireland, and is co-chair of the Oral History Association (USA) international committee.  She maintains close links with oral historians across the world through membership of the International Oral History Association, and the Oral History Society. She has published extensively on oral history, on the themes of disease, working lives in medicine and in the newspaper business, and on the GAA and Southern Irish Protestantism.

Duration: 6 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 5 March 

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

Music and Film often prompt us to rethink our social, cultural, political, and religious views. Not only do these genres challenge us, they also offer us new ways of questioning, knowing, and understanding what is to be human in the world today. Tapping into a variety of cultural interests, this evening course explores the dynamic discourse and relationship between Spirituality, Music, and Film.  Over the course of six weeks’ participants will explore the theme of Spirituality through musical and filmic works.

Topics covered include:

• Identity, Community, and the Desire to Belong
• Expressing the Inexpressible
• Performance and the Audience
• Salvation and Redemption
• Questions of Belief and Doubt
• Place and Space; Sound and Silence

Course Facilitators

Dr Morgan Buckley is a performer, musicologist and lecturerin Creative Studies on the B.A. in Social, Political and Community Studies and the B.A. in Applied Social Studies (Professional Social Care) Programmesat Carlow College, St Patrick’s.

Michael Sherman is a lecturer in Theology on the B.A. in Arts and Humanitiesat Carlow College, St Patrick’s. Michael teaches a range of modules including Theological Themes in World Literature, Cinema and Music.

Duration: 8 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 19 March 

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

We may often feel that we inhabit a world governed by vanity, greed, hypocrisy and deceit, where people are concerned with doing what they consider to be the ‘done thing’, and are keen to secure social approval for their beliefs and actions.

Spanning a range of disciplines such as Philosophy, Literature and Theology, this evening course will explore the ideas of a number of greatest philosophers, religious thinkers and literary artists who have engaged with questions about the true purpose and nature of human existence.

Through a combination of introductory talks and guided readings, participants engage with the insights on human experience offered by those influential thinkers who have helped to shape our understanding of ourselves.

Course Facilitator

In 2018, Dr Anthony Barron McGrath was appointed as the first Lecturer in Humanities at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s. He now teaches across a range of disciplines on the B.A. and B.A. (Honours) in Arts & Humanities programmes. Anthony’s commitment to promoting a public understanding of the history of ideas inspired his decision to form the Waterford Philosophical Society in 2005. Since then he has delivered weekly lectures on a diverse range of literary and intellectual topics to the members of that group.

Duration: 8 weeks

Dates: 23 January – 19 March 

Time & Day: Thursday 7.00pm-9.00pm 

Cost: €125

Online applications for this course will open on November 1st 2019.

This class is for anyone interested in food, especially organic food. Is there really any difference in how it is produced, or is it just a good marketing ploy? It explores production in a wide variety of enterprises, aiming to give a good flavour of organic food and farming in Ireland and beyond. Sustainable food production is a critical aspect of environmental sustainability, so this is a good starting point for people who want to learn more.

Topics covered include:

• Introduction to what organic food and farming is. It there really any difference? We will look at how organic farming started in Ireland and look at the principles of production.
• Exploring the soil and how to sustain a healthy soil which is the cornerstone of organic farming.
• Composting and practical exploration of how to compost materials properly and effectively.
• How to get started growing organic vegetables and fruit. We will look at crops that are grown in Ireland and specific crop families.
• Examining the main problems growing fruit and vegetables organically such as weed control, and pests & diseases.
• Exploring enterprises in organic farming and looks at what makes organic production different in these areas of food production.
• Exploring the idea of designing your own organic garden or farm, crop rotation and managing fertility.
• Outlining the steps involved in getting organic certification and the support structures for organic farming in Ireland. We will look at marketing organic food and have a guest speaker in to talk about their organic business.

Course Facilitators

Paula Pender has worked extensively as an organic grower in both the United States and Ireland. She has a small business growing and selling organic vegetables in Carlow, and she is also the co-ordinator and main tutor on the Distance Learning in Organic Horticulture course at the Organic College in Co. Limerick.

Grace Maher has been working in the organic sector for over twenty years as a lecturer, grower and currently with the Irish Organic Association in the role of development and promotion of the organic food and farming sector.