Outlined below are the various tours that the GPO have available to schools:

Primary:

1.       How To Be A Historian Tour with Film: On the GPO Museum Young Historians Tour students will learn the skills and concepts needed to be a great historian. Using artefacts and photographs in the exhibition and pieces of testimony, students will be shown how to use evidence and imagination to reconstruct the past just like a historian. Included in the tour is a GPO Museum Young Historians Guide for them to use, fill in along the way and after the tour. After their visit students may use their knowledge to create something to show their work as a historian which we will display in our Young Historians Gallery. Complete your work as a Young Historian and receive a GPO Museum Young Historians member certificate. As well as working as a historian, elements of four other strands of the history syllabus are covered in this tour. They are:

a)      Story.

b)      Life, society, work and culture in the past (Language and culture in late 19th and early 20^th century Ireland).

c)       Eras of change and conflict (changing roles of women in 19^th and 20^th centuries; WW1; and Modern Ireland).

d)      Politics, Conflict and Society (1916 and foundation of the state; and Northern Ireland).

2.       Storytelling Tour with Film: On this storytelling tour the guide will take your students on an interactive, puzzle-solving adventure through the week of the 1916 Rising. The tour follows a fictional child character who runs into important historical figures as well as ordinary people living in Dublin during this important event in Irish history. Included in the tour is An Adventurer’s Guide to 1916 for the students to use, fill in along the way and after the tour. There is also the option of students sending in any artwork, stories or dramas they create based on the tour to be displayed in our Young Historians Gallery. Strand units covered in this tour are:

a)      Stories from lives of people in the past.

b)      Myths and legends (being able to distinguish between fictional myths and real people and events in the past).

c)       Life, society, work and culture in the past (Language and culture in late 19th and early 20^th century Ireland).

d)      Politics, Conflict and Society (1916 and foundation of the state).

3.       Rebel Rising Tour with Film: This tour will cover the general history of Ireland’s revolutionary period in the early 1900’s up to modern day. The museum and tour particularly focuses on the 1916 Rising, the lead up to the rebellion and the aftermath. Strand units covered are:

a)      Story.

b)      Life, society, work and culture in the past (Language and culture in late19th and early 20^th century Ireland).

c)       Eras of change and conflict (changing roles of women in 19^th and 20^th centuries; WW1; and Modern Ireland).

d)      Politics, Conflict and Society (1916 and foundation of the state; and Northern Ireland).

 Junior Cycle:

1.       Revolutionary Movement in Ireland with Film:  This tour will cover the general history of Ireland’s revolutionary period in the early 1900’s up to modern day. The museum and tour particularly focus on the 1916 Rising, the lead up to the rebellion and the aftermath. The tour will look at demands for equality and representative government and the responses to these demands. The consequences of events will also be explored. Within this tour option teachers may also choose to focus on the lives of revolutionaries from the list below:

a.       Edward Carson & Tom Clarke

b.      Dr. Kathleen Lynn & Rosie Hackett

c.       James Connolly & Winifred Carney

d.      Maud Gonne & Eamon De Valera

e.      The Daly Family

2.      Political Developments in Ireland in the Late 19^th and 20^th Century with Film: This tour will cover the main political events which influenced contemporary Ireland. Starting with aims of the main political groups and key personalities in Ireland in the early 20^th Century the tour will explore their methods in trying to achieve their aims. The tour will look at the major events that took place due to these movements and personalities from 1912 to 1922 that led to the foundation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The tour will conclude in our tale of two Irelands section which shows the developments and contrasts between these two states.

1. Social Change in the 20^th Century with Film: This tour will focus on the social changes that took place in Ireland from the early 20^th Century with a contrast to the USA. In particular the tour will focus on the changing role of women; working lives; and social conditions. These changes will be explored in the context of the social and revolutionary movements for change in the 20^th century. Key personalities, ideals and events will be explored.

1. Rebel Rising Tour with Film: This tour will cover the general history of Ireland’s revolutionary period in the early 1900’s up to modern day. The museum and tour particularly focuses on the 1916 Rising, the lead up to the rebellion and the aftermath.

Leaving Cert:

There are 2 options available for the Leaving Cert tour:

1. The Pursuit of Sovereignty, Partition, and Northern Ireland with Film: This tour will focus on a number of perspectives, elements, personalities and concepts from Topics 3 and 5 of the Leaving Cert History Syllabus. In particular in Topic 3, from 1912 – 1949, we will explore:

a)      All elements of the politics and administration perspective such as the Home Rule Bill, WW1, 1916 Rising up to and including modern Anglo-Irish relations.

b)      Society and economy.

c)       Culture and religion

                In Topic 5 we will cover:

a)      Politics and administration.

b)      Society and economy

c)       Culture and religion

Given the structure of the museum there will be a focus on the early 20^th century.

1. Rebel Rising Tour with Film: This tour will cover the general history of Ireland’s revolutionary period in the early 1900’s up to modern day. The museum and tour particularly focuses on the 1916 Rising, the lead up to the rebellion and the aftermath. This tour will also cover many of the elements outlined in Topics 3 and 5 of the Leaving Cert History Syllabus.

Aline FitzGerald

General Manager

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GPO Witness History

The GPO

O’Connell Street

Dublin

D01 F5P2