Irish history at school, its transnational nature and its international contexts, 1980s–1990s: convergence and divergence between the Irish state and Northern Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT A comparative analysis of Irish history at school in the two parts of Ireland from 1921 to the 1990s is proposed here through an examination of history curricula and textbooks. The main focus is on the 1980s and 1990s, which were pivotal decades, usually described as having brought about a gradual convergence between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in terms of the treatment of Irish history within a wider context and related conceptions of Irish identity. The article argues that the new perspectives in fact reveal a dual trend, with elements of convergence but also enduring or even consolidated aspects of distinctiveness or divergence, in the treatment of both Irish history and European history: the more open, more transnational approaches of Irish history went hand in hand with a consolidation of state and regional identifications, as well as with a different view of the place of European history.