Dennis Pringle and Sunnhild Bertz led a fieldtrip to Belfast in December 2006. Some further details may be viewed in the handout circulated before the trip.
The bus left Maynooth on the Friday afternoon. Some information was provided en route about the places we passed on the way to our base in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, but the main work began on the Saturday.
Students were asked to explore the Folk and Transport museums in small groups on the Saturday, with three questions in mind:
a) What changes took place over time?
b) In what ways did town and country impact upon one another?
c) In what ways did the two traditions in Ulster influence the culture of the other group?
A disucssion was held on the Saturday evening to review the students' observations.
The final leg of the fieldtrip on the Sunday entailed an extensive tour of Belfast by bus, focussing primarily on issues relating to sectarian conflict and housing.
Students were assessed in several ways: a) The quality of the notes taken during the trip; b) The quality of their observations in the Staurday night discussion; and c) A test conducted on returning to Maynooth which explore both factual recall and understanding of processes. The module marks may be viewed here.
Some information on a previous trip in 2004 may be viewed here.
Return to the main Fieldtrips page.