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Famine/Hunger was an important feature in their curriculum. In addition, the interviewee said
that they briefly looked at the Civil War (it is assumed that this reference was the Irish Civil
War) as well as the current situation in Northern Ireland with year 4 pupils. The fact that the
latter topics were taught ‘briefly’ suggests that they may have emerged from topics which
were more explicitly grounded in the National Curriculum. The interviewee said that they
considered an Irish dimension important because they wanted to set it in a wider context:
I am aware, certainly working within an Irish Catholic context [that] there is very
much an Irish feeling in schools and as I have an Irish background myself I don’t want
to just switch from it being English orientated; that would be too negative … I just try
as far as possible with my own limited knowledge and experience to bring in as much
influences as I can and look at the global.
This was developed more fully when the interviewee gave their reasons for developing an
Irish dimension:
I feel as a person I have a huge commitment to justice … I feel very committed to
justice and anti-racist education. It is very important that we teach anti- racist
education and I think history is one of the best ways to do that … so there are all those
reasons in order to help children to develop an alternative mindset to what they might
be exposed to, either in the media or their social background or social upbringing. I am
not trying to replace one dogma with another; I guess I am just trying to encourage
them to think a little bit.
This implies that the interviewee related their work to the background of the pupils but used it
to explore wider issues. They felt that an Irish dimension provided an opportunity to consider
colonialism and a revisionist [rather than an Anglo-centric] approach to Britain’s past. At the
same time they felt that teaching about their background had a positive impact on the pupils:
I think it is a self-esteem thing as well. I really feel that so many children who are
from minority background can’t hook into a lot of aspects in the curriculum and I
think it is absolutely essential that children see themselves within their learning and
recognise their own people, their own names and that they have a sense of who they
are and value that culture.