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assignment based on ‘Bloody Sunday’. They had found TIDE materials related to Ireland<br />

were useful but felt that in general shortages <strong>of</strong> resources were a problem for teachers trying<br />

to develop an Irish dimension. It appears that despite the fact that this interviewee appears to<br />

have been committed to exploring an Irish historical dimension in their work with TIDE, it is<br />

difficult to see how fully this was implemented in their own Key Stage 3 history curriculum,<br />

which must have left considerable work to be undertaken at Key Stage 4.<br />

The second interviewee was also Irish and had taught in a Roman Catholic girls’ school for<br />

eight years, five <strong>of</strong> which had been as Head <strong>of</strong> History. The interview took place in January<br />

2006. The interviewee said that most members <strong>of</strong> the history department were <strong>of</strong> Irish<br />

descent. A large proportion <strong>of</strong> the girls in the school were either the second or third generation<br />

Irish, although in recent years the multicultural communities served by the school had<br />

diversified. The interviewee had initially been invited to join the Water for a City Project<br />

(TIDE, 1999) by their PGCE mentor. They had been invited to join the project based on<br />

Derry/Londonderry (TIDE, 2001) by the first interviewee who taught in her PGCE placement<br />

school.<br />

We went to Ireland for five days, which was excellent, such an eye opener really. I got<br />

to talk with people who had been in prison and had been reformed and there was the<br />

Provisional Irish Republican Army , which was quite frightening.<br />

The interviewee helped to produce resources for the pack and went on to use it in school.<br />

However, they said that it did not fit into their history curriculum and was used within<br />

Citizenship/Personal, Social and Health Education. However, the interviewee felt that taking<br />

part in the project had influenced their teaching:<br />

It [TIDE] has given me [a] global understanding which I didn’t have when I started<br />

teaching at all. I think we always try to refer back to what is going on in the world<br />

today. Even more recent wars and the anti-racist thing comes through there an awful<br />

lot more than I would have done.

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