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through a workshop. They provided the interviewee with a CD-ROM and pictures and helped
them to make contact with the Ireland in Schools chairperson who went to the school to
provide advice. The interviewee adapted the Adviser’s plan. The Adviser’s role appears to
have been supportive but not directive compared to the Blackpool case study. Nevertheless,
the Adviser and interviewee produced a joint article for Primary History which promoted
teaching Grace O’Malley (Kirkland & Wykes, 2003). The interviewee identified a central
difficulty with the topic affecting the approach they used:
It was very difficult for me on a personal and professional level to recognise what life
was like for Grace and her family, and so to try and get it over to the children was
very, very difficult … whether it was a real story or not, about cutting her hair so that
she could go on a ship. Getting children to recognise that women haven’t always had
the choices, which they have [today], is the really important one.
This was achieved by getting children to imagine what a pirate was like and then challenging
the male stereotype images, which they produced by looking at Grace O’Malley. The topic
explored specific historical issues, such as the fact that portraits of Grace were made in the
18 th century, two hundred years after she had died. The interviewee felt that the children were
intrigued by the fact that there is little available evidence to indicate what Grace O’Malley
looked like. Events in her life were brought out through the use of drama and role-play:
I would tell the story for a bit then they [the children] would act a bit and then we
would freeze frame. Then I would ask them how they felt … I still don’t think that all
of the children really understood what life was like … so it was trying really. I chose
all the best bits [of her life such as] the dimmer when she wasn’t let in and the
kidnapping and then when she met Queen Elizabeth … even when she was in prison. I
got the children to draw a picture of what they thought she looked like and [they began
by drawing] cowboy jails and [we refined this by asking] what actually would it have
been like to be in a castle … she wouldn’t have light, she wouldn’t have heat … and
really got them to try and think about her experiences.
This demonstrates how the interviewee grappled with trying to develop a sense of empathy
with young pupils. They also noted the way in which Grace inherited her title and how the use