University College Dublin

This course explores microbiological concepts relevant to agricultural, environmental, and food applications. Examples relate microbiological theory to the production and spoilage of foods and fodders, water quality, microbiological regulation of nutrient cycles, animal and plant health, and biotechnology. Students are introduced to common microorganisms and consider growth, classification, genetics, survival, and control by sterilization, disinfection, immunization, and antibiotics. As part of the theoretical and practical aspects of the course students gain experience with microbiological laboratory methodologies such as microscopy, sterile technique, and the isolation and identification of pure cultures.

The Great Hunger or An Gorta Mór (1845-52) was the single most transformative event in modern Irish history and proportionally one of the most devastating famines to occur anywhere in the modern era. This famine led to the loss of one million lives and the emigration of two million refugees from a population of eight and a half million. The humanitarian crisis of the late-1840s and early-1850s marks the creation of a global Irish diaspora and a lasting memory of social change. This course explores key debates surrounding the famine and its resonances across Irish and global history, tackling topics including the role of government relief, epidemic disease, mass displacement, and the social revolution which fundamentally reshaped Ireland.