Trinity College Dublin

This course provides students with an understanding of the Irish economy and public policy-making. It shows how various pressures and policies have shaped the development of the Irish economy, and helps students economically interpret and evaluate public policy making in Ireland and elsewhere. The course also facilitates the use of clear and concise English that is required for understanding economics and policy-making.

Students study the broad concepts of sustainable development. This course covers the topics of sustainability as a holistic and urgent societal issue, the role of diets in sustainability, environmental impacts of agriculture, sustainability advances in the food, drink, and drug industry, including how these are assessed using Life Cycle Analysis. This course focuses on societal aspects of a sustainable transition and practical sessions focus on techniques relevant to the biotechnology industry, sustainability of food production, and health indices of global diets.

This course begins with the rise of Brian Boru, who became Ireland's most famous high king, to his fall which occurred at the iconic battle of Clontarf in 1014. Students explore how Irish society and kingship changed in the aftermath of Clontarf as a result of inter-provincial warfare and the changing role of the church. The second half of the course examines the causes and implications of the English (or Anglo-Norman) invasion of the late 1160s, perhaps the single most formative development in Irish secular affairs. Students study the interaction of cultures in its aftermath and the Irish opposition to English rule that saw the emergence of England's ongoing Irish problem through later centuries. The course closes with the most serious challenge to English power in medieval Ireland: the Scottish invasion (1315-18) led by Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce king of Scots.

This course teaches linguistic and intercultural skills, contemporary cultural issues that present a societal challenge in its linguistic context, and metacognitive skills and strategies in the German language.