Welcome to the Carlow College Leaving Cert Lecture Series 2025/26!
Designed to support both Senior Cycle students and their teachers, this new lecture series offers a unique opportunity to explore key areas of the Leaving Cert syllabus in greater depth. Through a range of interactive and expert-led online lectures, students will enhance their understanding of critical subjects, gaining valuable insights and academic enrichment beyond the classroom.
Lectures are FREE, but registration is essential.
Each lecture will be held at 2pm on the specified date and run for 45 minutes. All sessions are broadcast on YouTube and will be available for on-demand viewing immediately following the broadcast.
Lecture Schedule
Title: Understanding the Sonnet – John Donne, W.B. Yeats & Seamus Heaney
Speaker: Dr Derek Coyle, Lecturer in English & Creative Writing
Time: 2pm
This lecture explores the history and evolution of the sonnet, and examines its influence on poets John Donne, W.B. Yeats, and Seamus Heaney.
Title: ‘ EEC: European Integration after WW2’
Speaker: Dr Ida Milne, Lecturer in European History
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on the History syllabus topic: EEC: European Integration, which aimed to promote economic cooperation by establishing a common market with free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour.
Title: Before “the hurlyburly’s done”: Act I of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth
Speaker: Dr James Heaney
Time: 2pm
Title: Pride and Prejudice, Welcome to the Marriage Games
Speaker: Dr Simon Workman, Lecturer in English Literature
This lecture will focus on the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen from the English Leaving Cert syllabus.
Watch Lecture Recording Here (available from 2pm, Monday, 23rd February)
Title: Examining Nationalism & Orientalism in Political & Media Texts: Benedict Anderson & Edward Said
Speaker: Steph Hanlon,
This lecture will explore the work of Benedict Anderson and Edward Said, two key thinkers on the syllabus whose ideas are crucial for analysing contemporary political and media events.
Watch Lecture Recording Here (available from 2pm, Monday, 9th March)
Leaving Cert Lecture Series: ‘The Irish Diaspora.’
Speaker: Dr Regina Donlon
Time: 2pm
This lecture examines Irish migration to the United States during the 19th century, and the development of Irish-American culture that resulted from this movement.
Watch Lecture Recording here. (available from 2pm, Monday, 13th April)
Title: “This Remarkable Form: stretching the sonnet in Hopkins and Kavanagh”
Speaker: Dr Derek Coyle, Lecturer in English & Creative Writing
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on the Honours English prescribed poets of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Patrick Kavanagh.
Title: ‘The Devil is alive in Salem’ – Truth or Dare in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953)
Speaker: Dr James Heaney, Lecturer in English Literature
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on the English prescribed drama text The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Title: “From Gods to Man, from Myth to Reason: Ancient Greek Philosophy and the birth of Reason.”
Speaker: Dr Noel Kavanagh, Lecturer in Philosophy
Time: 12.30pm (please note this lecture is at 12.30pm, not 2pm)
This lecture will focus on the section ” ‘Gods and Humans’ in the Classical Studies syllabus.
Title: Misinformation and Fake News: Separating Fact from Fiction
Speaker: Steph Hanlon, Lecturer in Politics & Society
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on Learning Strand 2 under Active Citizenship exploring seeking and evaluating information and ideas within the Politics & Society syllabus.
Title: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1831): The Political Monster”
Speaker: Dr Simon Workman, Lecturer in English Literature
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on the novel Frankenstein (1831 version) by Mary Shelley from the English Leaving Cert syllabus.
Title: “Society and Economy: The 1913 Lockout”
Speaker: Dr Elaine Callinan, Lecturer in Irish History
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on aspects of the Later Modern field of study, Irish History, 1815-1993 in the Leaving Cert History syllabus.
Title: “Christianity: Origins and Contemporary Expressions”
Speaker: Michael Sherman, Lecturer in Theology
Time: 2pm
This lecture will focus on Section B of the Leaving Cert Religious Education syllabus.
Notice to attendees
These events will be recorded and shared on the Carlow College YouTube channel and website after the event.
Personal Data
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