Why teach about Northern Ireland in the U.S.A.?

In 2011, looking for a new historical case study to help 10th grade students examine difference, division, conflict and reconciliation, several teachers at New Haven Academy began to develop a unit on the Troubles Period and the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. Aided by Karen Murphy of Facing History & Ourselves, Program Director Meredith Gavrin worked with teachers Saul Fussiner, Joe Corsetti Hicks and David Senderoff to develop this brand new unit in an existing course dealing with issues of prejudice, injustice and judgment in South Africa and, previously, Rwanda. The Northern Ireland content replaced the section on Rwanda. This unit continued to develop after the departure of Corsetti Hicks and has since been expanded on and taught by teachers Peter Kazienko and Kirk Vamvakides as well.

The main focus of this extended unit is the so-called "Troubles" period in the Northern Irish conflict that is usually dated from the Catholic Civil Rights movement around 1968 through the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998.

Why teach about Northern Ireland in an urban school district in Connecticut? We do so because the Good Friday Agreement represents what author Penn Rhodeen has referred to as the most successful example of a political solution to a major conflict in our time. Through dialogue and compromise, Nationalists and Loyalists were able to bring an end to thirty years of police brutality, bombings, kidnappings, murders, gangsterism and riots to forge a lasting--if precarious--period of peace. The warring factions in America's own political system have been far less successful at dialogue and compromise, creating our current situation of mistrust of government and political institutions at home.

In the 2014-'15 school year, Northern Irish teachers Donal O'Hagan and Peter Rogan joined Sean Pettis of the peace organization Corrymeela on a Facing History grant to study at New Haven Academy, forming a strong bond with our staff and providing us with further insight and teaching materials for our developing unit. By the end of that school year, NHA's David Senderoff had secured a separate Facing History grant to connect NHA students with Northern Irish students through Google Hangouts using Chrome Books.

In 2017, Saul Fussiner and David Senderoff received a Fund for Teachers grant to travel to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Through this grant, we hope to gain deeper insight into the long historical background to the Northern Irish Troubles. We want to strengthen the course and help New Haven Academy students to better understand the context in which these events took place. This blog was created to help document our learning throughout this grant and beyond.