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Reply 20
onelove
i'm guessin that the 3 choices wuld be support or opposition to the union along wiv an economy one and a british gov attitude one. they wuldnt giv u the chance to do one on support and one on oppostion to the union would they?

Hey, well basically you may get a question on one of the themes:
-revolutionary nationalism
-Constitutional nationalism
Or both together - but be careful with the questioning of the question, sometimes they are looking for both, sometimes they want one
-british polcices/attitudes to ireland
-unionism
-economy

In Jan, we got a revolutionary natioalism question, a question that dealth with constitutional nationalism and british polcies and the last question was on the econmy.

You get three essays, they usually ask a question concerning, Nationalims/opposition, British polcies and the economy, with unionism popping up in some form occasionaly
Reply 21
thanks a lot Elspungo, thats really helpful. Yeah my teacher keeps going on about change continuity and development as well. the difficult thing for me is linking them together, thats where i messed up in january so hopefully ill be alright this time.
Reply 22
Hi there...Im doing the Ireland exam tomorrow too. I feel OKish about the knowledge, the problem seems to me how to structure my essay so I get everything in the tiny amount of time without falling into narrative (I'm thinking of just not doing it chronologically ie jumping around to suit my argument). Plus I'm rubbish at the economics but I probably wont answer that question. Btw: do they have specific mark schemes for the papers because the only one my teacher had was the generic one?
Reply 23
Hey everyone! I'm doing Ireland 2 but am not 2 confident as our teacher is pants! :mad:
Just wondering if you think its best to answer the question chronologically or 'jump' around. :confused:
I read an answer that got full marks & they didn't answer it chronolically, however my teacher has always said answer it chronilogically! ... or does it not matter aslong as you make your point!? :rolleyes:

I'd be very grateful if someone could clear this up for me! :smile:

Hugs kisses & luv Sweetie x
Reply 24
I'm doing Ireland.. only starting to revise now because of all the exams I've had this week! good luck to everyone...
Reply 25
Hey y'all. Basically my advice would be not to answer chronologically, especially not on this paper,which is about themes, so try and answer it thematacally. I done chronologically in Jan, it means you do not have an effective structure, you dont answer the question properly and you easily fall into the trap of doing too much narrative. Luckily I had a gd teacher, gave us mark schemes which had what the examiner is looking for in the exams. Though some are available on the OCR website. I was freaking out about structure about 2 months ago, because theres just so much you have to include. But i sat down with the marks schemes and done some practice exams and wrote out some essay plans

So for example for a question:colone:XPLAIN WHY THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM VARIED SO MUCH IN THE PERIOD 1798-1921:

Talk about...
-quality of leadership
-strategies/methods of various rev groups
-british policies and how they effected the effectiveness of rev.nationalism
-externalities - WW1, famine and agarain crisis

My advice is also to discuss continuity, devolpment change in there.Fit it in, because thats what the examiner is looking for, so ie. how there was a continuty in the methods of rev nationalism, but a change in british polcies from coercion to concessions depending on parlimentary arithmatic

Also, discuss the whole period. Tht is key and what the examiner said i missed out, dont get bogged down in detail, bried overview-breadth not depth

Also read the questions very very very carefully. In a question that asks about rev nationalism,dont talk about constiitutional nationalism. I know it sounds obvious, but some of these questions are structured in an odd way which means you can misinterpret them and go off on tangents

If you cant tell im very passionte about this subject and adore irish history so ive worked so hard on trying to get an A. I hope that Ive helped you all out in one way or another, because i know how hard and confusing this exam is. If you have anymore questions, or have any ideas about structuring that you would like to share, please do :smile:
Reply 26
Also im really suprised that your teacher told you to answer it chronologically, tell him to read some mark schemes!!!!
Reply 27
Thanx 4 clearing that up 4 me! My teacher really doesnt no what he's on about & the whole class is destined 2 fail now .... apart from me because ur quality advice has saved me!!! :smile:

THANKYOU!

Hugs Kisses & luv Sweetie x
Reply 28
pleasure, Im just glad to help someone out, because i know how desperate i was for help, but i had to sort it out on my own, so im just glad i can now help someone else out. Its ridiculous when teachers dont have a clue, and you feel obliged to do it the way they tell you, but you have to find what works best for you...and the examiner. Good luck with 2moro, if theres anything else, just post
Reply 29
Elspungo
pleasure, Im just glad to help someone out, because i know how desperate i was for help, but i had to sort it out on my own, so im just glad i can now help someone else out. Its ridiculous when teachers dont have a clue, and you feel obliged to do it the way they tell you, but you have to find what works best for you...and the examiner. Good luck with 2moro, if theres anything else, just post


i was wondering if u knew which questions were due 2 come up, because some teachers can predict them (my psychology teacher predicted wednesdays questions perfectly) and if i typed up one of my essay plans would u take a quick look at it 2 see if i'm on the right lines!! thanx!

Hugs Kisses & luv Sweetie
Reply 30
The problem with this exam it is quite hardto predict. You will prob get a question on nationalism, british polcies, economy or unionism
In jan we got rev natinalism, economy and a mixture between constitutional nationalism and Britain. You rarely get Unionism, so that may come up, though ive never seen a question on it. best bet would be econmy and britain which always come up and something on rev nationalims/con or both. Sorry im sure that isnt much help, but the main themes come up as questions every year, but are just phrased diffrently. Ill sure look at one of your essay plans tho....
Reply 31
To What extent did Ireland lose more economically than it gained from the Union with Britain?
Union Created many economic Opportunities for Ireland, but smaller economic factors stood in the way
- Outdated land system
- Wealth went out of Ireland
- Manufacturing outside Belfast was almost non-exiatant
- Events got in the way, Land Famine

Undoubtedly Ireland did suffer economically during this period of time but not because of the union. An independent Ireland would not have faired better
Revisionist view lack of industrial revolution caused economic disruption

Early 19th C Ire was poor & economically backward due to
- Rapid population growth
- Lack of industrial development
- Land tenure system
- Subsistence economy
Economic Backwardness encouraged political unrest

Ireland suffered considerably in the economic downturn at the end of the Napoleonic Wars 1815
Social economic division between landlord & tenant grew, decline of cottage industries speeded up, Britain adopted a laissez faire approach. This led to industrial stagnation, land shortage, declining agricultural employment & poor diet

Situation was made worse by 1845 Famine poor population economic resources overpopulation & inefficient local govt made blight a tragedy
Aid given by UK was limited more concerned with Repeal of the Corn Laws. Peel & Russell ensured Irish landowners paid for Irish poverty. Capital flowed out of Ireland and what the British govt did do was (public works, soup kitchens) ‘too little, too late’
(Mention Malthus & Mitchell’s views on the famine) Union became permanently damned in the eyes of the Irish people

After the famine fewer people & the ending of the Corn Laws meant Irish agriculture could develop. Farmers moved away from subsistence. Increase in rail networks, crop rotation & horsepower in the 1850’s helped.

Gladstone stepped away from the laissez faire ideology. Land acts brought peace to the countryside. Land Purchase Act & Whyndam Land Act meant vast majority of farmers owned the land & therefore were more interested in quality & productivity. British govt had acted to ease social & economic tension bringing peace & economic justice to the Irish countryside

Ulster did become industrialised. Second part of the 19th C ship building & engineering mainly under Protestant & Unionist control. Major economic differences between Ulster & Ireland

Important to note government played no role in the development of industry. Railways were developed due to entrepreneurs only serious govt involvement came in land issues & that was due to political reasons

Economic issues played a vital role in Anglo-Irish politics fuelling much unrest before & after the famine. Once mass emigration, improved farming & landholding changes had come in, and then economic factors were to play a smaller role in fanning the flames of Irish Nationalism

Hope its makes sense let me no wot you think!

Hugs kisses & Luv Sweetie
Reply 32
You have a very good knowledge of everything that happened. Your answer would end up being chronological. But, you seem to be in control of that, so you have split up the different eras and made comments about economics, changes, developments etc. I have the mark scheme for the question. it says you need to show a balance of loss and gain for the economic, and you can go about it regionally or...
It says to start the essay,you should outline Pitts promises nd hopes for the unions:
-trade an manufaturing
-agriculture
-prospeity
-flow of capital
so it says you can use these as themes
Or, it seems to say that you can use the famine as a turning point and discuss circumstances before and after, perhaps splitting the circumstances into themes which i have wrote above.
But you see, I got that from an examiners mark scheme, so wouldnt have known that off the top of my head. You plan seems good, my only advice would be to try and add a structure now, so that it has a flow and a stead argument of gains and losses. I hope thats of some help!
Reply 33
Thanks that does help! I'm off 2 focus on irish nationalism!! Good luck for tommorrow, & thanks for all ur great advice!

Hugs Kisses & Luv Sweetie x
Reply 34
Pleasures all mine, Good luck as well hope you nail it!
Reply 35
how was it? everyone I know found it really hard - the questions were so random!!! parnell?? catholic emancipation??? wtf?
Reply 36
jessica_h
how was it? everyone I know found it really hard - the questions were so random!!! parnell?? catholic emancipation??? wtf?


Same here the questions were unbelievably hard, :confused: :mad: the whole class struggled & it didnt help that we had a power cut in the middle due to the thunder storms! Our history teacher said afterwards "we didn't stand a chance" which didnt make me feel better!
I did questions 1 & 2, i think 2 went better but found it extremely hard to pick out themes for question 1!
At least it was my last exam!!! :smile:

Hugs Kisses & luv Sweetie x
Reply 37
i know that was soo hard! not what i expected at all!

i started with number 2 then mulled over 3 0r 1 and eventually decided on number 1 which i struggled on to a certain extent!
Reply 38
Sweetie25
Same here the questions were unbelievably hard, :confused: :mad: the whole class struggled & it didnt help that we had a power cut in the middle due to the thunder storms! Our history teacher said afterwards "we didn't stand a chance" which didnt make me feel better!

Hugs Kisses & luv Sweetie x


our history teacher said it was fairly straightforward... :mad:
Reply 39
hey, sorry to break the tone, but for me they were the best questions I could have asked for, because for me I know irish nationalism so well, as does the rest of the class. The leader question i found good because i had done that for my coursework, and basically concluded that Collins was the real dude. Then for the second question i said yes....but, and split it into themes of political,socio-economic and religious. Im still not confident, because i need an A, but it was a million times better than my exam in Jan.

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