After extensive use of google...HELP! OCR synoptic issues!

200428

After spending literally all afternoon trying to answer this question: HOW FAR, FROM 1800 TO 1921, DID CONSTITUTIONAL NATIONALISM SUCCEED IN ACHIEVING REFORM WITHIN, AND OF, THE UNION?
I give in. I need help.

I have no textbook because I was an idiot and left it at school in my locker.

But there is a bigger problem in that I haven't the faintest idea how to go about answering this. I know that it has to cover the whole period, but that's a shed-load of history to write in one essay.
I've come across various advice:
* Do it chronolgically, 1st paragraph on the first few years, last paragraph on the last few years, with a few little snippets here nd there in between
(I've got a problem with this in that as far as I'm aware, there wasn't any significant constituional nationalist activity between 1800 and 1823)
* Do it thematically
(What themes? arrrggghhh! Political/Religion/Economy I assume, but I'm severely confused)

So basically, after a lot of thinking I've figured that O'Connell most certainly needs to be in there, probably some of the land acts, home rule bills and I've decided that overall constitutional nationalism wasn't successful, it just had a few little bumps of success in the form of Catholic Emancipation etc. and these successes were within the union not of the union - achieving reform of the union was a bit of a failure until the last home rule bill but that turned into a failure when redmond postponed it till after WWI and then constitutional nationalism sort of fizzled out...

I've written a grand total of one paragraph about O'Connell and the achievment of catholic emancipation and how that was successful ish religiously equalish rights opening up of offices to catholics politically but the limitations it had limited franchise didn't achieve much in practice blah blah and the National Repeal Association was a complete failure and this is typical of the whole period successes interspersed by some somewhat significant successes...no success reforming the union itself, some success reform within it but where do I got now...surely I can't just

The thing is...what else? How do I do this stupid thing? I've never written a synoptic essay before and I'm vaguely aware that this is the sort of essay where you pick a line of argument and stick at it, no acknowledgement or "wellll they could be seen as quite successful over the whole period but I think they're not" it's just go go go at it with your way.

:cry: