For the first time, The Troubles will be included in Leaving Cert history in Ireland. Education Minister Norma Foley has given the green light for it to be added to the curriculum for the 2027 academic year.
Starting from February, the Department of Education will initiate a consultation process on this decision, inviting public submissions on what they believe should be incorporated. Over 3,000 individuals lost their lives during the 30-year conflict between Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles.
It began with civil rights marches across the six counties in the late '60s and concluded with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which brought lasting peace to the island. Catholics were treated as second-class citizens in what was effectively an apartheid state in the north.
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Protestants secured all the jobs and housing at the time, and the then-Northern Ireland police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was almost entirely Protestant. It has since been replaced by the PSNI, the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The violence escalated from the late '60s onwards, leading to the formation of the Provisional IRA, which waged a guerrilla war in the north and on mainland Britain intermittently. The British Army was deployed to the North to maintain peace on August 14, 1969, and halt the violence but ended up waging a war against the nationalist population instead, reports the Irish Mirror.
The horrific events of Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, where 13 innocent Catholics were gunned down during a civil rights march, will now be a focal point for students in Ireland. Officials have yet to decide if the Leaving Cert's historical coverage will span from 1968 to the IRA ceasefire on August 31, 1994 or extend to include the peace agreement signed three years later.
A Government insider shared: "One way or the other The Troubles will be on the Leaving Cert curriculum for the 2027 school year which is an important step in the history of our country."
They added, "It is important to acknowledge what happened up north and the impact that the Good Friday Agreement has had on this island both in terms of ending the violence and economic growth."
The source further emphasised, "Generations of students need to be taught what happened here and how the peace came about."
With over a quarter of a century since the historic peace accord, they said, "26 years have now passed since we signed the peace deal so it is vitally important that it is featured in our history classes and also our Leaving Cert exams."
The inclusion of The Troubles in the Leaving Cert history syllabus is a recent decision made by the Minister before the latest General Election. She awaits news in the upcoming weeks whether she will retain her role at the Department of Education.
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