Week 2

On holiday in Spain: lovely to be here but also regretful not to be at University, I have spent time each day trying to understand what is required in the two journals and filling them in, I am paying a lot more attention to spelling, punctuation and general literacy, am a bit exhausted, it is 30 degrees most days, I have now seen the second lesson and it is basically a trip to the Boole Library, I can do that when I get back, the rest of the lecture is about primary and secondary sources.  There is also there is an article to be reviewed about the killbrittain castle and the burning of it, we have to do a case study of it and it is daunting but then that is why I am here, what do they want? a political overview?  All overviews of course, that is a difficult area for me. I am coming in as an outsider and this is my achilles heal, I am hoping that my simplistic way of addressing things is going to cast a more interesting light onto any given subject.  I will find out now if in practice it works.  If not I will have to knuckle down and get political.

WEEK 1

Lecture 1. This is what they called a taught masters,  and it is part time, one evening a week which initially seems ok, that's in actual fact  just the tip of the iceberg. The first evening dealt with using the online journal system but I have to write 200 words in one journal explaining the features and benefits and in a second journal explaining what effect it has had on my chosen thesis topic. Was a nice easy glide into the course.
For the next week I go over the concepts now and over and over again as it slowly sinks in that for the next two years most of my waking hours will be spent working on this Masters. Personally I think that is fantastic.
we learned about primary sources and secondary sources and official sources and some other stuff. we get to download powerpoint slides that are really useful and good for nudging your memory.
My thesis / dissertation is about the middle parish but it will be honed down, I am already thinking about 1845 - 48 reference merchant princes during the great famine under the laissez affaire doctrine. brain is exploding, and I have to go on holiday to Spain tomorrow, will fill in the journals  on the beach, and chill.

Introduction

Hello, my name is George Patterson, I'm a 58-year-old about embark on a Masters in local history at Cork UCC in Ireland.

I have lived in Cork for 20 years and I've learned a lot about the history of Ireland.  I now want to further my education and use that  part of my brain that is primarily used for learning. I want to further myself and hopefully increase my intellect, change my perceptions, emotions, trains of thought and I suppose my general personality in order to be more knowledgable and happier in my own skin. I suppose that's what we all want to do really, or at least those of us who want to do just that.