JC History flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

Material produced at the time of an event by a participant or eyewitness, such as a letter, diary, official record, photograph, or artefact.

External criticism

The historian's test of a source's authenticity: establishing its date, author, and provenance before using its content as evidence.

Decade rule

The years 1800 to 1809 form the first decade of the nineteenth century, so 1900 belongs to the nineteenth century, not the twentieth.

Stratigraphy

Excavation principle that lower soil layers are generally older than upper layers, allowing finds to be ordered in relative sequence.

Radiocarbon dating

Absolute dating method using the decay of carbon-14 in once-living organic material, reported as a calibrated range with a margin of error.

Cropmarks

Patterns visible in aerial photographs where buried ditches or walls affect crop growth, revealing archaeological sites without excavation.

Mount Sandel

Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site in County Derry, dated to about 8000 BC, yielding flint microliths and evidence of seasonal occupation.

Céide Fields

Neolithic stone-walled field system preserved under blanket bog in County Mayo, evidence of early farming and land division.

Round tower

Tall stone bell tower with a doorway raised above ground level, built at Irish monastic sites and used as a place of refuge.

Skellig Michael

Rocky island off County Kerry with a well-preserved early Christian monastery, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Flight of the Earls

Departure of Hugh O'Neill and Rory O'Donnell from Ireland in 1607, which cleared the way for the Plantation of Ulster.

Ulster Plantation

Distribution of confiscated Ulster land from 1609 to English and Scottish undertakers, servitors, and London companies, displacing many native Irish.

Bawn

Fortified walled enclosure attached to a plantation house, used to protect settlers, livestock, and stores from attack.

Cromwellian settlement

Land settlement of the 1650s that transferred much Irish land to English adventurers and soldiers, reducing Catholic landholding sharply.

United Irishmen

Society founded in Belfast in 1791, seeking parliamentary reform and later an independent Irish republic, inspired by the French Revolution.

Vinegar Hill

Wexford rebel camp attacked by General Lake's forces on 21 June 1798, a decisive defeat in the 1798 Rebellion.

Act of Union

Law effective 1 January 1801 abolishing the Irish Parliament and giving Ireland seats at Westminster, with Catholic emancipation promised but blocked.

Ballinamuck

Site in County Longford where General Humbert's French force surrendered in October 1798, ending the French intervention in Ireland.

Phytophthora infestans

Fungus-like organism that caused potato blight, destroying the subsistence crop on which much of the Irish population depended.

Gregory Clause

Provision of the 1847 Poor Law Extension Act denying relief to anyone holding more than a quarter acre of land.

Coffin ships

Overcrowded emigrant vessels crossing the Atlantic during and after the Famine, so named for the high death rate from fever and disease.

Grosse Île

Quarantine station in the St Lawrence River near Quebec where many Famine emigrants were received, and where many died.

Easter Rising

Armed rebellion in Dublin from 24 to 29 April 1916, centred on the General Post Office, where the Proclamation of the Republic was read.

First Dáil

Assembly of Sinn Féin MPs elected in 1918, meeting on 21 January 1919 and adopting a Declaration of Independence.

Anglo-Irish Treaty

Agreement of 6 December 1921 granting dominion status to the Irish Free State, with an oath of allegiance and partition of six counties.

Béal na Bláth

County Cork location where Michael Collins was killed in an ambush on 22 August 1922 during the Civil War.

Ninety-five Theses

List of arguments against indulgences attributed to Martin Luther in 1517, widely treated as the starting point of the Reformation.

Council of Trent

Series of meetings from 1545 to 1563 that reformed Catholic doctrine and discipline in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Act of Supremacy

English law of 1534 making the monarch supreme head of the Church of England, breaking with papal authority under Henry VIII.

Congress of Vienna

Meeting of 1814 to 1815 that redrew Europe after Napoleon and restored a balance of power among the great states.

Treaty of Versailles

Settlement of 1919 imposing reparations, territorial losses, and war guilt on Germany and establishing the League of Nations.

Berlin Wall

Barrier built in 1961 dividing East and West Berlin, symbolising the Cold War until its opening in 1989.