Echoes of the Past: Exploring Irish and World History · 5th Year

Active learning ideas

Emigration and the Coffin Ships

Active learning helps students grasp the human scale of emigration during the Great Famine by engaging with real decisions, risks, and outcomes. When students sort push and pull factors or role-play a coffin ship journey, they move beyond abstract numbers to understand personal stories and systemic pressures that shaped Irish lives.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Eras of change and conflict
• NCCA: Primary - Continuity and change over time

• 30–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Concept Mapping
• 30 min · Small Groups

Sorting Activity: Push and Pull Factors

Prepare cards listing factors like 'potato blight' or 'jobs in America'. In small groups, students sort them into push or pull categories and justify choices with evidence from readings. Groups share one example per category with the class.

Differentiate between the 'push' and 'pull' factors that drove mass emigration from Ireland.

Facilitation Tip

For the debate, assign roles in advance so students prepare arguments based on economic, social, and health data from primary sources, ensuring focused and evidence-based discussions.

What to look for

Students will receive two cards, one labeled 'Push Factors' and one 'Pull Factors.' They must write one specific example of each that relates to Irish emigration during the Famine and explain why it fits its category.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Concept Mapping
• 45 min · Small Groups

Role-Play: Coffin Ship Journey

Assign roles such as passenger, captain, or doctor. Students improvise scenes based on historical accounts of disease and rations, recording key challenges. Debrief in whole class to connect to push/pull factors.

Analyze how the experiences of Irish emigrants varied based on their destination.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you are an Irish emigrant in 1850. Would you choose to go to New York or Liverpool, and why?' Students share their reasoning, considering the risks and potential rewards of each destination.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Concept Mapping
• 40 min · Small Groups

Mapping Exercise: Diaspora Routes

Provide blank maps of Ireland, UK, and North America. Small groups plot emigration paths, mark coffin ship wrecks, and note settlements using atlases and sources. Present findings to highlight destination differences.

Explain how the Famine has profoundly shaped the Irish diaspora globally.

What to look for

Present students with a short primary source excerpt describing conditions on a coffin ship. Ask them to identify two specific hardships mentioned and explain how these hardships contributed to the high death rates.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Formal Debate
• 50 min · Whole Class

Formal Debate: Destination Choices

Divide class into teams arguing for North America versus UK based on risks and opportunities. Teams prepare evidence, then debate in rounds. Vote and reflect on emigrant perspectives.

Differentiate between the 'push' and 'pull' factors that drove mass emigration from Ireland.

What to look for

Students will receive two cards, one labeled 'Push Factors' and one 'Pull Factors.' They must write one specific example of each that relates to Irish emigration during the Famine and explain why it fits its category.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should anchor this topic in primary sources to counter oversimplified narratives. Avoid framing emigration as a simple act of survival—highlight the agency of migrants in choosing destinations despite risks. Research shows that when students analyze survivor letters or ship manifests, they better understand the complexity of push and pull factors beyond hunger alone.

Successful learning looks like students confidently distinguishing push from pull factors, analyzing primary sources to identify hardships, and debating destination choices with evidence from maps and survivor accounts. Look for small-group discussions where students cite specific details to support their claims.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Role-Play: Coffin Ship Journey, students may believe that all passengers died due to the ship’s conditions.

  Direct students to survivor letters or ship manifest excerpts distributed during the role-play to highlight that while mortality was high, many survived and rebuilt lives in new communities.

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Methods used in this brief

• Concept Mapping
• Formal Debate