Tasks & exercises

This is the music video for Celtic punk band The Pogues' song Fairytale of New York which was released in 1987.

Analyse the lyrics, using poetry/song analysis. Additionally, if you feel like including film analysis or commenting on the music video, feel free to do so.

This is chapter one of Sally Rooney 's acclaimed debut novel, Normal People (2018) entitled January 2011. Write a brief summary of the excerpt and proceed to analyse the text focusing on the writing style and relationship between the characters.

Do a comparative analysis in approximately 300 words between chapter one and two of Sally Rooney's novel, Normal People (2018) and the first episode of BBC studios' mini TV-series from 2020 directed by Lennie Abrahamson. Your analysis should focus on similarities and differences in terms of plot & structure, characters and the setting. Try also to include some analytical points on cinematic techniques. You must print your analysis before the time is up.

Analyse one of the songs below using poetry analysis. You should be prepared to relate the song to Irish history and present both the song and the event to the class.

The text in this exercise is entitled The Happy Prince (1899) written by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde . Before reading the fairytale, in pairs discuss Oscar Wilde's epigrams. Which one is your favourite? Do you know of any other famous epigrams? Afterwards, read the text out loud in groups and choose a couple of focal points for analysis. You must be prepared to share your work with the rest of the class in some form.