My love of History

As a youngster, I’ve always had an interest in history, obtaining an A grade in my Irish Intermediate Certificate (now called the Junior Certificate and roughly equivalent to British GCSEs), my study for the exam being to sit down and read both my Irish history books from start to finish, and was bitterly disappointed that I was unable to study the subject for my Leaving Certificate (again roughly equivalent to Britain’s A-Levels) due to subject choices (I wanted to study Physics as an aid to doing a degree in computers and the choice was one of Physics, History or Business Organisation).

Throughout university where I studied, and obtained, a BSc in Computer Systems at the University of Limerick, my interest in history was put to the side as I had to concentrate on my studies. Embarking on a career in programming, I moved to Cambridge in England, where I was lost in the real world of work and living away from home, so history continued to sit on the sidelines, save for watching the odd programme on TV.

In the late Summer of 2007, I went on holiday to France, where part of the trip included visiting Vimy Ridge in Northern France. There I was able to see the pock-marked landscape of the countryside, remains of trenches and shell holes, and also went underground to visit a tunnel from where attacks on the German held ridge were launched. This visit ignited my interest in history, and especially World War I history, as I realised that I knew very little about it. We hear so much about the Second World War and since I grew up in Ireland, and whilst plenty of Irishmen fought in the ranks of the British Army, Irish history tends to concentrate on the Easter Rising of 1916. So I decided to resurrect this and bought and read many a First World War related book to learn more.

As I read through some of these books, I was finding mention of other things that grabbed my interest. Verdun for example. I knew it was an important battle between the French and the Germans, but that was about it. so I bought a book on Verdun, and read that. Throughout the book mention was made of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 which was a huge factor behind Verdun, and thus I bought a book on that to learn even more! This continued, and still continues, with me buying more books, many of which I have yet to read (Prussia fascinates me, and that is my next target).

BBC History Magazine

Sometime in February this year I wasn’t feeling very well and so remained indoors, spending most of my time in bed probably feeling sorry for myself. My girlfriend called around with some magazines, and given my interest in history, one of these was BBC History Magazine. I read it from cover to cover and absolutely loved it. Continuing to buy it every month, and then subscribing to it, I find it a very easy read, very informative and the articles are short enough to read within 10 minutes (ideal to read in the morning during breakfast, and this have completely replaced me watching TV in the morning), but long enough to give you a detailed description of the topic, and often encourage you to find out more. If you have only a small interest in history I advise you to buy a copy of the latest issue to stir your interest even more.

Academic

As mentioned above, after being unable to study History to even school leaving level, I have decided that come January 2010, I will be embarking on a BA (Honours) in History at the Open University. Ideally I’d love to go back to study this full-time, but I simply cannot afford it, so will do it this way instead.