Our history can’t be an option

■ Some years ago, a colleague and I were teaching the poetry of W B Yeats, specifically the poem ‘Easter 1916’.

Poetry at Leaving Certificate higher level is challenging for even the most able student. Not quite as challenging as exploring the thematic concerns of this great poet, steeped as they are in a particular context of turbulent times, and particularly so when students are hampered by a lack of knowledge of their own country’s narrative.

Sitting in front of us were students whose knowledge of history ceased at primary school. They were engaged enough to want to explore the shifts in Yeats’s personal perspective from when he wrote ‘September 1913’ to writing ‘Easter 1916’, but it was made problematic by the fact that they were doing so in a vacuum of historical knowledge of the events that shaped the great minds and responses of the writers of that period.

I note the recent concerns expressed by our President at the recent launch of ‘The Cambridge History of Ireland’ – the “diminution in the status of history... in our education system” – at a time when we have read so much about the importance of our past.

While it is right that we focus on the promotion of Stem subjects in our skills-based economy, is it reasonable to relegate the study of history to the status of option?

I was thinking about a time when my children were much younger and we were on top of the Eiffel Tower, agog at our surroundings.

A man speaking in French to his boys, aged no more I would guess than nine or 10 years of age, outlined the events of their country’s history while pointing out the city’s historical landmarks: the Arc de Triomphe; the Place de la Bastille; the Élysée Palace.

He spoke animatedly to them about why it was important that they should know the importance of their city’s history.

These moments re-emerged while reading Ailish O’Hora’s excellent article (‘If it’s “a good idea to fill one’s suitcase with history for the road ahead”, why then drop the subject? ’, Irish Independent, May 26).

Anne Lavelle Monaghan town