Well at many points through my third year I thought I might never have seen the day but its here … I have finished my dissertation! Definitely feels like a huge weight off my shoulders! As some of you may not know I’ll just talk you through what I have had to do to get this  completed and if some of you are interested in doing a dissertation this is the sort thing it will entail.

So around this time last year I picked my options for my third year. I always wanted to do a dissertation because I believe it would be a great achievement and really rewarding. I had also recently been to Dublin and wanted to do something relating to Irish nationalists. I spoke to one of my tutors who advised me to read a few books on the topic and get some ideas together. I decided to look at how the Wilsonian Moment affected Irish nationalists. This covered 1917 through to 1920.  I was told because I was going to look at Ireland and because you need primary sources for it that I would have to go to Dublin again to look in the archives.

I was really excited and went to Dublin over the summer to get my primary sources. I spent 3 days there in total and spent time at University College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland. It was great looking at all the documents from that time and constructing my ideas. When I came back I knew there was still a lot to do and I hadn’t got all my primary sources but thankfully there was a few websites that had the old Irish newspapers on so I could do the work while I was at uni.

From the start of third year onward I began seeing my supervisor who advised me on secondary reading and starting to write the actual dissertation and from February this year I have been writing and re-drafting! Now it is finished and I am so relieved, it really is a great feeling. I hand the whole thing in tomorrow and will definitely need a drink to celebrate!