Category: Access Classics news and updates

Access Classics round-up, 2026

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What a year! In collaboration with the UCD Classical Museum, Access Classics once again welcomed hundreds of students, teachers and parents to UCD’s Belfield campus, and were also delighted to hit the road to visit schools, including our old friends Dundrum College of Further Education and the Portmarnock Malahide Educate Together! Whether re-creating curse tablets, handling museum artefacts, unlocking the sounds of ancient Greek or considering the leadership of Alexander the Great, the Access Classics team had enormous fun chatting with the students! Below are two key highlights from the year!

Classical Association of Ireland Teachers (CAI-T) Young Classicist Awards, 2026

Access Classics was delighted to welcome back the CAI-T Young Classicist Awards to the UCD campus, where, on 29 May, the amazing finalists presented their work in front of friends, teachers, parents and, very importantly (!), the judges: Dr Christopher Farrell and MA students Rhea Bates and Cooper Hays, all from the UCD School of Classics. As in previous years, second-level students around Ireland were set the challenge of creating a project in any medium about any aspect of the ancient world in the hopes of claiming victory in the following categories: Senior Award (4th-6th year), Junior Award (1st-3rd year), Sustainability Award (for a project connected with the Global Sustainability Goals) and the Languages Award (for a project based on/with a component of Latin or Ancient Greek).

(L to R) Dr Bridget Martin, Dr Christopher Farrell, Rhea Bates and Cooper Hays congratulating the finalists and winners!

Every year, the creativity and standard somehow increases, and this year was no exception, with entries including computer games, PowerPoint presentations, videos, creative writing, paintings, dance, music and woodwork! It was certainly no easy task for the judges to determine the winners. Congratulations to all students and schools who entered this year, and especially to the winning entrants from St Andrew’s College (Sustainability Award), Gonzaga College S.J. (Languages Award), St Paul’s Secondary School, Greenhills (Senior Award) and Blackrock College (Junior Award). After the awards, many students visited the Classical Museum, handled some of the ancient artefacts and tried on our replica helmet!

Well done to all students on their fantastic entries, and we very much look forward to next year!

A very special visit

After a long day of UCD adventures!

Access Classics’ highlight this year was an event made possible by a generous donation to the UCD School of Classics by an anonymous donor. On a beautiful mid-May morning, pupils from three schools in the Tallaght area were collected by bus and brought to the leafy UCD Belfield campus. Joining forces with UCD Widening Participation, our aim was to introduce the students to both Classics and its cognate subjects within the College of Arts and Humanities, as well as to UCD’s vibrant campus. Dr Geremiah Garsha (School of History) and Dr Anthony McIntyre (School of English, Drama and Film) were on hand in the morning to chat with the students about aspects of piracy and Hollywood storytelling techniques, and Assoc. Prof. Fionnuala Walsh (School of History) brought the students for a tour of Special Collections in the UCD Library!

Students hard at work, making “blessing” tablets!

Following a quick snack, the Classics contingent took over. Dr Martin Brady and Dr Bridget Martin were delighted to introduce the students to Latin and ancient Greek through interactive activities involving Greek curses/blessings and Roman numerals! After lunch in UCD’s main restaurant (again, made possible through the generous donation), the wonderful UCD Access and Lifelong Learning student access leaders brought the students on a tour of campus, and we ended the day in the best way possible: with a trip to the Classical Museum! Huge thanks to all the students and teachers who attended and really threw themselves into the spirit of the day, and special thanks to the donor whose generosity made the event possible. Watch this space for similar future events!

Thank you!

As ever, a massive thank you to all the students, teachers, parents, colleagues (in and outside UCD) and friends for their help and enthusiasm over the past year! The Access Classics team is constantly inspired by the work we see all around us to promote Classics in Ireland, and we look forward to doing our part in the next academic year. In the meantime, please do get in touch if you have any questions or would like to enquire about a school visit (bridget.martin@ucd.ie; access.classics@ucd.ie)!

Keep an eye out…

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Firstly, a quick reminder to all the Classical Studies sitting the Leaving Certificate exams at the minute: all PowerPoints from the CAI-T Leaving Certificate Classical Studies Lecture Day are available here. Best of luck to everyone!

Secondly, over the next few months the Access Classics Transition Year Unit will be transformed into a Micro-module, in line with the new Transition Year programme. We are excited to work within the new programme statement to help bring Classics to even more schools! The current Unit will remain on the website until the new micro-module is available. Please send any queries about the Unit to bridget.martin@ucd.ie.

Access Classics round-up, 2025

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With the trees in leaf, it must be time to look back on another packed academic year of visits and events for Access Classics!

Each year, we try our best to accommodate as many school visits and events as possible as these are central to Access Classics’ mission to extend the reach of Classics in Ireland. We were delighted, then, to be able to meet more than 1,000 teachers, students and parents this academic year, and to welcome back old friends (such as the Dundrum College of Further Education) and meet new ones (such as St MacDara’s Community College). Once more, Access Classics worked very closely with the UCD Classical Museum, especially with Sasha Smith, to expand the amount of student visits, offer a wide range of activities and promote the ancient world through, for example, its artefacts, history, literature and languages. We had great fun introducing students to the wonders of the Museum and its handling collection alongside Greek language workshops and a range of Classics-related talks. Below are some highlights from the year!

CAI-T Leaving Certificate Lecture Day, 2025

Across a busy April, we had the enormous pleasure of collaborating with the Classical Association of Ireland Teachers (CAI-T) on two important events: the Leaving Certificate Lecture Day and the CAI-T Young Classicist Awards!

Photo credit: Delia Donohoe (2025)

We always love hosting the CAI-T Leaving Certificate Lecture Day in UCD, and this year was no exception. On 5 April, we welcomed ca 170 Leaving Certificate students and their teachers to the UCD campus to hear a range of lectures on topics connected with the Senior Cycle curriculum. Huge thanks to the UCD School of Classics’ lecturers who kindly gave up their Saturday morning/afternoon to present and to CAI-T’s Delia Donohoe for her help with organising and spreading the word about the day! All PowerPoints from the day are available by clicking on the “CAI-T lecture day 2025” tab above. The strands and topics covered are as follows:

1. “Greek and Roman funerary practices” (Dr Bridget Martin)
Strand 4: Gods and Humans; Learning outcomes 4.9, 4.10 and 4.11

2. “Gods and Humans: Morality and Living Well in Plato’s Crito” (Dr Christopher Farrell)
Strand 4: Gods and Humans

3. “Judging them by their enemies: Alexander & the Persians; Caesar & the Gauls” (Associate Professor Philip De Souza)
Strand 3: Power and Identity

4. “Greek Tragedy: The Dionysia” (Dr Suzanne Lynch)
Strand 2: Drama and Spectacle; Learning outcomes 2.4 and 2.5

5. “The Failure of Aeneas in Aeneid 2” (Dr Martin Brady)
Strand 1: The World of Heroes; Learning outcomes: 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.8, 1.9 and 1.10

6. “‘The same night awaits us all’: Death in Horace’s Odes” (Dr George Prekas)
Strand 4: Gods and Humans; Learning outcomes 4.13 and 4.14

Classical Association of Ireland Teachers Young Classicist Awards, 2025

Access Classics’ Dr Bridget Martin joined Trinity’s Dr Charlie Kerrigan to judge the Awards this year, and, as ever, the range and creativity of the projects was amazing! The students were set the challenge of creating a project based on any aspect of Classics to compete in five awards categories:  Junior Award (1st-3rd year), Transition Year Award, Senior Award (5th-6th year), Languages Award (for a project based on/with a component of Latin or Ancient Greek) and the Sustainability Award (for a project connected to Global Sustainability Goals). On 29 April, the finalists and their teachers and fellow students came to the beautiful, sunny UCD campus to display and present their projects. Dr Martin was on hand on the day to meet the finalists and have a chat about their projects!  Under the steady hand of CAI-T’s Séamus O’Sullivan, the Awards went off without a hitch!

As every year, the students presented a dizzying array of projects, from beautiful poems, to paintings, hand-drawn comics, excellently researched essays, stop-motion animation, videos and original songs. As an added treat at the end of the Awards, students had the chance to visit the Classical Museum, take part in a role-play game or hear about Greek and Roman journeys to the Underworld! Well done to all students on their fantastic entries – we’re already looking  forward to seeing what you create next year!

Spreading the word

The collaboration between Access Classics and the UCD Classical Museum bore fruit in 2024 in the form of an article in Museum Ireland (volume 30), arising from our paper at the Irish Museums Association’s “Education and Outreach Forum” (June 2023) in the beautiful surrounds of the Law Society of Ireland, Smithfield. In this article, entitled “Working Towards Inclusive Education with the UCD Classical Museum and Access Classics”, we discuss the aims, successes and challenges of our collaboration in attempting to increase access to and inclusion in Classics. Check it out here!

Access Classics was also delighted to speak to the UCD Widening Participation Outreach Network (9 October 2024) and at the Classical Association of Ireland Teachers annual conference in Maynooth (11–12 October 2024) about the successes and challenges of the programme. It’s always brilliant to chat with others engaged in outreach and, especially, with the teachers who are getting such amazing results from their Classics students at second level!

Access Classics even made its way into Dr Bridget Martin’s presentation at the conference “100 years of leaving certificate Greek and Latin: Histories, challenges, possibilities” (held in the Long Room Hub, Trinity, and organised by Dr Charlie Kerrigan and Mnemosyne Rice). In her contribution, entitled “Accessing the Classical languages at second level: Challenges and opportunities”, Bridget argued in part for the importance of outreach in spreading knowledge about ancient Greek and Latin, and thereby increasing access to the same.

Considering that the new specifications for Senior Cycle Greek and Latin are coming onstream in September 2025, this was a timely, uplifting and inspiring conference!

Coming soon!

Hot on the heels of the launch of its 2nd edition, the Access Classics Transition Year Unit is about to undergo another transformation! The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment announced a revised Transition Year Programme Statement (TYPS) in September 2024. Under the TYPS, Transition Year Units will be superseded by micro-modules. We are working very hard to re-imagine the Unit as a micro-module and will make this available (free of charge!) to all schools in time for the 2025/26 academic year. In the meantime, you can check out the Unit as it currently stand here.

Thank you!

Finally, a massive thank you to all the students, teachers, colleagues (in and outside UCD) and friends for their help and enthusiasm over the past year! As every year, we are inspired and humbled by the drive to expand access to Classics in Ireland, and we can’t wait to join in all over again in the next academic year!

Classical Association of Ireland Teachers (CAIT) Lecture Day, 2025

On By UCD Access ClassicsIn Access Classics news and updates2 Comments

UPDATE: All PowerPoint slides from the lecture day are now available under the “CAI-T lecture day 2025” tab.

The UCD School of Classics and the Access Classics team are delighted to announce that UCD will host the the annual CAIT lecture day for Leaving Certificate Classical Studies students this year, on Saturday, 5 April! UCD School of Classics lecturers will give talks based on topics from the Leaving Certificate curriculum, allowing students to expand and consolidate their knowledge, as well as enjoy a day on the beautiful UCD campus! The lectures will take place in Theatre M of the Newman Building. The provisional schedule is as follows (click on the image above for a pdf of the schedule):


10:00 Welcome
10:05 – 10:35 Greek and Roman funerary practices (Dr Bridget Martin)
10:40 – 11:10 Gods and Humans: Morality and Living Well in Plato’s Crito  (Dr Christopher Farrell)
11:15 – 11:45 Judging them by their enemies: Alexander & the Persians; Caesar & the Gauls (Assoc. Prof. Philip De Souza)
11:50 –12:40 Lunch
***As most restaurants and cafes on campus are closed on Saturdays, please make sure to bring a packed lunch. Vending machines available in the building.***
12:45 – 13:15 Greek Tragedy: The Dionysia (Dr Suzanne Lynch)
13:20 – 13:50 The Failure of Aeneas in Aeneid 2 (Dr Martin Brady)
13:55 – 14:25 “The same night awaits us all”: Death in Horace’s Odes (Dr  George Prekas)

Classics Transition Year Unit, 2nd edition!

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There is great excitement in the Access Classics camp as we launch the 2nd edition of our Transition Year Unit! First launched in 2020, we have been delighted with the response to the Unit from teachers and students over the past four years and are very excited to share the 2nd edition with everyone. Containing both old favourite and lots of new ideas for lessons and activities, there is something here to engage all students. Head over to the “Classics Transition Year Unit” tab to get your copy of the free, downloadable Teachers’ Manual and PowerPoint!

Whether just dipping in and out or using the complete Unit, we are on hand to help with any questions or feedback – simply email either bridget.martin@ucd.ie or access.classics@ucd.ie.

End-of-year round-up, 2023!

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As we reach the end of another hectic academic year, it’s time to look back on some of the visits and activities that made this Access Classics’ busiest year to date!

School visits

As ever, second-level school visits are the beating heart of Access Classics, and we were delighted to welcome hundreds of students to UCD and to travel to second-level schools: since September 2022, Access Classics has interacted with … wait for it … c. 1,300 second-level students!! Working closely with the UCD Classics Museum, and its curator Dr Jo Day, we welcomed second-level school groups from Dublin, Wexford and Leitrim to the UCD campus, where the students took part in lots of activities, including  tours of the Museum collection, artefact handling, unlocking the mysteries of ancient languages and creating curse tablets!

We also continued our visits to schools. Highlights include meeting the Transition Year students and their teacher Chantelle Delahoy in Loreto Beaufort and chatting with the newly formed Classics Club in St Raphaela’s Secondary School in Stillorgan, run by former UCD Classics student Dylan McKeever. It was great to see such enthusiasm for Classics in a school that does not currently offer the subject at Junior or Senior Cycle! We were also delighted to continue the strong tradition of collaboration beyond the UCD Classics corridor, joining forces with the UCD College of Arts and Humanities to welcome visiting students from America during the summer, with UCD Global to introduce newly arrived international students to options available for study in university, and with UCD Access and Lifelong Learning to bring Classics to DEIS-school students during a UCD Experience day in March!

Classical Association of Ireland Teachers (CAI-T) Young Classicist Awards, 2023

March was a particularly busy month for Access Classics: we hosted school visits to UCD, travelled to Cork to chat about goddesses in University College Cork and, most importantly, collaborated with the Classical Association of Ireland-Teachers (always a huge pleasure!) on two events: the Young Classicist Awards and the Leaving Certificate Lecture Day.

Access Classics’ Dr Christopher Farrell and Dr Bridget Martin joined Trinity’s Dr Charlie Kerrigan to judge the Young Classicist Awards and were blown away by the high standard! On 14 March, we were delighted to facilitate CAI-T in hosting the Awards in UCD (in person for the first time since 2020!). On the day, the finalists in the four categories – Junior Award (1st-3rd year), Senior Award (4th-6th year), Languages Award (for a project based on/with a component of Latin or Ancient Greek) and the Sustainability Award (for a project connected to Global Sustainability Goals) – presented their projects to the hundreds-strong crowd of students and teachers, with CAI-T’s wonderful Caitríona Maher acting as MC!

The students did amazing work, producing creative projects ranging from stop-motion animation videos to hand-drawn comic strips, paintings, sculptures, posters, essays, PowerPoints and even some spoken Ancient Greek! To round out the day, Access Classics’ Bridget gave a short lecture on Greek tragic drama as a preface to an amazing student-production of Euripides’ Medea! With the amount and standard of entries going up each year, we can’t wait to see what next year’s competition will bring!

CAI-T Leaving Certificate Lecture Day

Close on the heels of the Young Classicist Awards, Access Classics’ Chris organised the in-person return of the CAI-T Leaving Certificate Lecture Day, which was held in UCD on 25 March. Huge thanks to the UCD School of Classics’ lecturers who kindly gave up their Saturday afternoon to present short lectures on aspects of the new Leaving Certificate curriculum to a full house of c. 180 students and teachers! All handouts and PowerPoints from the day are available by clicking on the “CAI-T lecture day 2023” tab above. The strands and topics covered are as follows:

  • Gods and Humans: Experiencing Ancient Temples (Dr Jo Day)
  • Gods and Humans: Funerary Practices (Dr Bridget Martin)
  • Judging them by the Enemies: Alexander and the Persians; Caesar and the Gauls (Assoc. Prof. Philip de Souza)
  • Gods and Humans: Morality and Living Well in Plato’s Crito (Dr Christopher Farrell)
  • Roman Spectacle: The Colosseum and Circus Maximus (Assoc. Prof. Alexander Thein)
  • World of Heroes: Odysseus and Aeneas as Heroes (Dr Nicholas Freer)
  • World of Heroes: The Aeneid as Propaganda (Dr Helen Dixon)

Student news

The Access Classics team was delighted to join forces with Dr Martin Brady to run the level-three Access Classics module in UCD for the third time this year! This module, which teaches students techniques of outreach and engagement, always attracts very dedicated and enthusiastic students, and this year was no exception! From conducting podcast interviews to producing posters explaining and advertising artefacts from the Classics museum, doing an amazing job with the module Twitter account (@AccessClassics) and being constant supports at Access Classics events, the students were a stellar bunch this year!

Spreading the word

 In exciting news, Access Classics will feature in an upcoming publication! Arising from a joint talk on Classics at second level in Ireland (for a Classical Influences and Irish Culture (CLIC) seminar in May 2022), Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Ms Aryn Penn and Access Classics’ Dr Bridget Martin wrote a chapter entitled “Green shoots on the Emerald Isle: an update on Classics in schools and communities in Ireland”  for “Class and Classics”, a Trends in Classics volume by De Gruyter. This gives an overview of Classics in and outside the classroom in Ireland, and we are particularly pleased that the chapter will be available through Open Access, so keep an eye out!

In April 2023, Access Classics launched a survey of Classics at second level in Ireland!

We sent a questionnaire to all second-level schools to gain a greater understanding of the current landscape of Classics in second-level schools in Ireland (e.g. how many schools offer Classics in some form, how many students take Classics/Greek/Latin, how many schools offer Classics at TY level), uncover the reasons the majority of second-level schools cannot/ do not offer Classics, and measure the reach and impact of Access Classics at second level, particularly the use of the Access Classics Transition Year Unit on Classical Studies. This is just the first step in some far larger plans for Access Classics, and we look forward to seeing what emerges from the responses! If you would like more information on this, drop an email to bridget.martin@ucd.ie.

Thank you!

Finally, a huge thank you to all the students, teachers, colleagues (in and outside UCD) and friends for their help and enthusiasm over the past year! It was a particularly busy academic year, and we looked forward to doing it all again next year!

Access Classics second-level questionnaire!

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Since its creation in 2019, a fundamental aim of Access Classics has been to increase knowledge about and uptake of Classics in second-level schools in Ireland. To help us achieve this aim, we are conducting a survey of all second-level schools and adult-education institutes in Ireland to gain a greater understanding of the following:

(i) the current landscape of Classics in second-level schools in Ireland (e.g. how many schools offer Classics in some form, how many students take Classics/Greek/Latin, how many schools offer Classics at TY level);

(ii) the barriers to maintaining and introducing Classics in second-level schools (whether lack of knowledge about the subject, lack of interest from teachers and/or students, lack of resources, etc.)

(iii) the impact of Access Classics, particularly the use of the Access Classics Transition Year Unit on Classical Studies.

The data we receive from this survey will form part of a report on Classics in second-level education in Ireland that will be available on this website (keep an eye out for updates!) and will be used to lobby for greater support for the subject at government level.

A link to a questionnaire will be sent to all second-level schools and adult-education institutes. If your school does not receive the link and you would like to be involved, please email Dr Bridget Martin, Director of the Access Classics, at bridget.martin@ucd.ie.

We really look forward to hearing your input!

Classical Association of Ireland Teachers lecture day

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The UCD School of Classics and the Access Classics team are looking forward to hosting the annual Classical Association of Ireland Teachers (CAIT) lecture day for Leaving Certificate Classical Studies students on Saturday, 25 March! UCD School of Classics lecturers will give talks based on topics from the Leaving Certificate curriculum, allowing students to expand and consolidate their knowledge, as well as enjoy a day on the beautiful UCD campus! The lectures will take place in Theatre O of the Newman Building. The provisional schedule is as follows (click on the image above for a pdf of the schedule):


10:00 Welcome
10:05 – 10:35 Gods and Humans: Experiencing Ancient Temples (Dr Jo Day)
10:40 – 11:10 Gods and Humans: Funerary Practices (Dr Bridget Martin)
11:15 – 11:45 Judging them by their enemies: Alexander & the Persians; Caesar & the Gauls (Assoc. Prof. Philip De Souza)
11:50 – 12:10 Gods and Humans: Morality and Living Well in Plato’s Crito (Dr Christopher Farrell)
12:10 –13:00 Lunch
***Please ensure that you bring something to eat and drink. There are vending machines and water fountains for snacks and beverages, but UCD cafes and restaurants will be closed. ***
13:00 – 13:30 Roman Spectacle: the Colosseum and Circus Maximus (Assoc. Prof. Alexander Thein)
13:35 – 14:05 World of Heroes: Odysseus and Aeneas as Heroes (Dr Nicholas Freer)
14:10 – 14:40 World of Heroes: The Aeneid as Propaganda (Dr Helen Dixon)

The Access Classics students are back!!

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There’s great excitement in the UCD School of Classics as our level-three outreach module is back with a new cohort of students! We are really looking forward to hearing all the students’ opinions on and ideas about the place of outreach in Classics and can’t wait to see what materials they produce. As a first step, the student will take over the dedicated @AccessClassics Twitter feed and, over the next few months, will use this to promote engagement with Classics. Look back through the feed to see the work of previous student cohorts – it makes for a good read! Please consider supporting our students by following @AccessClassics!