I have always been the kind of person who has to pull at a thread. Even if it’s attached to my favourite jumper, I can’t possibly just let it dangle there, taunting me. Working as a researcher this Summer through the Laidlaw Foundation has revealed to me that I don’t just pull threads on jumpers - it's something that I do in all aspects of life. In a sense, pulling at threads is the essence of historical research: exploring ideas, asking questions and – most importantly – not accepting facts without checking the evidence for yourself.

              In my research project, I analysed the words and phrases used within key speeches and literature from 1910s Ireland. I took a micro-historical approach as I studied small units (two documents). However, studying small units does not necessitate asking small questions; I endeavoured to answer a variety of wider questions about ideologies in 1910s Ireland, including the involvement of and attitude towards women in Nationalist and Unionist movements, mass discontentment with socio-economic factors, what fears individuals in Ireland had, the extents to which people were willing to fight for what they believed in and how leaders justified and raised support for violence (to name but a few!).

              Yet, the more answers I found, the more questions I asked. This six-week programme may have come and gone, but the truth is that historical research is never over - there is always another question to ask and there is always more thread to pull. Through this project, I was able to better myself as a researcher by relentlessly refining my study, seeking conciseness and clarity. I learned to evaluate which threads to pull, and how far to pull them.

              Pulling threads isn’t inherently negative – it allows creativity to thrive and opportunities to present themselves. After all, you never know where you will find the next great idea. The only downside is that you wind up with handfuls of an unravelled jumper. What then?

Whilst continuing to improve upon the skills that I have learned in being concise and focused, I want to dig deeper into the research that I have begun. Unravelling the past is a never-ending pursuit, and I have only scratched the surface. Rather than holding a jumble of unexplored threads, I have created a website of my research, where I will ask further questions and explore answers. I hope that this will be a useful resource to aid in the understanding of these key texts and prove the worth of words in the study of the past. You can find the website here: https://worldchangingwords.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/

I am so excited to begin adding some posts to the website to share my existing and future research. It is so wonderful that there is always more thread to pull, and more of the past to unravel.