AUT26-39 Claire Keegan’s Small Things About These

Date:     Wednesday 14th October 2026
Time:     7.00 - 8.00 pm
Venue:  Online via Zoom

Target Audience: Leaving Certificate English teachers

This repeat webinar for teachers of post-primary English will:

• Outline reasons why Small Things Like These is an excellent choice for the comparative study in the Leaving Certificate.
• Pick out important and useful moments in each of the 7 sections of the novel.
• Examine recurring motifs.
• Summarise key points for each of the four comparative modes at Higher Level: Theme-Issue, General Vision and Viewpoint, Literary Genre, Cultural Context, as well as briefly covering the Ordinary Level modes.
• Look briefly at possible comparisons to a small number of other texts.
• Identify useful resources and links, especially literary, historical and social sources.

Bio of Presenter: Julian Girdham

Julian Girdham is an experienced English teacher and conference presenter. He has organised researchED Dublin, a major international educational conference on evidence-based practice, which has twice taken place in his school, St Columbas College in Dublin, as well as an annual summer English Meet for teachers of English. His resources are at www.juliangirdham.com, including a fortnightly newsletter on books and teaching. He also writes for a variety of publications, including the Irish Times and Leader magazine.