Exploring The Life And Times of Cú Chulainn

About this resource

This animated series contains six programs based on the major events in the life of Cú Chulainn. There are three learning units and each unit offers a variety of resources: a teacher's guide, a whiteboard resource and a student workbook containing various activities, worksheets, glossaries and much more.

Watch the episodes

Each episode recounts a major event from the life of Cú Chulainn from the boyhood story of how he earned the name 'The Hound of Ulster' to the epic confrontation known as 'the Cattle Raid of Cooley' in which Cú Chulainn lost his life. Teachers can play each individual episode on an interactive whiteboard, stopping the story at any point to facilitate questions and classroom discussions.

The Cú Chulainn animated series was produced by the Nerve Centre for BBC NI's education department.

Episode 1: The Birth of Setanta - The story of Cú Chulainn begins with his unusual birth.

Episode 2: Growing Up - The story of Setanta growing up and beginning his training.

Episode 3: The Name - The story of how Setanta got his name Cú Chulainn.

Episode 4: In Love and War - Cú Chulainn falls in love with Emer but will his destiny come between them.

Episode 5: The Great Challenge - The story of the brown bull of Cooley.

Episode 6: The Hero's Death - Cú Chulainn fights Maeve's army to the death.

Units of study

Accompanying the series are dynamic educational resources which can be downloaded for classroom use. Three inter-linked 'Exploring The Life And Times of Cú Chulainn' units of study, specially developed to support the Northern Ireland Curriculum, are available. Each unit of study uses the Cú Chulainn animated series to explore life in early times.

Each unit comprises a teacher guide, an interactive whiteboard resource and a pupil workbook. Teacher guides for each unit of study provide lesson plans, step by step guidance through pupil workbook and ICT activities and templates for classroom use. Teacher guides should be used along with the interactive whiteboard resources for each unit, which allow teachers to display key content and helpful guides to pupil activities.

Pupil workbooks contain fully illustrated worksheets on all topics plus a wide variety of pupil activities, quizzes and glossaries of key vocabulary.

Each unit of study supports Key Stage 2 Curriculum delivery, offering teachers the opportunity to cover different Areas of Learning, Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities, Cross-Curricular Skills and introduce pupils to skills assessable through CCEA's 'Using ICT Accreditation' scheme.