Irish Context Research Articles

Learning from the Past: Parametric Analysis of Cob Walls

In this paper, the results obtained from a series of parametric analyses, where the influence that geometric and mechanical parameters have in the structural response of existing vernacular cob walls within an Irish context, are presented. A design of experiments using central composite designs was implemented along with analysis of variance following two computational approaches, namely, the finite element method and kinematic limit analysis. As results, a series of response surfaces and parametric equations with which it is possible to compute safety factors and collapse multipliers (within the range of values studied) are provided. Based on the results obtained, it could be concluded that traditional cob walls in Ireland are very robust. Relatively high acceleration values, unlikely to happen in a low seismic hazard region such as Ireland, would be needed to start the collapse mechanisms studied or cause yielding in typical vernacular cob walls. Furthermore, the equations generated with the refined regression models can be used by practitioners as a first approach to estimate the safety levels of existing cob buildings with similar characteristics.

Sources of Volatile Aromatic Congeners in Whiskey

Whiskey’s complex and diverse flavor stems from a range of reactions that create congeners that are primarily dependent upon the cereal source/mash bill and each stage of the process: malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, and cask maturation. Therefore, in theory, the congener profile of a whiskey is a summation of its ingredients and the specific parameters of each stage of the manufacturing process. Congener profiles have been used as biomarkers for quality and authentication; however, to date, insufficient information has been published in relation to the extensive profiling of congeners associated with specific whiskey styles/types or the intra-and inter-variability within brands, especially in an Irish context due to the recent rapid expansion of the industry. As the ability to extract and identify congeners has progressed appreciably in recent years due to advances in extraction, chromatographic, and chemometric techniques, it is imperative that research is undertaken to gain a better understanding of the impact of specific congeners not only in relation to quality but also as biomarkers for authentication.

"She just makes it easier…" The impact of having a dedicated nursing role in supporting people with intellectual disability when accessing acute hospitals, from the perspective of their support staff, the Irish context.

Learning Disability Liaison Nurses have been shown to improve hospital experiences and this is an emerging role in Ireland. This research qualitatively explored the impact of a Clinical Nurse Specialist Acute Hospital Liaison from the perspective of staff in an intellectual disability community organisation. Participants identified significant challenges with supporting people attending hospitals including accessing and understanding information, anxieties and not being prepared for transitions through the hospital. The findings demonstrate the introduction of this role is a supportive, positive step with reports of improved information sharing, feeling better prepared and alleviating anxieties related to supporting someone in hospital. The findings clearly identify that this role has considerable benefits when set in a community organisation. This role has had a positive impact on service users and staff when interacting with hospitals, providing evidence of the value of this role in Ireland and also of they having a specialist qualification in the role.

Development and preliminary application of a Nature Value index to identify High Nature Value forests in the Republic of Ireland

High Nature Value (HNV) forests contribute to maintaining European biodiversity and public good supply. This study aimed to a) develop an objective and quantitative Nature Value (NV) index for the identification of HNV forests in the Republic of Ireland; and b) apply and validate the index using available data from the Irish National Forest Inventory (NFI).Following recent European definitions of HNV forest, a six-step framework was adapted from literature and used for assessing forest naturalness. The reference forest (in an Irish context) and its naturalness traits were first described. Six indicators were selected to construct a NV index and three categories (low, medium and high NV) were defined based on the range of NV scores. Using data from the Irish NFI, the approach was implemented by calculating the indicators’ values and the NV score for 1,676 forest plots. The selected indicators were tested for redundancy and the NV index was validated with available floristic variables and with forest sub-type classes. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the weighting values of the indicators.Approximately 11% of the NFI plots were categorised as HNV. There was no redundancy between the selected indicators. The NV index was significantly positively correlated with data from the floristic variables collated by the NFI. The averages of the floristic variables per NV category were significantly different. NFI plots classified as HNV had a higher percentage of natural/semi-natural forest types than medium NV and low NV plots. The sensitivity analyses showed little effect of changes to the indicators' weighting values on a) the correlation coefficients between the floristic variables’ data and the new NV scores obtained and b) on the proportion of natural/semi-natural forests in HNV plots.This work provides an approach for the development of a NV index to identify HNV forests in a European country following the naturalness concept exclusively. The selected indicators and their weighting should be tailored to each country’s particular conditions, especially due to potential differences in the reference level of naturalness of forests and differences within NFIs.

Through the Lens of Grief: Re-reading performance through pregnancy loss

The grief of miscarriage is a disenfranchised form of sorrow (Watson, Jewell and Smith, 2018). Not only is it difficult to grieve an embryo or foetus whose status is culturally contested, the stigma surrounding miscarriage produces a ‘cultural silence' that works to isolate those suffering this form of loss (Layne, 2003; Peel and Cain, 2012). Unlike collective practices of mourning, miscarriage is understood in western culture as a ‘solitary moment of loss' (Watson, Jewell, Smith, 2018: 1). As an ‘untold sorrow', there is a lack of communal rituals and narrative practices, to serve as healing acts of grief work (Westlund, 2019). I draw on Butler to consider how miscarriage is rendered ungrievable by society , through the production of normative ‘exclusionary conceptions’ to argue for the invisibility of experiences of miscarriage as a form of oppression. (Butler, 2004 xiv-xv). The article explicates the grief of early miscarriage through a re-reading of my performance artwork Fluid Flesh (2020). Originally an exploration of the embodied experience of becoming a mother, the work has come to represent the grief of subsequent miscarriages. The fluid, pink, vital, pulsing flesh of the growing bodies of mother and child, now the dripping threads of pregnancy loss. I situate my lived experience in an Irish, postcolonial, post-Catholic context. I examine how pronatalism and concepts of femininity in an Irish context, work render experiences of miscarriage ungrievebale. Re-reading these performance works through the lens of grief, I aim to make visible an occluded lived experience, as well as to find ways to speak, in tangible and material terms, a grief that is silenced and rendered conceptually ambiguous. I aim to open out wider understandings of sadness by writing this specific, gendered and culturally specific experience into the lexicon of grief.

Experiences of academic-activists in Ireland: comfortable and uncomfortable activism in the current institutional environment

While there is a lack of academic-activist themed literature within the Irish context, it is evident that academic-activism is becoming an increasingly relevant topic given this period of undoubtable social change. The emergence of literature depicting academia as an unsupportive environment suggests that activism is not supported in a higher educational setting. This paper draws on the experiences of 33 Irish-based academic-activists and investigates the concepts of comfortable and uncomfortable academic-activism which were identified during the analysis. By exploring the experiences of academic-activists at varying career stages, this article argues that an academic’s ability to exercise academic freedom is influenced by the type of activism, the sociopolitical identity of the individual and the institutional environment. Overall, this paper offers interesting comparisons between disadvantaged/marginalised academic-activists in comparison to those in more privileged positions.

‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’: Female Subjective Dialectics in the Work of Paul Howard, Louise O’Neill and Naoise Dolan

This essay will examine how the three authors Paul Howard, Louise O’Neill and Naoise Dolan see the gaze, and the male gaze, as constitutive of subjectivity and identity in a twenty-first-century Irish context. It uses a theoretical matrix that combines the work of Jacques Lacan, Laura Mulvey and a range of contemporary feminist perspectives to critique the hermeneutics of identity and the concept of the image. In Howard’s work, Ross, the central character, reifies and commodifies women according to how they look, as being with a woman who is beautiful is how he validates his own quite insecure masculinity; his is the gaze of commodification and power. In Asking for It, Louise O’Neill offers a binary image of the power and the allure of visual beauty as her central character looks for the gaze of the other and manipulates it, but is then subject to the rape and the aftermath wherein she has no control over her images on social media and the subjective dehiscence that ensues. In Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan’s central character is the object of a male and female gaze, as a bisexual character who oscillates between two lovers; Ava, therefore, problematizes and complicates the theory of reflection and the gaze.

The importance of communication and involvement in decision-making: A study in Ireland exploring birth satisfaction using the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R).

Evaluation in healthcare services has become a priority, globally1. The Government of Ireland has highlighted the importance of stakeholder engagement to identify the needs of women in the design and delivery of high-quality health services, driven by necessity rather than financial ability2. The Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R), an internationally validated tool, and recommended for measuring childbirth satisfaction by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM)3; however, it has yet to be considered in the Irish context. The aim of the study was to explore birth satisfaction with a sample of new mothers in Ireland. A mixed-methods study was conducted including a survey that involved collection of data from the BSS-R 10-item questionnaire from 307 mothers over an 8-week period in 2019, in one urban maternity hospital in Ireland. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Qualitative data from the free-text comments of the survey questions were analyzed using content analysis. Overall, women reported positive relationships with their care providers and were satisfied with the communication and support they received, as well as high levels of control and choice. Postnatal care, however, was highlighted as being less satisfactory with staffing levels described as inadequate. Understanding women's birth experiences and what is important to them could facilitate midwives and other health professionals to improve the quality of their care and develop guidelines and policies that focus on women and their families' needs. The vast majority of women rated their birthing experience as extremely positive. The main elements of care that contributed to a positive birthing experience for women were quality relationships with clinicians, choice and control, and emotional safety.

A process oriented psychology (POP) approach to processing collective trauma in an Irish context

The island of Ireland and Irish people have experienced a vast array of social, political, and military and paramilitary events and occurrences throughout history. Many have given rise to different forms of collective trauma. This has influenced the development of a national psychology and the many sub-psychologies of different groups of Irish people. Unprocessed, this trauma is transferred to subsequent generations at an individual, group, and collective level. This article considers an integrative approach to working with collective issues within groups of people who have a relationship with Irishness. This is heavily based on process oriented psychology (POP) or its larger scale application, worldwork. Mapping and following the different roles that may emerge within the process is key. We combine this approach with the spirit or essence of ancient Irish storytelling in hosting community-based dialogue interventions. These groups explore ‘the experience of being Irish in 2022 or different relationships with, or to, Irishness in today’s world’. The different themes and topics that emerged across the initial groups are discussed with further reflections from participants and more in-depth commentary from the perspectives of the group facilitators. The next stages of this group-based psychotherapeutic work are considered within an Irish framework; as well as the potential benefit of this kind of work at an international level, given the many collective psychosocial challenges we face across a very interconnected globe.

Exploring the uptake of CATALISE recommendations from the perspective of speech and language therapists working in the Irish context: A qualitative online survey

BACKGROUND: The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) has led on a series of implementation efforts since the publication of recommendations regarding terminology and diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD) by the CATALISE Consortium in 2017. OBJECTIVE: To explore the views of speech and language therapists (SLTs) about the effectiveness of IASLT dissemination efforts in relation to the CATALISE recommendations to inform the development of a national DLD implementation strategy. METHODS: A self-administered qualitative e-survey was designed. A purposive sample of SLTs working in Ireland was recruited using a maximum variation strategy. The survey included closed and open questions. Qualitative data were analysed deductively using constructs from the Consolidation Framework for Implementation Research. Findings were integrated using concepts from the RE-AIM framework. RESULTS: Dissemination methods were considered effective at the preadoption stage. However, barriers to early use of the CATALISE recommendations were identified related to low practitioner self-concept, the complex nature of the required practice changes, and a lack of compatibility with service pathways. Misalignment across health and education policy was identified as a barrier to uptake of the recommendations for those working in schools. Ongoing opportunities for case-based discussion was viewed as an important component of future implementation efforts. The importance of engaged leadership in overcoming implementation barriers is also highlighted. CONCLUSIONS: A targeted multi-level implementation strategy developed by an inclusive stakeholder network including speech and language therapy managers is required to support the full adoption of the CATALISE recommendations into policy, service, and practice in the Irish context.

Culture and parenting: Polish migrant parents’ perspectives on how culture shapes their parenting in a culturally diverse Irish neighbourhood

ABSTRACT While it is now widely acknowledged that child-rearing practices vary culturally, there has been little research or consideration on how cultural difference is experienced by Polish immigrant parents in Ireland. This paper reflects on how culture is experienced by migrant parents and shapes Polish migrant parenting in the Irish context. It draws on findings from a qualitative study which elicited Polish migrant parents’ perspectives on the norms that shape parenting and their parental experiences, while residing in a culturally diverse neighbourhood in Ireland. Findings highlight that no single theoretical framework accurately captures Polish migrant parenting, which is a complex, multidimensional and dynamic phenomenon. Instead, insight is required into migration experiences, the influence of childhood, family relationships and obligations, as well as employment and parenting styles, all of which are underpinned by specific cultural norms and values, to better understand parental challenges in the adaptation to their post migration environment.

Gaelic Community Development and the Gàidhealtachd Question

The present article discusses issues relating to territorially-differentiated community language development policy in the Scottish Gaelic and Irish contexts, and evaluates recent contributions to debate on the topic. The historical backdrop to current provision for Gaelic community development is explored within the wider context of Gaelic governance structures and funding streams. The article analyses current developments in the Scottish Government’s policymaking process in relation to Gaelic, including proposals relating to the establishment of a geographical Gàidhealtachd, and argues in favour of a new framework for Gaelic community development based on the model of Ireland’s Gaeltacht Act (2012). This would address both the ‘heartland’ and urban contexts, create a more localised level of language planning with greater community control and input, and establish the principle that Gaelic community development should be an elaborated policy area in its own right, with a clear statutory basis.

Introducing Advanced Paramedics into the Rural General Practice Team in Ireland – General Practitioners Attitudes

Introduction:As Ireland's population increases and chronic disease becomes more prevalent, demand for limited general practice services will increase. Nursing roles within a general practice are now considered to be standard, yet alternative non-medical professional roles are under-explored within an Irish context. Non-medical personnel such as Advanced Paramedics (APs) may have the capability to provide support to general practice.Method:A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was adopted. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to a purposeful sample of GPs attending a rural conference followed by semi-structured interviews. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed.Results:In total n=27 GPs responded to the survey and n=13 GPs were interviewed. The majority of GPs were familiar with APs and were receptive to the concept of closely collaborating with APs within a variety of settings including out-of-hours services, home visits, nursing homes, and even roles within the general practice surgery.Conclusion:GP and AP clinical practice dovetail within many facets of primary care and emergency care. GPs believe that current models for providing rural general practice care are unsustainable, and they realize the potential of integrating APs into the general practice team to help support services into the future. These interviews provide a detailed insight into the opinions of rural general practitioners in Ireland on healthcare provision and the clear necessity for support and change.

Language policy in the crossfire in Ireland: can Languages Connect deliver in the Republic of Ireland?

ABSTRACT The launch of Ireland’s first official language education policy Languages Connect, Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017–2026 (DES 2017) envisages wide-reaching changes for foreign language learning and teaching, both at primary and secondary sector. This study asks if the policy is equipped to address Ireland’s main challenges in language learning, and to what extent the policy’s aims have been achieved to date. For a critical analysis of documents, both Languages Connect and currently used foreign languages curricula were subjected to Critical Discourse Analysis, and for measures of policy success, latest official statistics on learning uptake were consulted. While the policy documents show some internal consistency and overlap between them in justifying and contextualising language learning for the needs of an outward-facing modern Ireland, they also fail to give coherent answers to key challenges for the Irish context, notably the relation between foreign languages and the Irish language. Comparing aims of Languages Connect with de facto uptake figures validates the limited success of the policy to date. The article concludes that a successful overhaul of foreign language learning in Ireland needs to better align rationales for multilingual competencies with European language policy, and to integrate Irish into these competencies.

Constructing the abortion debate: a comparative news values analysis of print media discourses in Ireland and Argentina

ABSTRACT Socio-political transitions prompt shifts in public sphere discourses on key issues (Krzyżanowski, Michał, Anna Triandafyllidou, and Ruth Wodak. 2009. ‘Introduction’ in the European Public Sphere and the Media: 1–14. London: Palgrave Macmillan.). Opportunities to change abortion legislation constitute examples of this in stimulating renewed debates around gender and human rights. Media discourses on abortion are worthy of study for their ideological role in transmitting messages and shaping public opinion. This comparative study investigates mainstream media discourses on the Irish referendum for the legalisation of abortion (May 2018) and a similar vote in the Argentine Senate (December 2020). Using the methodological approach of Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) (Bednarek, Monika, and Helen Caple. 2017. The Discourse of News Values: How News Organizations Create Newsworthiness. New York: Oxford University Press.), this article explores news values in media coverage leading up to and directly after the vote in the two countries. Both corpora demonstrated a shift in news values before and after the key events although this was more pronounced in the Irish context. Mainstream media news values in Ireland promoted legislative change overall while Argentine newspapers differed in their construction of news values reflecting their opposing positions on the proposed legislation.

Brazen as Falstaff, Devious as Iago: Sir Ralph Lane's Approach to Holding Office in Ireland and Virginia

AbstractMuch has been made of the ideological connection between the mental world of servitors in Elizabethan Ireland and the origins of early English colonial endeavor in North America. In this vein, the case of Sir Ralph Lane, the first governor of the Roanoke colony and, later, muster-master general of Ireland, would seem to present a historiographically promising test case, one that might not only link Ireland and the Roanoke Colony but also could show, following recent suggestions, how attitudinal, behavioral, and aspirational commonalities existed between early modern English military culture and the ethos of early English colonial endeavor. Lane's record on both sides of the Atlantic, however, rather than painting a picture of the applicability of martial virtue and military discipline at times of crisis, demonstrates instead the stark reality of the impulsive and appetitive culture of the garrison in the Elizabethan period and its corrosive effects. Lane's remarkable capacity for corruption, willful mismanagement, and wily self-defense in an Irish context in fact amplifies and complements troubling tendencies that scholars have recently detected in Lane's famous discourse of his government in what was commonly termed Virginia printed in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations. Lane can indeed serve as an emblem of common features shared by Elizabethan Englishmen drawn to office in Ireland and Elizabethan/Jacobean Englishmen drawn to settle in Virginia, but largely because of his mendacity, venality, and irresponsibility.

Edgeworth’s “Great Coat”: A Material-Semiotic Reading of the Irish Mantle and Novelistic Interiority

This article presents a material-semiotic reading of the Irish mantle to develop a new, formal analysis of subjective interiority in Maria Edgeworth’s Irish novels. The mantle’s material functions of concealment and physical defense in medieval Ireland, alongside its imperial and nationalist adaptations in the writings of Edmund Spenser and Joseph Cooper Walker, evince the garment’s complex narrativity. Informed by new materialist theory, this article uses the mantle’s material and semiotic articulations, from its violent history and gendered adaptations in the early nineteenth century, to adapt Deidre Lynch’s model of deep character in the British novel to Irish fiction. Through the allusion to colonial violence, the mantles in Castle Rackrent (1800) and Ennui (1809) structure a deep interiority that is unique to Irish character. The mantle both signals and conceals the depths of Irish subjectivity within the text, confounding reader-character intimacy. Edgeworth’s mantles demand a revised model of deep character for the Irish context.

Grad2Work: Using Design Thinking to Create a Postgraduate Learning Programme in a Contemporary Irish Context

Grad2Work: Using Design Thinking to Create a Postgraduate Learning Programme in a Contemporary Irish Context

Assessing rail-based environmental noise exposure using CNOSSOS-EU

Since December 2018 a harmonised approach for the assessment of transportation noise, known as CNOSSOS-EU, became obligatory for EU Member States in the calculation of strategic noise mapping. This paper provides an assessment of rail-based environmental noise in Ireland via a comparative analysis of acoustic modelling for rail sources in the Irish context by comparing the CNOSSOS-EU method and the previously utilised interim method RMR-1996 with field measurements. The paper also presents comparative estimates of population exposure calculated using CNOSSOS-EU and RMR-1996. It was found that the results generated by the CNOSSOS-EU model were closer to field measurements when compared to the RMR-1996 model. Noise modelling also indicated that populations estimated to be exposed to levels of railway noise > 55 dB(A) generated by the national rail fleet were higher using CNOSSOS-EU (i.e. 91,692 more persons) relative to the RMR-1996 method. Rail noise generated by the Luas tram rail network generated marginally less population exposure for railway noise > 55 dB(A) (i.e. 2,905 less persons) relative to RMR-1996. As such, the paper contributes to the assessment of the new CNOSSOS-EU model for rail in the EU and addresses the relative lack of research focusing on rail modelling and population exposure estimation under the END. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the extent that populations are exposed to railway noise using CNOSSOS-EU across Europe.

Irish Schoolyards: Teacher’s Experiences of Their Practices and Children’s Play-“It’s Not as Straight Forward as We Think”

ABSTRACT With the inclusion of play as a right, schools are urged to consider whether all children can access play opportunities in schoolyards. Refocusing on play as occupation is identified as an important way in which occupational therapists can contribute within schools. Greater knowledges of children’s play and teachers’ practices, in schoolyards in an Irish context, is required however to guide practices. This inquiry used interviews to explore with 10 primary school teachers, their practices, and experiences of children’s play in Irish schoolyards. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to generate three interrelated themes. These were a) Break(in)time: Play in schoolyards as different from other ways of doing within schools, b) play as producing inclusion and exclusion, c) and certainties and uncertainties produced in teachers’ everyday practices. This inquiry generated knowledges on the social nature of children’s play and teachers” practices in Irish schoolyards as negotiated processes, interacting with diverse intentions, and the particularities of each schoolyard. The consequences of individualizing choice were highlighted as central to the production of inclusion and exclusion in schoolyards. Greater consideration of how children’s play and teachers” practices occur as collective occupations, is proposed to advance inclusive schoolyards.