Irish Studies Research Articles

Paediatric Escherichia coli urinary tract infection: susceptibility trends and clinical management-a retrospective analysis of a 10-year period.

Escherichia coli is the predominant urinary pathogen in children. Irish and international studies have demonstrated increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to antibiotics such as co-amoxiclav. We aimed to (1) examine the AMR patterns of paediatric urinary E. coli isolates, from both hospital and community sources, over a 10-year period; (2) assess the effectiveness of Children's Health Ireland (CHI) antimicrobial guidance given local susceptibility data; and (3) review the clinical management of an admitted patient sub-set over a 6-year period. Pure growth of urinary E. coli from patients aged ≤ 14 from 2012 to 2021 were analysed for AMR. Differences in susceptibility rates were assessed. A retrospective chart review conducted on inpatients aged ≥ 2 months to ≤ 14 years, 2016-2021. E. coli accounted for 70.8% of likely significant positive pure growth cultures (9314 isolates). Susceptibility to co-amoxiclav significantly increased over time, from 66.7% to 80.4% (2016-2021, p < 0.001). Nitrofurantoin and cefalexin had significantly higher susceptibility rates than trimethoprim (< 70% annually). 85.1% of isolates were susceptible to the combination of co-amoxiclav and gentamicin, recommended for those > 2months and systemically unwell. The additional gain in empiric susceptibility provided by gentamicin above that provided by co-amoxiclav alone has fallen from 16.4% to 6.7% (2016-2021). The 222 clinical cases reviewed showed improved antimicrobial guideline compliance over time. This study provides important regional AMR data. Co-amoxiclav susceptibility increased significantly over time, contrasting with previous studies. This was temporally associated with stewardship measures reducing co-amoxiclav prescribing. Decreasing utility of gentamicin supports recent CHI guideline updates reducing gentamicin use.

Decolonising Medieval Irish Studies

This short article reviews some of the colonial underpinnings of the field of Medieval Irish Studies (a subdiscipline of Celtic Studies), using the career of Whitley Stokes (1830–1909) as a case study in the entanglements between British colonial activity in India and the development of philological research on medieval Irish literature in the 19th century. It then proceeds to use autoethnographic reflections from graduate students in the field of Medieval Irish Studies whose backgrounds locate them at various intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. These reflections offer constructive pathways toward working to decolonise the discipline.

Exploring the Combinational Effects of Pomegranate and Physical Activity on Health: A Rapid Review of Iranian Studies

: Pomegranate, recognized as one of the most widely utilized herbal medicines, comprises three components: pomegranate juice, seeds, and peel. Each part of the fruit contains a range of phytochemical compounds, macronutrients, and micronutrients. With a history dating back to 3000 BC, pomegranate has gained global recognition for its diverse therapeutic effects, attributed to the presence of various phytochemicals such as flavonoids (e.g., flavonols, anthocyanins, ellagitannins, and phenolic acids). These compounds contribute to the herb’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, antibacterial, cardioprotective, and other health-promoting properties. The beneficial properties of pomegranate have captured the interest of sports physiologists, who recognize this herb as a promising substance to augment the health-promoting effects of exercise programs. A review of the SID and Google Scholar databases revealed that Iranian sports physiologists have published 25 articles investigating the combinational effects of exercise programs and pomegranate administration. The primary focus of these studies was on metabolic changes, followed by oxidative stress markers. The majority of their participants were obese women with type 2 diabetes. Collectively, these findings indicated that the combination of pomegranate consumption and physical exercises, particularly aerobic exercises, enhanced the beneficial impact of aerobic training on metabolic parameters and anti-oxidative markers. Based on these studies, it can be concluded that pomegranate extract can potentiate the health-enhancing effects of physical exercise. Therefore, it is recommended to consider utilizing pomegranate derivatives in conjunction with exercise programs to maximize their beneficial health effects.

Russian-Eastern Intersections. A Venetian ‘Anomaly’

This article is devoted to the research of a group of scholars from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice who over the course of several decades – especially starting from the 1970s, and partly up to now – have studied the cultural and political relationships between Russia and Asia. Some of these scholars were specialists in Russian studies, others came from orientalist disciplines (in particular Iranian and Turkish studies), but showed an in-depth interest – also based on acquaintance with the language – in Russia and the Soviet Union. Their research has produced a large number of publications, of a predominantly literary and historical nature, which constitute an important contribution to the knowledge of Russian-Eastern interactions, with particular reference to the Caucasus, but also to Central Asia, Crimea and the Volga region. Some aspects of this ‘Venetian school’ of Russian-Asian studies can be very useful, albeit counter-current, for present-day research on the Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet area.

The 15-year national trends of urinary cancers incidence among Iranian men and women; 2005–2020

BackgroundUrinary tract cancers including bladder, kidney, ureter, and pelvis are a common malignancy worldwide with high mortality ratio. Aimed to investigate the prevalence of these cancers, we conducted this study.MethodsIn this study, all the information related to ICD10 codes, gender, age and province of residence of individuals were obtained from the data of Iran’s cancer registry by the Ministry of Health, Medicine and Medical Education and demographic evidence for each sub-country from the reports of Statistics Center of Iran (SCI). Also, the data of two Iranian national survey studies CASPIAN-III, IV, and V (information related to the care and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in childhood and adolescence) and STEPs (including information on NCD in adults over 18 years old) were used. The data was analyzed using Poisson regression with mixed effects to estimate the incidence of cancers.ResultsBladder and kidney neoplasm are the most common cancers of the urinary system in Iran. The prevalence of bladder cancer has increased from 5.82 to 11.50 per 100,000 individuals. The increasing trend is growing faster in men compared with women. The incidence of kidney neoplasm has increased over the years (2.03 in 2005 vs. 7.02 in 2020 per 100,000). Having a higher incidence ratio compared with bladder cancer, kidney cancer is responsible for 35.06% of all urinary cancers in 2020 compared with 23.71% in 2005. Both neoplasms of the ureter and renal pelvis were recorded rarely and with lower incidence in both sexes during this period.ConclusionConsidering the increasing trend in the incidence of urinary neoplasms in Iran during these years, the advantage of focusing on the risk of urinary cancers is highlighted. Therefore, investigating the prevalence and incidence of urinary cancers to plan and manage these cancers will result in prevention and reduction of the disease burden on the Iranian society. Future studies in this field can help in the prevention and well-timed diagnosis of these cancers.

Capitalism and Irish studies

Capitalism and Irish studies

Իրանական լեզուների հայերեն անունները. ժամանակագրությունը, գործածությունը, բառարանային մշակումը և կանոնարկման խնդիրները / Armenian Names of Iranian Languages: Chronology, Usage, Lexicographical Processing, and Normative Issues

In the fifth century, the Armenian language used the names of two Iranian languages: պարսկերէն (Persian) and պարթեւարէն (Parthian). In the seventh century, the linguonym պարսիկ լեզու (Persian) was recorded, while in Middle Armenian it was ֆարսի (Farsi). The formation of the remaining linguonyms refers to modern times. In the Armenian language, linguonyms of living and dead Iranian languages are in some cases names of dialects. They are usually formed using the suffix –երեն (-eren). The exceptions are the ancient Armenian պարթեւարէն (Parthian language) and the variable սոգդիարեն (Sogdian language), formed in the twentieth century, using the suffix -արէն (–aren). The Armenian names of Iranian languages have the following options: a) phonetic-orthographic, b) word-formative, c) lexical, d) structural (word and phrase). In the Armenian scientific literature, in particular in the linguistic works on Iranian studies, the variability of Armenian and borrowed linguonyms is noted. It is necessary to minimize the variability of Armenian names of Iranian languages and unify linguonyms, which will contribute to the correctness and accuracy of scientific speech. In monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of the Old Armenian and New Armenian languages, the names of two dozen Iranian languages with their various variants became headwords. The same number of linguonyms, including the names of dialects, have not yet been recorded in dictionaries. Among the Armenian names of Iranian languages, the most commonly used linguonyms are պարսկերեն (Persian language), տաջիկերեն (Tajik language) and քրդերեն (Kurdish language). A number of linguonyms are found only in scientific texts, some are used in isolated cases.

Modern Iranian fiction in the Soviet Union: Translation and representation

During the Soviet era, the works of 55 contemporary Iranian authors were translated into Russian and published in the Soviet Union. Prefaces and afterwords, usually written by Iran scholars, provided the Soviet reading audience with a paradigm for perceiving the translated novels and short stories. This paper aims to offer an analytical survey of the history of the translation of modern Iranian fiction into Russian and to trace the major trends in the representation of the translated works. The thematic range of translated works correlated with the domestic political agenda and the changes in Soviet-Iranian relations, as well as with the current state of Soviet Iranian Studies. The influence of personal tastes and connections of certain Iran scholars engaged in the process of translation can also be detected. Generally, the translations of contemporary literature of Iran were to demonstrate that Iranian intellectuals were aware of the flaws of their society, and eager to choose the more humanistic values of the socialist countries. Before World War II, the translators were mainly interested in the socio-political aspect of the works. After the war and before the thaw in Soviet-Iranian relations, translators focused mainly on social satire. In the 1960s – early 1980s, many works of the most prominent Iranian writers of the period were translated into Russian. In the early 1980s, these translations were viewed as a means of understanding the reasons for the Iranian upheaval. The novels and short stories of Iranian modernists, as well as other ideologically inappropriate works, remained untranslated.

THE ITALIAN PERSPECTIVE AND CONTRIBUTION TO ISLAMIC STUDIES. FROM ‘ORIENTAL STUDIES’ TO ‘ISLAMIC STUDIES’

This article intends to focus on the contribution of Italian research to the knowledge of the Islamic world, underlining its path and evolution up to the present day in content, objectives and methodology. The Italian path has its roots in a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. Here we take ourselves back to the end of the 19th century, when studies on Islam were part of a generic discipline of Oriental Studies and Linguistics. Rather than on names and bibliographies (there would be too many - for which reference is made to the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia), we focus on the most significant 'stages', starting from the institutional configuration of Studies on Islam and Islamic Studies as autonomous disciplines: Michele Amari and the Italian Geographical Society, and therefore Leone Caetani and The Annals of Islam, the latter "forge" in which the great Islamists of the 20th century were trained: M. Guidi, C. A. Nallino, G. Levi Della Vida, F. Gabrieli. Alongside the academy and new fields of research (Turcology, Iranian studies, Arabic studies, etc.) three large institutions were added - supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the Institute for the Orient (later IsPO), the Institute for the Middle and Far East Oriente and the Italian Institute for Africa (still active). World War II also marked an important break in Italy, leading studies on the Arab and Islamic world to the use of new disciplines. The influence of the French Annales school and the entry of the 'social sciences' into the new methodological paths were decisive. Studies on Islam were not immune, but distanced themselves from political science and the media fascination with 'analysis' and 'scenarios', to strictly adhere to linguistic knowledge as an indispensable tool for the study and evaluation, including historical, of political, social and current cultures, in regions where very different civilizations and traditions had met, sometimes clashed and overlapped. Multidisciplinarity and 'field-work' were the instrument of this turning point in Italy. In the first years of the Third Millennium, 'sciences' and new research 'technologies' (archaeometry, physics, the drone, etc.) came together which, by supporting textual and non-textual sources, allow the 'confirmation' of those that had remained working hypothesis for a long time.

Kicking Back: Negation of Enlightenment in Brian Dillon’s Objects in This Mirror

In this article I will examine aspects of the work of the Irish writer Brian Dillon which allow us to propose the continuing relevance, from an Irish perspective, of a strain of critical discourse which engages with the legacy of the Enlightenment. Specifically, I look primarily at Dillon’s 2014 essay collection Objects in This Mirror as well as his 2017 collection Essayism, with a view to establishing some key characteristics of his artistic project, while showing their compatibility with the cultural materialism of key scholars of the Frankfurt School, before finally making explicit the compatibility of Dillon’s work with the values which underpin the Irish Field Day project which has influenced Irish studies since the 1980s.

Spectres of ascendancy: Beckett, Yeats, and the politics of postcolonial amnesia

This essay reflects on the shifting status of “Ascendancy” as a colonial social formation and an historical and aesthetic category shaping the development of anticolonial and postcolonial thought in Irish writing and culture from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary moment of commemoration and anti-imperial reckoning. In particular, the essay considers how Ascendancy is a surprisingly useful category for thinking about Samuel Beckett and his reflections on power and empire. The essay reevaluates Beckett’s relationship with W. B. Yeats and explores the significance of their markedly different but intertwining relationships to Ascendancy. Looking at the arc of Beckett criticism within Irish studies alongside new readings of Yeats’s elegies for the Ascendancy Big House and his plays The Countess Cathleen and Purgatory, the essay explores how we might reevaluate that intellectual and cultural history amidst the recent controversies attending Ireland’s “Decade of Centenaries” and the reimagining of Ireland’s place within a global imperial history. As part of that exploration, the essay considers Beckett’s and Yeats’s legacies alongside twenty-first-century Ireland’s public monuments, commemorations, and architectural heritage while also reflecting on commissioned inquiries into the legacies of empire by the President of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. In the midst of what President Michael D. Higgins has labeled a “feigned amnesia” around the legacies of empire in Ireland, the essay considers how Beckett’s work might be seen to have anticipated the terms of much of the current discourse.

The Distance of Irish Modernism: Memory, Narrative, Representation by John Greaney (London: Bloomsbury 2022)

John Greaney's The Distance of Irish Modernism: Memory, Narrative, Representation explores a point of tension in Irish Studies between modernist aesthetics and postcolonial historiography. Challenging the theoretical paradigms prevalent in contemporary Irish Studies, the book invites us to interrogate the meta-historical and political narratives that inform our reading of literary works by Samuel Beckett, Flann O’Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, John McGahern, and Kate O’Brien.

Opening Materials

Review of Irish Studies (RISE) 6.2 Perspectives on the Irish Border

BrainFM ‐ Tuning into the Modifiable Risk Factors of Dementia

AbstractBackgroundDespite increasing research focus on 12 modifiable risk factors (MRF) reducing dementia risk by 40% across the life course, translation from bench to the broader society is limited thereby rampaging fear and stigmatisation. Furthermore, an Irish study showed that dementia awareness in Ireland was lower in younger than older people. Therefore, identifying methods that support community education about MRF in an accessible and engaging manner are paramount. To this end, BrainFM, is an educational tool that combines multisensory didactic learning with embodied co‐creative experience to deliver content around the brain and brain health. The current project describes one particular session around MRF delivered to an intergenerational population during Brain Awareness Week at the Creative Brain Week Conference (CBW) at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin in March 2022.MethodsFour days of events highlighting the neuroscience behind three MRFs (hearing loss, social isolation and physical health) were co‐facilitated by Magda Kaczmarska, dancer and senior Atlantic Fellow and Dr. Anusha Yasoda‐Mohan, neuroscientist and current Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at GBHI (Photo1). While Dr. Yasoda‐Mohan explained the didactic content, Ms. Kaczmarska facilitated creative dance and movement activities tailored to reinforce the content (Photo2). These sessions were delivered both online and in‐person to (i) multidisciplinary, international attendees of CBW; (ii) people living with dementia and care partners; (iii) first grade class at St. Paul’s primary school, Navan, Ireland and (iv) general public of the Dublin Docklands community (Photo3).ResultsThe program was attended by 60 participants. Participant testimonials indicated heightened awareness and interest in proactive brain health and a feeling of community with fellow participants. Prominent clinical professionals engaging in co‐creative experience with artists and peers commented on how their understanding of an embodied connection was growing and influencing how they perceived other events of the week. Therefore, fostering interdisciplinary understanding supports innovation and solidarity around brain health in the community.ConclusionBrainFM was key in not only increasing mindfulness about the MRF and social connection but was also an advocate for the alliance between the arts and sciences as a powerful tool for expanding brain health literacy.

Identifying Components of Marital Quality in Iranian Studies (2010-2022)

Aim: Marital quality is one of the important structures for predicting the marriage stability and marital satisfaction, but there is no agreement on its components. The aim of this study is to review Iranian literature on the subject of marital quality, to extract the marital quality components in these studies and to arrive at an integrated list of components. Methods: The research method was a systematic review and the statistical population included all research articles of marital quality in Iran during (2010-2022). The sampling method was purposeful and included searching and performing the screening process and evaluating the quality of articles, leading to the final analysis on thirty six articles. Findings: Results showed that marital quality components classified into six factors: divine spirituality in life, intimacy in relationships, adaptation in relationships, management and planning, fair distribution of power, and committed relationships. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, each of the factors related to marital quality can predict the stability of marriage and its satisfaction. Therefore, family counselors need to improve the six factors of marital quality in the relationship for spouses.

Woman, Life, Freedom, and the Question of Multiculturalism in Iranian Studies

The vast uprisings across Iranian cities in the fall of 2022 caught many of Iranian studies scholars and academic feminists in the diaspora off guard. My first confrontation was with trauma. Like many others, I worried about the lives and safety of my loved ones, political dissidents and prisoners from different ethnic backgrounds, feminists and queer activists on the ground, and, of course, the millennials and Gen Z, who unexpectedly emerged as the new revolutionaries. However, with the first wave of emotional encounters settled, the uprising unlocked another level of cognitive puzzlement critical to my academic life. I struggled to find comprehensive theoretical frameworks and supporting scholarship within Iranian studies or Iranian academic feminism to help my media and scholarly audiences grasp what was unfolding. In this reflective piece, I discuss how the scholarship of Iranian studies and feminism/s formulated the question of gender in liberal and radical essentialist multiculturalism and argue that Woman, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi; WLF) urges us to adopt an antiracist and radical democratic approach, deconstructing the imagined Iran in the scholarship, and reconstructing it as a welcoming and inclusive discursive space for racialized and queer Iranians.

‘Irishmen could suffer in spirit with Spain’: Mairin Mitchell’s Storm over Spain, Ireland, and the Spanish Civil War

Storm over Spain (1937), by Mairin Mitchell, is a rare case in the bibliography of the Irish in the Spanish Civil War. This travelogue, which narrates the journey of the author around Andalusia in the months before the beginning of the conflict, has received scant critical attention by historians, literary critics and cultural analysts working on Irish and Hispanic Studies, despite offering a first-hand account of the atmosphere of tension and fear that preceded the Spanish Civil War. This essay pays attention to her book Storm over Spain with the aim of reassessing its merits as a powerful narrative, as a reliable source of information on the Spanish Civil War, and as an example of the pervasive influence of Irish history as a methodological approach to explain social structures in other cultures. In particular, it examines Mitchell's position on the Spanish conflict in the travelogue by looking at her discussion of a number of events and atrocities that took place during the war.

Ethnographic collections in Northern Ireland and the Solomon Islands tomako (canoe) at the Ulster Museum, 1898–2023

AbstractThe World Cultures collection at National Museums Northern Ireland is an essential source for the study of Irish collecting in the wider British Empire. The 2022 redisplay of the collection in the Ulster Museum's exhibition, Inclusive Global Histories, is part of a staged engagement with local and source communities. Given the critical importance of the global museum decolonisation work of which the exhibition is an example, a fresh consideration of this ethnographic collection's history is timely. This article reviews the collection within the context of the three museums that have housed it, and investigates how curators within the institution understood, represented and displayed the collection. It does so through a case study of a war canoe (tomako), that was taken from the Solomon Islands, by John Casement, a captain in the Royal Navy, and is the largest and among the most significant items within the collection. The canoe's centrality to the gallery — built around it in 1925 — that now contains Inclusive Global Histories reveals complex social networks between nineteenth- and twentieth-century collectors, curators and photographers, and aids understanding of how global human cultures have been regarded in Northern Ireland's civic life.

Irish English and Irish Studies: exploring language use and identity through fictional constructions of laddism

ABSTRACT The construction of a linguistic collective identity uses a pool of conscious and unconscious elements that deal with age, gender, or ethnic belonging. In the Irish communicative system, one present-day type of collective masculine identity is that of “the lads.” Previous studies on “laddish” behaviour and performance from literary or social perspectives explored conduct in contexts such as sports, violence, sex, or alcohol. To encourage interdisciplinary research in the field of Irish Studies, this paper analyses the language of “the lads” in literary discourse through corpus linguistics as a contribution to the field of digital humanities. Fourteen novels make up the specialised corpus on which the analysis is based paying attention to verbs of speech and adverbs. The verbs show utterances by “the lads” illustrating and providing aggressiveness and adverbs provide a second layer of meaning. Finally, a number of power struggles these characters experience in interaction are studied to differentiate the status quo of “the lads.”

148 Urinary incontinence: a hospital inpatient point prevalence study

Abstract Background Urinary incontinence is a common, although under-reported, problem in hospitalised older adults. One Irish study reported that 26% of hospitalised patients had urinary incontinence. Hospital-acquired urinary incontinence is associated with prolonged hospital stays, infection, poorer functional outcome, and poorer quality of life. We undertook a point prevalence study of all inpatients in a Level 3 hospital, as part of an audit focused on documentation and awareness of urinary incontinence. Methods Data were gathered on all inpatient at a single timepoint. The Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit were excluded. Biographical data, admission diagnoses, diagnosis of dementia, delirium and urinary incontinence, use of diuretics and urinary incontinence medications, toileting plans, continence care bundles and mobility status were gathered from medical notes, nursing notes and drug Kardexes. Results The dataset compromised 309 patients. 11% were &amp;lt; 50 years old, 8% aged 50–59, 15% aged 60–69, 29% aged 70–79, 29% aged 80–89 and 8% were &amp;gt; 90 years old. 24% had a diagnosis of dementia, and 25% had delirium. Pre-admission continence status was known for 81% of patients; 8% catheterised, 12% incontinent, 12% had occasional accidents and 68% of patients were continent. At the time of data collection, 21% were catheterised. 14% incontinent, 18% had occasional accidents and 48% of patients were continent. 10% of patients were prescribed medications for urinary incontinence and 22% diuretics. 12% of patients with dementia were continent and 18% of patients with delirium. 40% of patients were independently mobile, 32% required assistance of one person, 17% assistance of two and 11% required a hoist. Dependent mobility was associated with increased rates of incontinence. Conclusion Our study found a high prevalence of urinary incontinence in hospitalised patients. Risk factors identified included older age, reduced mobility, long duration of admission, presence of dementia and or delirium and use of diuretics. These risk factors could be targeted as quality improvement initiative to promote continence in hospitalised patients,