Northern Ireland Research Articles

Co-producing an urban heat climate service for UK cities: A case study of Belfast, Northern Ireland

UK city decision makers in local governments are coming under increasing pressure to plan for extreme heat events due to the increasing frequency and intensity of such events. While these local authorities are aware of the potential impacts of climate change, many highlight the need for more robust evidence of local climate risks to inform climate planning. Characterising the current and future spatial variability of heat risks can help city decision makers identify vulnerable populations, inform planning, and prioritise action. This paper explores the co-development of a prototype urban heat climate service for UK cities with stakeholders in the pilot city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. This two-tier service uses the latest high-resolution UK Climate Projections to assess changes in impact relevant heat indicators summarised in a bespoke set of factsheets for building awareness (Tier 1). Tier 2 combines this information with socio-economic and built environment data to provide geospatial, decision-relevant, heat risk information at the sub-city scale using a Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) and communicated using StoryMaps. This work highlights the importance of considering the different components of risk (hazard, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) when planning interventions for extreme heat to ensure local vulnerabilities are adequately addressed. It also highlights the minimum level of heat risk to which we are now committed locally under current emission pledges. This work also explores the lessons learnt in co-production, the impact this service has had on local decision making and explores options for upscaling.

Assessing the impact of socio-demographics and farming activity on ward-level mortality patterns using farm and population decennial censuses.

Farmers experience a specific set of unique dangers, which increases their risk of mortality compared with any other occupation. This study hypothesised that Northern Ireland's (NIs) agriculturally saturated Wards have a higher risk of mortality compared against non-agriculturally based Wards. The Population Census and Farm Census information were downloaded from the Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Service (NINIS) online depository to compile three mortality-based data sets (2001, 2011, pooled data sets). Assessing the impact of socio-demographics and farming activity on Ward-level mortality patterns using farm and population decennial censuses. This study analysed all 582 Ward areas of NI, which enclosed the entire populace of the country in 2001 and 2011. Path analysis was utilised to examine direct and indirect paths linked with mortality within two census years (2001; 2011), alongside testing pathways for invariance between census years (pooled data set). Ward-level results provided evidence for exogenous variables to mortality operating through three/four endogenous variables via: (i) direct effects (age), (ii) summed indirect effects (age; males; living alone; farming profit; and deprivation) and (iii) total effects (age; males; living alone; and deprivation). Multi-group results cross-validated these cause-and-effect relationships relating to mortality. This study demonstrated that farming intensity scores, farming profits and socio-demographics' influence on mortality risk in a Ward were dependent on the specific social-environmental characteristics within that area. In line with earlier area level research, results support the aggregated interpretation that higher levels of farming activity within a Ward increase the risk of mortality within those Wards of NI. This was an essential study to enable future tailoring of new strategies and upgrading of current policies to bring about significant mortality risk change at local level.

Re-storying gendered im/mobilities through a mobile and generationed autoethnography

This mobile autoethnography reveals the spectacular and the mundane in gendered im/mobilities. It considers generational stories of death and near death to apparently mundane mobilities to state-induced immobilisations and present day imagined mobilities of motherhood. Stories are uncovered and analysed using mobile autoethnography, which in tandem is scrutinized in relation to autobiography. I set my own present-day story of gendered im/mobilities in conversation with the stories of my parents, grandparents, great-grand-parents and current generations, including my children, spanning the last one hundred years in Northern Ireland and England. The paper argues that the celebration of certain stories across generations is gendered in a way that intersects with other social characteristics and this is bound up with time. Biographies are connected to the wider socio-cultural and political mobility landscapes that structured mobile lives. The often re-storied narratives of the spectacular contrast with the less known and more hidden stories, the micro-mobilities of the mundane. The paper draws out the importance of autoethnographic storying in revealing the ways in which micro-mobilities connect to broader transnational and global im/mobilities and to mobilities of the future.

Random access memories or clichéd representations? Exploring historical photographs of the troubles on Instagram

ABSTRACT Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for the distribution of photographs capturing experiences of conflict. Instagram in particular renders conflict photography searchable, whilst also aggregating the memories of traumatised communities. This paper adds to the nascent literature in this area by exploring how the photosharing app is used to share photographs of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, a low-intensity conflict that resulted in 3,600 fatalities and left many more bereaved, injured and traumatised. Two decades on from the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society in which competing narratives over the conflict remain deeply entrenched. This study explored photographic representation of the Troubles, with a specific focus on who was represented in these images and whether they were evoke personal memories of the conflict. A content and narrative analysis of 100 historical images tagged #thetroubles was conducted in order to explore these issues. Results indicate that images showing the ‘peculiarity’ of everyday life during the conflict, such as armed British soldiers standing in close quarters to children playing in the street, were the most prominent visual representations under this hashtag. The memories evoked by such historical photographs reinforce zero-sum narratives on conflict, rather than promote new interpretations that build support for peace in ‘post-conflict’ societies.

A re-evaluation of Scelidosaurus remains from Ireland and the importance of apomorphy-based identifications

Scelidosaurus is a herbivorous dinosaur belonging to the ornithischian clade Thyreophora. Until recently, its distribution was limited to the cliffs of Charmouth, on the south coast of Dorset, United Kingdom. In 2021, a fragmentary specimen from Lower Jurassic strata in Northern Ireland (BELUM K3998) was referred tentatively to Scelidosaurus. This bone, the proximal end of a femur, was suggested to be an ornithischian based on several characteristics, including gross morphology and osteohistology. This study reassesses these characteristics, and finds no evidence to support their use for identifying this specimen as either an ornithischian or Scelidosaurus. With the most comprehensive studies on Scelidosaurus finding no autapomorphies of the proximal femur, this study regards BELUM K3998 as Dinosauria indet. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of apomorphy-based approaches in taxonomy and the benefits of such methodologies.

The possibilities and problematics of school evaluation: post-primary teachers’ perspectives on the impact of school inspections in a high stakes inspection system

ABSTRACT To ensure students receive the best possible education, many education systems worldwide have implemented school inspections. These inspections serve as a powerful tool to assess and improve educational standards, and to hold schools accountable for their performance. Despite the prevalence of school inspection, there is a dearth of quantitative evidence from high accountability inspection systems pertaining to teachers’ perspectives on the relative occurrence of school improvement-related consequences of inspections versus inspection consequences for teachers’ emotional wellbeing, and the factors that influence these outcomes. Therefore, the current exploratory study sought to address this gap by investigating these issues in Northern Ireland – a high accountability context. Responses to an online survey of post-primary teachers indicated the perceived emotional fallout from school inspections outweighed their perceived school improvement-related benefits, and that the perceived emotional impact was greater for female than male teachers. Based on the evidence uncovered in the study, suggestions are proffered for potential changes to high accountability school inspection protocols which would optimise the potential for school improvement, while simultaneously minimising the harmful, emotional side-effects of inspections.

Frailty on the island of Ireland: evidence from the NICOLA and TILDA studies.

Aimed to compare the prevalence, characteristics, and associated mortality risk of frailty in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI). Secondary analysis of the first wave of two nationally representative cohorts, the Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing or NICOLA study (N = 8504) and the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing or TILDA study (N = 8504). Frailty was assessed using a harmonized accumulation deficits frailty index (FI) containing 30 items. FI scores classified individuals as non-frail (<0.10), pre-frail (0.10-0.24) and frail (≥0.25). Linkage to respective administrative data sources provided mortality information with a follow-up time of 8 years. The prevalence of frailty was considerably higher in NI compared with the ROI (29.0% compared with 15.0%), though pre-frailty was slightly lower (35.8% and 37.3%, respectively). Age, female sex, and lower socio-economic status were consistently associated with a higher likelihood of both pre-frailty and frailty. In the pooled analysis, both frailty and pre-frailty were higher in NI (RR = 2.68, 95% CIs 2.45, 2.94 and RR = 1.30, 95% CIs 1.21, 1.40, respectively). Frailty was associated with an increased mortality risk in both cohorts, even after full adjustment for all other characteristics, being marginally higher in TILDA than in NICOLA (HR = 2.43, 95% CIs 2.03, 2.91 vs. HR = 2.31, 95% CIs 1.90, 2.79). Frailty is a major public health concern for both jurisdictions. Further research and monitoring are required to elucidate why there is a higher prevalence in NI and to identify factors in early life that may be driving these differences.

A Pentecostal and charismatic contribution to peace and reconciliation: Case study of Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT Despite the marking of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (1998), there remains a significant fragility of peace in Northern Irish society today. Recent periods of collapse at Stormont government and high rates of segregation between Catholic and Protestant communities, evidence a need for alternative contributions to peace and reconciliation efforts. A specific focus on the role of religious actors in reconciliation pursuits has often been met with scepticism due to historic religious-political institutional ties. However, challenging the increasing trend of secularism in Northern Ireland has been the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic communities across the region. Thus, a major question is: How can the Pentecostal and charismatic movement contribute positively to peace and reconciliation? This article explores the possibility of adopting a Pentecostal and charismatic approach to peace, forgiveness and reconciliation, utilising the case study of Northern Ireland. Such an analysis is integral to discerning the movement's positive potential for peace and reconciliation work in the pursuit of post-conflict societal transformation.

Unveiling Disparities: Exploring Differential Attainment in Postgraduate Training Within Clinical Oncology

AimsDifferential attainment (DA) in post graduate medical training is a recognised challenge and refers to unexplained variation across groups when split by several protected characteristics. The Royal College of Radiology is committed to fostering diversity, inclusivity, and equality with the goal of narrowing existing gaps and improving training outcomes. Materials and MethodsThis was a mixed methods study aiming to understand the causes of DA with view to helping the RCR develop strategies to address this. A cross-sectional survey was completed by 140 clinical oncology trainees in September 2022. Trainees and trainers (17 and 6 respectively) from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, took part in focus group and interviews from August to December 2022. Quantitative and qualitative data merged and interpreted. ResultResults showed international medical graduates and trainees from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to encounter challenges. The qualitative findings were used to identify three themes through which these problems could be framed. The trainee as a “space invader,” the hidden curriculum of clinical oncology training and the process of navigating and tacking the training journey. ConclusionDifferential attainment is the product of a complex interplay between the trainee, trainer, and the training environment. Therefore, interventions must be tailored to different people and contexts. At a national level, the RCR can adopt general policies to promote this such as mentorship programmes, protected time for supervision and cultural competency training. Efficacy of proposed interventions for trial and their impact on DA should be evaluated to drive evidence-based changes.

Young people with LGB identity and their sense of belonging: Evidence from Northern Ireland – A society emerging from violent social conflict

In 2023 Northern Ireland celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement (GFA) which is regarded as a milestone of the Northern Ireland peace process. Via the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, the peace process saw equality and anti-discrimination legislation being implemented in Northern Ireland that legislates that public authorities must carry out their duties with due regard to equality of opportunity, including between persons of different sexual orientations and gender identities. Using time series data from 2013 to 2023 taken from the annual Young Life and Times (YLT) survey conducted among a randomized sample of 16-year olds in Northern Ireland (N = 15,162), this article explores the extent to which same-sex attracted young women and men express a sense of belonging to, and influence in, their local neighborhoods and Northern Ireland. We argue that the sense of belonging and influence can be used as suitable policy indicators to assess how same-sex attracted young people fare in Northern Ireland, a society emerging from significant violent conflict. The YLT dataset allows us to track, if any change in attitudes can be detected over the last decade. Our analysis shows that there was an increase in the proportion of young people, especially among young women, expressing same-sex attraction. However, our study also indicates that, regardless of gender, LGB 16-year olds consistently felt a lesser sense of belonging and influence than their non-LGB individuals. We found no LGB-specific differences among respondents with different religious affiliations. LGB respondents disproportionately rejected both Protestant and Catholic faiths and community affiliations, unlike their non-LGB counterparts. Our findings are a strong indicator that religion still plays a major part in the relationship between ethno-national communities in Northern Ireland and that there still is a long way to go until LGB young people feel valued and feel that they belong.

Behavioural Factors Influencing the Intention to Adopt Sheep Scab Control Measures in Northern Ireland.

Sheep scab, caused by infestation with the ectoparasitic mite Psoroptes ovis, is an endemic disease in the Northern Ireland (NI) sheep flock and constitutes significant economic and welfare burdens for the NI farming industry. Despite its endemic nature, historically, little research has been undertaken to support the control of the disease in NI. This study offers the first attempt to analyse the psychological and behavioural factors influencing farmers' intentions to implement effective sheep scab control measures in NI. To achieve our objective, quantitative data from a sample of 126 sheep farmers were statistically analysed using an extended theory of planned behaviour approach in an ordered logistic regression modelling framework. Our analyses showed that sheep scab remains an issue of concern in Northern Ireland. The attitudes of the farmers, as well as perceived behavioural control, emotional effect, membership of Business Development Groups (BDGs), and higher education qualifications, were found to be statistically significant factors influencing farmers' intentions to adopt sheep scab control measures. This study provides a solid foundation for how to promote behavioural changes among sheep farmers to improve their ability to implement effective disease control measures, helping to tackle this challenging disease in a more sustainable way in the future.

Cultural Peace Work in ‘Post-Conflict’ Northern Ireland

While regarded as an exemplar of a successfully resolved conflict since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided place. The discord between Republican and Loyalist nationalisms persist as a legacy of the structural and spatial segregation of the Partition of Ireland (1922) and the ethno-national conflict known as the Troubles (1968–1998). So how are people who live in the region encountering and performing peace and trust? Outside of state-sponsored approaches to peacebuilding, in what other ways are peaceful relations fostered? Guided by the concept of ‘people’s peace praxis’, which calls for the study of how ordinary humans, not the state or politicians, generate peace, this paper explores the role of cultural peace work in contemporary Northern Ireland. Cultural peace work refers to the active role of creative cultural production in peacebuilding, examples of which will be examined in the city of Derry/Londonderry.

Remedying Horizontal Inequality: The Changing Impact of Reform in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a case that lets us explore how people respond when deep‐set horizontal inequality is substantively reduced. This article focusses on the reform of horizontal inequality in the cultural sphere and argues that it is likely to be contentious because units and measures are directly related to conflicting constructs of group identity, meaning, and value, and intertwined with conflict over state legitimacy. Northern Ireland shows when and how this becomes politically problematic. The article traces an uneven but largely successful process of economic and political reform, followed by a reversal in the second decade of the 21st century, when unionist unease with cultural equality was reframed into political opposition which at times threatened the stability of the settlement itself. The backlash came when it did because of a confluence of processes: a particularly inappropriate presentation of cultural equality, at a time when the momentum of the peace process was coming to an end, and other opportunities, in particular for the Protestant working class, were closing. The case suggests the need to develop a conception of cultural (in)equality that is attuned to the asymmetric and contested constructions of “groupness” well before backlash occurs.

A valuation study to identify the determinants of the demand for time spent outdoors among users of hospital facilities, their willingness-to-pay for green infrastructure improvements, and the implications for planning

ABSTRACT Green infrastructure has been promoted as an urban planning tool for the achievement of health and environmental policy objectives. The capacity of economic valuation methods to estimate monetary benefit values for intangible goods, such as mental health and wellbeing, renders them useful in justifying green infrastructure interventions and guiding their implementation. In this case study we used stated preference methods to elicit cross-sectional data on the preferences of staff (n=118), visitors (n=88), and inpatients (n=35) of Musgrave Park Hospital in Northern Ireland, for improvements in the hospital’s outdoor grounds. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the contingent behavior method to examine the demand for time spent on the improved outdoor grounds of a hospital and the first to use the contingent valuation method to obtain the respective willingness-to-pay values. The results show that the three hospital user groups differed in their preferred types of green infrastructure and their motivations for using the outdoor grounds, an important input for planning the transformation of the outdoors. Other findings suggest that to maximize health and well-being benefits, complementary measures to address the issues of sedentary lifestyles and inadequate use of the outdoors as a stress-coping mechanism are needed.

Flock health planning: How to move from a plan to a reflective planning process in Northern Irish sheep flocks?

AbstractFlock health planning has been advocated as part of a wider drive within livestock production for veterinarians and farmers to adopt a prevention‐focused approach to veterinary medicine. This approach has, at its core, a cyclical process of assessment, evaluation, action and re‐assessment, and is documented, at least in summary, in a health plan (HP). The HP has become a defining pillar of farm quality assurance schemes (QASs), introduced to address calls for greater transparency and accountability in food production. There is limited current information on the attitudes and behaviours surrounding flock HPs in the sheep sector and the barriers to greater involvement in an active process of continual improvement through reflective flock health planning. This study aims to address these issues with reference to the national flock in Northern Ireland. A mixed‐methods approach was used to explore farmers' and veterinarians' opinions and behaviours related to QASs and HP, with data obtained through an online scoping questionnaire, semi‐structured interviews with 27 farmers and 15 veterinarians, and discussion groups with farmers and veterinarians. No evidence of a positive association between a farm having a HP and implementation of 12 industry‐recommended flock health activities was identified using the Fisher's exact test. Farmers reported a reluctance to pay for veterinary advice while some veterinarians reported a lack of time to develop HPs for farmers, and sheep‐related work generally. Farmers predominantly saw the HP as a static, physical document, which had limited impact on their management practices, rather than a proactive, reflective and collaborative planning process. Veterinarians tasked with completing HPs felt restricted by limited knowledge of on‐farm practices, flock production data and a lack of confidence in the accuracy of on‐farm medicine records. This led some to believe that the HPs may fail to address critical issues. A new approach to engage farmers and veterinarians together in active flock health planning needs to be developed. This will need a sustainable delivery plan. Then the focus can be shifted towards ongoing reflective health planning to drive change for the betterment of sheep health and welfare.

The need for a Canadian Criminal Code offence of coercive control

Canada is currently considering legislating an offence of coercive control. Coercive controlling behaviour is currently criminalized in the UK, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and New South Wales, Australia. Potential benefits of the implementation of a coercive control offence in Canada include enhancing victim/survivor safety with access to protective orders; allowing police to respond in situations where physical violence is not occurring and, importantly, respond in a way that is reflective of the type of violence being enacted and the assessed risk; moving beyond an incident-based view of intimate partner violence to recognize patterns; improving perpetrator accountability and opportunities for risk management; sending a clear message that these behaviours are unacceptable; enhancing public awareness of coercive control; bringing the Criminal Code in line with other recent legislation; and creating consistency between family and criminal courts. This article summarizes the concept of coercive control, including gendered implications and risks for domestic homicide; the need for a coercive control offence, including support from professionals; and guidance for the implementation of a coercive control offence, including promising practices from international legislation, risk assessment, training for police and other professionals, and evaluation and data gathering.

Queer lives during conflict in Northern Ireland: deconstructing the “two communities” model

ABSTRACT This article poses the question of how incorporating the “subjugated knowledge” of queer histories of the Troubles in Northern Ireland affects understandings of the conflict in international relations and security studies. It argues that while the centrality of the “two communities” model drives all other issues to the political margins and perpetuates division, adopting a queer approach can deconstruct the identities of those communities and suggest ways to move beyond that model. It uses Jack Halberstam’s queer methodology as a “scavenger methodology” to draw on existing published interviews, as well as plays and films representing queer experiences during the Troubles, and a queer theoretical approach that seeks to both foreground queer experiences and challenge normative and binary understandings of identity in this context. Focusing on queer lives during the conflict reveals that constructing the identities of the two communities depends on excluding the queer subject, that queer people’s security during the conflict was shaped by their queer identity, and that queerness can and has been mobilized to deconstruct received narratives and the apparently essential identities of the two communities, demonstrating some possibilities for dismantling the unionist/nationalist dichotomy.

“Taking Comedy Seriously”: Humour in Lisa McGee’s Girls and Dolls

Laughter in the midst of tragedy can be one of life’s most disturbing, cathartic and enlightening experiences, a maxim experienced in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, one of the most painful periods of Irish history. Northern Irish playwrights were acutely aware of this when dealing with violence in their plays and so, however grim the events they depicted, the comic element was very much present. After the Good Friday Agreement, along with the change in the political situation in Northern Ireland, there was a generational change in the theatre. What seems to characterise this new wave is the ironic distance taken towards the sectarian divide and the consequences of the conflict on Northern Irish society, which is revealed above all in their use of humour. Lisa McGee, one of the most important representatives of the new generation thanks to the popularity of her television series Derry Girls, had already shown her maturity in her 2006 play Girls and Dolls, performed by Tinderbox the same year. McGee mixes the tragic and the comic to present the terrible consequences of childhood trauma alongside the violence of the late Troubles, while raising questions about guilt, the meaning of friendship and the subtle ways in which violence affects us. This article aims to analyse the different uses of humour employed by McGee to deal with tragic episodes and their theatrical effect, drawing on the existing research on humour in literature and McGee’s own observations given in an interview with the author on 3 March 2023.

Earth Care and Recovery in Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places (2021)

Thin Places (2021) is a piece of work which defies categorization. It is partly a memoir filled with traumatic personal events, partly a reflection on loss in all its manifest forms (physical, familial, linguistic, environmental), and partly an uplifting plea for allowing the exploration of our natural surroundings to function as a meaningful form of care. Kerri ní Dochartaigh uses the materiality of the sentient beings that surround us, and deep care for our ecosystem, as a means of recovery. Earth care as self-care. Ní Dochartaigh is concerned with both the materiality and the immateriality of objects of care and manages to incorporate both through her interest in “the liminal space between things”, to borrow the title of an article by Timothy Morton (2014). The narrator foregrounds her mental health difficulties brought on by a violent and traumatic childhood in Northern Ireland yet also places the focus on the ways in which Ireland’s natural habitat, its material reality and its immaterial Celtic portals, “hold us” (2022: 228) in unsuspected care relationships. In the process, “[a]rt happens […] in the liminal space(s) between things, in conversations between metal and sky, humans and metal, era and era, heaven and earth” (Morton 2014: 270-1). A poignant process of recovery is recounted, highlighting firstly the refusal of care before slowly moving towards co-constituted acts of care: as ní Dochartaigh gradually recovers her lost mother tongue, and pays attention to the beauty of her natural surroundings, as she begins to care for both, she also starts to feel cared for. The sensory experience of loss, gain, and care in Thin Places is predicated upon several ecologies and resonates strongly with Joan Tronto’s definition of care as ultimately “a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, our selves (sic.), and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web” (1993: 103; original emphasis). Kerri ní Dochartaigh celebrates, in the most understated manner, the full complexity of this “life-sustaining web” and this article proposes to unpack all of the above elements to show how her very singular aesthetics places the emphasis on the coloniality of loss and the restorative power of stories.

25 year trends in cancer incidence and mortality among adults aged 35-69 years in the UK, 1993-2018: retrospective secondary analysis

ObjectiveTo examine and interpret trends in UK cancer incidence and mortality for all cancers combined and for the most common cancer sites in adults aged 35-69 years.DesignRetrospective secondary data analysis.Data...