Research In Northern Ireland Research Articles

A pathway to improved maternity research in Northern Ireland? Novel linkage of Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and Northern Ireland Maternity Services System

ObjectiveOur primary objective was to determine the social and demographic determinants of interpregnancy weight change. A secondary aim is to highlight the novel linkage of two data resources in Northern Ireland (NI) and the potential for transformative research in maternal health. ApproachWe piloted a process to link two datasets in a safe, legal and ethical manner. The NI Maternity Services System (NIMATS) provides access to biological variables collected during the gestational period. The NI Longitudinal Study (NILS) is a rich source of Census information providing a demographic, social and economic background we would not otherwise obtain from NIMATS alone. ResultsThe linkage of these two datasets has allowed us to link pregnancies to the same mother, enabling exploration of weight changes during the interpregnancy period(s). In NI, just over half of women giving birth (52%) were overweight. This is the highest in the UK. Descriptive statistics provided further insight into the current situation together with logistic regression which identified socio-economic and demographic correlates of interpregnancy weight changes. Conclusion & ImplicationsObservation of women during pregnancy, linked with longitudinal, administrative data has provided valuable insights into the important public health issue of maternal obesity and into which socio-economic groups are most vulnerable to weight gain between pregnancies. Further research in maternal health has the potential to be facilitated by the unique linkage of NILS and NIMATS. This is important given the rise in complicated pregnancies during recent years and changes in maternal socio-demographic profiles.

Embedding masculinities within a gender conscious relational pedagogy to transform education with boys experiencing compounded educational disadvantage

ABSTRACT Responding to a persistent gap in policy and practice, this paper offers a new gender conscious relational pedagogy, directly informed by boys and educators who have participated in Ulster University’s longitudinal ‘Taking Boys Seriously’ research in Northern Ireland. The development of this pedagogy is grounded in the authentic voices of boys from disadvantaged communities whom despite encountering multiple models of masculinity within a contested society, are rarely provided with opportunities to explore and better understand these in relation to themselves and others. Transcending the boundaries of formal and informal education, we have found this gender conscious relational pedagogy to be highly significant in re-engaging boys in education, increasing their participation, confidence, emotional support, behavioural management, critical thinking, and reflexivity. Our work contributes to a gender-transformative research agenda (Keddie and Bartel 2021) committed to an emancipatory praxis that engages intentionally with boys and educators to examine gender socialisation processes with a focus on masculinities, re-shaping power relations within contextual educational communities, and improving educational experiences, opportunities, and outcomes for disenfranchised adolescent boys and ultimately all learners.

Dance as a register of war: following unruly bodies, affects, and sounds in conflict

ABSTRACT What do people do in the face of violence, war, and tragedy? How do those touched by violence survive, live on, keep on going and feeling? What if ‘dance first, think later’ IS the natural order? In this paper, I propose dancing as an everyday, embodied, and multisensorial register of war. Combining new trajectories in war and military studies with ongoing feminist scholarship on war, embodiment, and emotions and interdisciplinary research on dance and electronic music, this paper explores entanglements between sites of political violence, militarism, and electronic dance music and culture. Drawing upon my research in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, I argue that attending to these unseen entanglements activates distinctive ways of knowing the politics of war: they reveal alternative narratives of armed conflict mediated through and in between DJ performances, dancing bodies, and electronic sounds. These experiences offer important insights that unsettle taken for granted locations and affective economies of war while also reproducing conflict logics and divisions. I propose dance as a heuristic device that can recalibrate our understanding of the sensuous, affective, and embodied politics of/in war, enabling us to explore fragile possibilities for resistance and escape from its grip.

On shifting sands: Achieving policy impact in challenging political circumstances.

The road to policy-engaged research in Northern Ireland has not been smooth. In January 2017 the devolved government at the Stormont Assembly collapsed and devolution was not restored until January 2020. Political turmoil resurfaced in February 2022, with the collapse of the Executive. Trying to engage with and influence policy during these periods has been difficult, but necessary to achieve research impact and demonstrate the utility of data access for research purposes, thus supporting the acquisition of further datasets. This required a paradigm shift in the way research programmes were conceived of and delivered; i.e. away from largely curiosity-based research for academic interest and benefit and towards one that necessitated a more direct engagement and involvement of the government departments and data owners who would benefit from better evidence generated by administrative data research, and incorporate this evidence into their policymaking and service provision. Aligning the academic and policy agenda increased the likelihood of successful data acquisition, the prerequisite for research success and subsequent research impact. It also creates a more stable environment for data research to flourish, even in challenging political circumstances. This presentation will detail the approach developed by researchers and engagement professionals in Northern Ireland during political and governmental collapse to embed and enhance the potential impact that data research can have on policy by supporting the design and development of research that answers the questions most relevant to policymakers whilst also maintaining academic independence and integrity. It will offer suggestions for engaging and involving political representatives and policymakers, and for creating a resilient, robust and sustainable approach to policy impact that can withstand shifting political sands, based on recognised best practice of embedded engagement built to develop and maintain trust.

Arts-Based Approaches to Studying Traveller Children’s Educational Experiences

In this article, we present ideas on how arts-based methods can be applied to conducting research with a minority ethnic group (i.e., Traveller children) and offer ways to analyse data. We refer to the culture of Traveller children, report statistics on their educational performance and refer to recent research in Northern Ireland on their disengagement from compulsory post-primary (11-16 years old) education. We look through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and consider a re-think of the approach typically used in research to tap into Traveller children’s educational experiences. We offer a brief summary of the principles of arts-based research, outlining the theoretical underpinnings of supporters who argue for its use in educational research settings. We elaborate on three arts-based research methods as options in the design of conducting research with Traveller children and offer advice on associated ethical issues. In exploring methods of analysis, we refer to the types of data and suggest a content and thematic analytical approach to interpret the data. In conclusion, we reiterate the importance of offering these culturally responsive means to engage with this minority ethnic group.

The Northern Ireland Biobank: A Cancer Focused Repository of Science

The Northern Ireland Biobank (NIB) was established in 2011 as a joint initiative between Queen’s University Belfast and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust to provide the infrastructure for the standardised collection and storage of high quality, well annotated human tissue samples, with matched bloods and bodily fluids to underpin cancer research in Northern Ireland and beyond. The NIB has been instrumental in supporting translational research locally, nationally and internationally with a number of key achievements to date. The vision of NIB is to develop an internationally recognised biobank network within Northern Ireland which collects, stores and distributes high quality, clinically annotated biospecimens for biomarker research to benefit cancer patients. Funding statement: NIB receives core funding from the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland with charitable funding from Friends of the Cancer Centre. NIB previously received charitable funding from Cancer Research UK and Prostate Cancer UK.

Rethinking the dichotomy between libraries and prisons: Reflections from research in Northern Ireland

This piece considers the challenges of providing library services in a prison setting and offers insights from current prison library research being carried out in Northern Ireland. Keywords: prison libraries, desistance theory, library services, Northern Ireland, professional ethics

Social work practitioners in post-conflict Northern Ireland: Lessons from a critical ethnography

This article presents candid lessons learned by an ‘outsider’ conducting qualitative research in Northern Ireland over a 15-month period. Former combatant women ( N = 14) with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were interviewed using a critical ethnography framework. The findings include a description of difficulties in conducting such research in the areas of accessing hard-to-reach samples, building trust and credibility over time, having a main gatekeeper, maintaining an apolitical position, modeling non-judgmental attitudes, and at all costs safeguarding confidentiality. These lessons resonated with the core tenets of social work practice which enabled and facilitated the conduct of this study.

Waving or Drowning: An Exploration of Adaptive Strategies Amongst Fishing Households and Implications for Wellbeing Outcomes

AbstractSocial adaptation is often touted as a desirable and necessary response to continued decline in the fisheries sector, however little is currently understood about the impacts of adaptive strategies on people's broader sense of ‘wellbeing’, or how the spread of impacts affect people in different ways. This article draws from research in Northern Ireland to explore the types of adaptation strategising that takes place within fishing households, and to specifically address how such strategies interplay with the wellbeing of people affected. We demonstrate some of the hard choices that arise through becoming adaptive, and discuss how the costs of adaptation are sometimes disproportionality born by particular individuals, especially women. We argue that greater consideration of the impacts of adaptation on wellbeing can give useful insights into why some people thrive, whilst others struggle, and can point to opportunities to strengthen both resilient and wellbeing outcomes.

Researching Ulster Loyalism: The Methodological Challenges of the Divisive and Sensitive Subject

This article offers a reflection upon four aspects of methodology in the context of the author's doctoral research in Northern Ireland: managing identity and research relationships, the ethics of dissemination and the reception of potentially polemic research in the academy. It argues that identity influences research in sensitive contexts in ways that are often hard to anticipate, that more inclusive approaches to dissemination can help counter issues related to research relationships, and that responses to work in controversial contexts highlight ambiguities within the academy regarding the nature and function of social science research, presenting particular challenges for early-career researchers.

A case of avoiding 'political mumbo jumbo': do collective identities within ethnically diverse voluntary associations spill over to other contexts? Reflections on Northern Ireland's experience

This paper explores the role of voluntary associations in recent policies that address ethnic conflict where they are portrayed both as a source of division but also as part of a policy solution. This role in policy relies on the assumption that bridging social capital in associations that bring diverse people together can spill over to larger effects. Reporting recent research in Northern Ireland, the paper challenges this view both theoretically and empirically and finds that an important limiting factor is the degree of recognition collective identities gain outside the specific settings in which they are generated.

A newly established Clinical Research Network for Critical Care paves the way for supporting high‐quality critical care research in Northern Ireland

Nursing in Critical CareVolume 13, Issue 2 p. 119-119 A newly established Clinical Research Network for Critical Care paves the way for supporting high-quality critical care research in Northern Ireland Bronagh Blackwood, Bronagh Blackwood National Board Member Search for more papers by this author Bronagh Blackwood, Bronagh Blackwood National Board Member Search for more papers by this author First published: 13 February 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-5153.2008.00270_5.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume13, Issue2March and April 2008Pages 119-119 RelatedInformation

Risk, Politics and the 'Scientification' of Political Judgement: Prisoner Release and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

Drawing on research in Northern Ireland into the process of release under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, this article explores the identifi cation and classifi cation of risk in relation to prisoners released early under the Sentences (NI) Act. The main argument is that confl ict, post-confl ict and transitional conditions expose more starkly the political underpinnings of risk-management strategy and the article demonstrates the particular variant of Politicized Risk Assessment (PRA) recently used in the release of prisoners in Northern Ireland.

Gauging the Deliverable? Educational Research in Northern Ireland

This article considers the landscape for educational research in the smallest country of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland. As elsewhere, educational research exists in political and economic circumstances that have considerable influence on its direction, nature and purpose and this article seeks to contextualise these influences. Northern Ireland differs considerably from the other three jurisdictions by virtue of it being very small (a population of circa 1.5 million), a fact that creates systemic difficulties such as capacity weaknesses in both numbers of researchers and the range of research skills available. Perhaps most importantly, however, Northern Ireland is uniquely distinguished from England, Scotland and Wales by having a proportionately large selective education system (grammar and non-selective secondary schools) and a politically and religiously divided population. This article argues that in combination with such national pressures as the Research Assessment Exercise, these contextual features result in a largely instrumental role for educational research — a tool to gauge what policy changes are deliverable. A strategic direction based on a dialogue between the government and the researcher community is therefore needed to prevent the continuation of a perceived ad hoc and fragmented system of educational research. The challenges of building a thriving research community in such circumstances also include the need to promote innovative ideas and related research, and to encourage greater inter-institutional collaboration. This in turn, it is argued, will help to create a community of practice capable of both sustaining itself in the future and making available a broader range of research competence.

Parenting Practices in Northern Ireland: Evidence from the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey

The impact of parental child-rearing practices on child outcomes has been the subject of much research and debate for many years. Studies carried out within a variety of disciplines and across a number of different countries in the world have indicated that parents tend to use a different pattern of rearing their sons than their daughters, and that child-rearing practices are related to the gender of the parent, as well as to the age and developmental stage of the child. However, there has been little research in Northern Ireland on child-rearing behaviours. In order to address this shortfall, this paper presents an analysis of parents’ perceptions of their interactions with their children. Data from Wave 3 of the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey were analysed to explore aspects of “negative” parenting practices (arguing, yelling and use of physical punishment) as well as “positive” parenting practices (talking, praising and hugging). The participants were all parents (aged 16 years and over) with children under the age of 16 years living in the same household. Each parent reported his/her interaction with each child (up to a maximum of six children), and in total 1,629 responses were recorded. The results of the research supported previous findings from the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and indicated that the parenting styles of respondents in Northern Ireland were indeed related to the gender and age of the children and to the gender of the parents. The survey found that parents in Northern Ireland tend to have a harsher, more negative style of parenting boys than girls and that children in their teenage years have fewer positive interactions with their parents than younger children. The same parents and children will be followed up in 2007 in order to provide a longitudinal analysis of parent/child relationships in Northern Ireland.

Prospects and progress in public health and health promotion research in Northern Ireland

Prospects and progress in public health and health promotion research in Northern Ireland

The Importance of Stability in the Lives of Looked After Children: A Study of Under Fives in Northern Ireland

This paper is based on a presentation made at the conference 'From the Margins to the Centre: Innovations in Social Work Research in Northern Ireland', 17th January 2003. The paper explores the concept of stability and its relevance to the lives of younger children who are looked after and reviews recent child care policy initiatives in relation to this. The paper also presents data from the early stages of a longitudinal research project currently being carried out by the Institute of Child Care Research, examining the extent of stability in the care careers of younger looked after children (younger than 5 years) in Northern Ireland. These children come from extremely adverse family circumstances and the paper explores issues of care planning and the extent to which stability has been achieved to date at this early stage in their care careers.

Researching paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland

This paper examines methodological challenges in researching paramilitary violence, with particular reference to the author's examination of paramilitary 'punishment' activity in Northern Ireland. The author notes the dearth of published work on methodological issues in social science research of violence generally. The range of major qualitative studies on paramilitary violence is presented and discussed. The paper explains the context of conducting such research in Northern Ireland in terms of the broader political conflict. It then examines several key challenges in researching paramilitary violence based primarily on the author's research. These included maintenance of political sensitivity, good faith and cautious security protocols. Potential legal and ethical difficulties were addressed through design of interview schedules that minimized risk of disclosure of the names or identities of those subject to 'punishment' or the perpetrators of offences. Those subject to paramilitary 'punishment' proved 'hard-to-reach', requiring greater time and effort in meeting the initial target sample, and a consequent need to research across a wide range of voluntary and community-based organizations. While risks of physical injury were minimal, successful research in the field was achieved through transparency about the impartiality and funding independence of the researchers, and a strategic sensitivity towards community and political backgrounds.

Women and pensions in Northern Ireland: Observations from recent research

The paper reviews the implications for women and pensions policy in the United Kingdom in the light of recent and ongoing research in Northern Ireland.

Expectations and attitudes affecting patterns of informal care in farming families in Northern Ireland

Recent research in Northern Ireland examining the needs and circumstances of informal carers has highlighted the personal and financial costs of caring. In this paper it is argued that these studies have taken no account of the particular expectations and attitudes towards informal care that exist within farm families. In these families there is a strong expectation that care for older relatives will take place almost entirely within the family. The reputation of the farm family within the local community is strongly dependent on their treatment of the older generation. Help from the state and the voluntary sector is extremely limited. Rather than being described as burdensome and difficult, these family arrangements are described as beneficial for everyone involved. It is argued that expectations and attitudes towards care within farm families are significantly different from those in non-farm families and policy makers and practitioners must take account of this in the context of care in the community.