Digital Commons Network^™

Brigid Of Kildare: The Saint Who Got A Facelift, Aimee Hunt

Student Research

On the outskirts of Papal authority, early medieval Ireland created its own Christian identity separate from other European nations closer to Rome. Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patron saints of Ireland, played important yet problematic roles in that identity. After her death, the church began to alter her history. Being a female bishop, performing the first recorded abortion, and having both men and women within her monastery, Brigid had trodden on the male-dominated system in a way that few women had. Deemed unacceptable but having already been sainted, the Catholic church gave Brigid a holy facelift.

Ordinary And Extraordinary Images: Making Visible The Operations Of Stock Photography In Posters Against The Repeal Of The 8th Amendment, Ann Curran

Articles

The operations of stock photographs, as utilised by the Irish anti-abortion lobby, have not been examined before. Many of the ‘Vote No’ posters in the 2018 Irish referendum campaign on the 8th amendment maintained a visual and textual focus on foetal personhood: asking the Irish electorate to ‘love both,’ while deploying a range of stock photographs. In this article, I trace specific stock images used on anti-abortion posters against Repeal back to their online image bank sources. I make visible the role of generic or stereotypical photographs in anti-abortion messaging, in the knowledge that stock photographs often function best when …

Student Perspectives Of Eportfolio Implementation Within An Irish Hei Context, Fiona Walsh

Masters

This research study considers third-level student experiences of ePortfolio use during their education. Digital pedagogical tools provide educators with an authentic mode of assessment that presents a holistic view of student learning both inside and outside the classroom. ePortfolios are a digital pedagogical tool associated with the enhancement of the student learning experience and have received increased attention within the higher education sector; particularly during the Covid 19 restrictions where they offered educators an alternative mode of assessment to the traditional paper-based assessment. The purpose of this study was to identify the main challenges undergraduate students face when engaging with …

“Mind The S-Step” – A Self-Study Of Higher Education, Tomás Aylward

Masters

Lecturing can be very much a solo pursuit. While we work as lecturers in a higher education ecology, we generally teach our students alone and there isn’t always systematic feedback on our teaching practice. This study is borne out of a desire to better know and improve my practice as a lecturer in a technological university. I wish to be era-responsive for my students, particularly in the context of the Anthropocene and our global climate crisis. Specifically, I wished to see if a place-based education (PBE) approach was perceptible in the programme I teach. This research is centred on outdoor …

Contemporary Femininities In Mormonism And In Ireland: Challenging And Confirming Essentialism In Online Spaces, Hazel O'Brien

Mormon Studies Review

How are gender identities negotiated within Irish Mormonism, and does this intersect with trends identifiable within Mormonism more generally? In this paper I use the examples of modern Ireland and modern Mormonism to speculate regarding the nature of gendered identities online. I suggest that Irish and Mormon cultures are both confronting serious challenges to traditional essentialist interpretations of femininity that have long dominated their cultural landscapes. I also suggest that social media (SM) and online spaces are facilitating these challenges. However, I observe that online spaces are also used in Irish Mormonism to conform to hegemonic Mormon understandings of gender …

Embedding Anti-Racism In The Community Development And Youth Work Programme: The Focus On Positionality, Brid Ni Chonaill, Noirin Macnamara, Georgina Lawlor

Papers

Racism is and has been a persistent feature in Irish society (McVeigh, 1992). Higher education institutions (HEIs) and practice education settings are a microcosm of Irish society and therefore also sites where racism is experienced and/or witnessed by students. Research (Poole, 2019) found that some students on our Community Development and Youth Work (CDYW) programme witnessed racism on placement but did not feel equipped to respond. We were awarded IMPACT funding in partnership with the EDI Directorate in TU Dublin to embed anti-racism in CDYW teaching and learning in 2020/2021 and have continued this work to date. For the purposes …

Annual Report 2021 & Annual Performance Statement 2021-2022, Central Bank Of Ireland

Documents

No abstract provided.

Vitamin D Status And Mortality From Sars Cov-2: A Prospective Study Of Unvaccinated Caucasian Adults, Robert Barrett, Modar Youssef, Irfan Shah, Julia Ioana, Abdullah Al Lawati, Abdullah Bukhari, Suzanne Hegarty, Liam J. Cormican, Eoin Judge, Conor M. Burke, Catriona Cody, Joseph Feely, Katrina Hutchinson, William Tormey, Eoghan O’ Neill, Aoife O'Shea, Meabh Connolly, Daniel Mccartney, John L. Faul

Articles

COVID-19 and a low vitamin D state share common risk factors, which might explain why vitamin D deficiency has been linked with higher COVID-19 mortality. Moreover, measures of serum vitamin D may become lower during systemic inflammatory responses, further confounding the association via reverse causality. In this prospective study (recruited over 12 months), we examined whether the association between a low vitamin D state and in-hospital mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in unvaccinated subjects is explained by (i) the presence of shared risk factors (e.g., obesity, advanced age) or (ii) a reduction in serum 25(OH)D due to COVID-19 (i.e., reverse …

Overview Of The Irish Brewing And Distilling Sector: Processing Inputs Supply And Quality Requirements, Ekene C. Umego, Catherine Barry-Ryan

Articles

For any brewing and distilling establishment, the supply and quality of processing inputs is a major determinant in its production output. Accessibility and availability of brewing and distilling inputs drives productivity and quality of products. The Irish brewing and distilling sector have shown increased sales and production output, with a growth rate of 4% between 2014 and 2019. The brewing industry in the republic of Ireland has seen a 22% increase in the number of micro-breweries since 2014, and its total output now stands at 8.3 m hectolitres. The distilling industry witnessed an increase from four to thirty-eight in the …

Special Needs Assistants In Primary Schools: An Investigation Of The Role, Function, And Expectations Of This Post In Ireland, Imaobong Maria Essien

Theses

This study aims to examine the role and function of the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) in Irish Primary Schools. The minimum requirement for a Special Needs Assistant (SNA) is three grade Ds in the Junior Certificate or an equivalent qualification. Existing research suggests that the role lacks clarity and has evolved to include taking on administrative, pedagogical, behavioral management, and therapeutic roles (INTO, 2017; Butler and Quinn, 2014; NCSE, 2011). This study explores the disparity between the SNA job descriptor to recognise the impact and importance of the SNA’s role in the education system. This study is underpinned by the …

Will Treating Progressive Myopia Overwhelm The Eye Care Workforce? A Workforce Modelling Study, Gareth Lingham, James Loughman, Stella Kuzmenko, Matilda Biba, Daniel Ian Flitcroft

Articles

Purpose

Treatments for myopia progression are now available, but implementing these into clinical practice will place a burden on the eye care workforce. This study estimated the full-time equivalent (FTE) workforce required to implement myopia control treatments in the UK and Ireland.

Methods

To estimate the number of 6- to 21-year-olds with myopia, two models utilising separate data sources were developed. The examination-based model used: (1) the number of primary care eye examinations conducted annually and (2) the proportion of these that are for myopic young people. The prevalence-based model used epidemiological data on the age-specific prevalence of myopia. The …

A Socio-Ecological, Multi-Stakeholder Investigation Of Apprenticeship Training Engagement In The Irish Construction Industry, Eoghan Ó Murchadha

Doctoral

The construction industry in Ireland is crucial to the national economy, not just in terms of economic output, but as a major provider of employment. The construction labour market is a complex concatenation of professions relying upon adequate skills supply. Apprenticeships play a critical role in future skills provision and are thus vital to the successful implementation of strategic government targets such as the National Development Plan 2021-2030. However, the extant employer-led model of skills engagement is prone to labour market failure given the cyclical elasticity of the industry. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of research into apprenticeship engagement …

Constructing The Social In The Fiscal: A Discourse Analysis Of Irish Budget Speeches (1970-2015), Ewan Alexander Macdonald

Doctoral

Budget speeches are important discursive institutional practices in which fiscal and monetary policy are presented to parliaments on an annual basis. The issue of ideology and the contingent nature of discourse is rarely considered with budgets delivered in specific policy contexts presented as pragmatic truth statements unhindered by the distorting lens of ideology. Employing contributions from post-structural discourse theory, dialogism, critical realism and corpus linguistics this thesis addresses three research questions: what discourses are employed in Irish budget speeches from 1970 to 2015? How are these discourses structured? How are social imaginaries and subject positions constructed through these discourses? Methods …

Crime, Risk And Resilience In The Countryside: Governing Rural Security, Artur Pytlarz

Doctoral

A consequence of globalisation is a growing transport infrastructure which exposes rural communities to a greater risk of crime and increased insecurity. This is compounded by the withdrawal of both market and state in policing, banking, hospitals and postal services leaving rural citizens with what seems to be ontological insecurity. This project is set in Ireland but addresses global themes such as late modernity, risk and globalization and undertakes an intensive qualitative sociological study of how communities build the capacity to manage these changes. These capacities, it is hypothesised, can be found in nascent forms of local informal crime control …

Sediment Transport On The River Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland, Laurence Lomasney

Theses

This thesis analyses sediment transport on the River Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland. Bedload transport and suspended sediment transport were monitored on the River Bandon over an extended period to determine rates of transport over varying flow conditions. A literature review of sediment properties (individual and bulk sediment), sediment transport, and numerical modelling was undertaken. A manual field sampling programme was undertaken at different locations on the River Bandon to collect bed sediment and suspended sediment for laboratory testing. This data, and data collected using an automatic water sampler and bed sediment traps also, was used to determine baseline conditions for …

Aims: Action Against Infirmity And Malnutrition In Seniors, Maeve Lorraine Mary O'Connell

Theses

Aim: The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between nutrition and frailty in Irish older adults. The nutritional status, dietary quality and perceived barriers/motivators to nutrition were also examined, and a frailty intervention protocol was designed. Methods: Cross-sectional study in Irish community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years. Nutritional status, dietary intake, functional mobility and food choice motivators/healthy eating barriers were assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment – Short Form (MNA-SF), a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and a custom designed 2-item questionnaire, respectively. Frailty was defined as three or more of …

Elucidation Of Novel And Established Campylobacter Species With Clinical And Agricultural Significance Through Phenotypic, Genotypic, And Taxonomic Investigation, Caoimhe Lynch

Theses

Campylobacter spp. are well-established human, veterinary and economic pathogens, with a broad host range spanning from terrestrial and marine mammalian, avian and reptilian hosts. The scope of the study includes novel and notorious species within the genus, with reference to zoonotic agents Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli - the leading cause of human bacterial gastroenteritis in the EU and Ireland, Campylobacter fetus that represents the most common campylobacter causing bacteraemia and two novel species isolated from pigs not described in the literature previously. C. jejuni and C. coli isolates (n = 350) recovered from broiler caecal and neck skin samples, …

An Analysis Of The Micro-Determinants Of Domestic Holiday Expenditure By Households In The Republic Of Ireland, Lisa Noonan

Irish Business Journal

The dramatic decrease in overseas visitors to Ireland in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the risks, for the tourism sector, associated with being over-reliant on international tourism. Growing the domestic tourism market is now critical for sustaining jobs and businesses within the sector. The purpose of this paper is to examine the micro-determinants of expenditure on domestic holidays by households in the Republic of Ireland.

Using data from the Irish Household Budget Survey 2015-2016, instrumental variable estimators are used to conduct the analysis. The results reveal that disposable income, being located in the Border, Midlands and Western …

The Business Landscape 2021/2022, Holly Barry Dr

Irish Business Journal

No abstract provided.

Open Educational Resource Policy Considerations And Recommendations: Arguments For Library Involvement, Aisling Coyne, Robert Alfis

Irish Journal of Academic Practice

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to provide great benefit to those both in, and outside of, higher education. With financial pressure existing for both students, and libraries, OER could be uniquely positioned to alleviate some of this strain. This paper examines the role OER policy plays in the development and use of OER in the context of the 2019 UNESCO OER recommendations for Ireland as well as the impact policy, or lack thereof can have on an institutional level. Librarians and the librarian skill such as in knowledge and experience in navigating copyright, licensing issues, intellectual property, rights …

Ireland 2009 Recapitalization Program For Financial Institutions, Steven Kelly

Journal of Financial Crises

At the November 2008 height of the Global Financial Crisis, Ireland’s Department of Finance announced a willingness to inject capital into the six largest banks. This announcement followed the issuance of a blanket guarantee of those banks’ liabilities in September 2008. After broadly designing the potential investments in 2008, the Irish government came to agreements with Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks in February 2009 to inject €3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) in each bank in exchange for preferred equity stakes. The government funded the investments from the funds of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, something it would secure the …

Designed For The Camera: Irish Interior Makeover Television 1996–2014, Neville Knott

Dissertations

This thesis examines how television makeover programmes, broadcast in Ireland between 1996 and 2014, mediate the professional practice of interior design. It argues that the programme-makers, in seeking to engage viewers, used a series of strategies—notably the suppression of professional and educational knowledge about interior design—to convey an image of staged coherence that was arrived at unproblematically. In that process, it will be argued, interior design knowledge got lost, and entertainment triumphed. Focusing on these strategies, the thesis considers how the production process used interior design, nonetheless, to attract an audience and generate ratings, focusing on the relationship between amateurs …

Festivals, Social Order And Community Engagement: The Big Scream Halloween Festival, North East Inner City, Dublin, Theresa Ryan

Case Studies

This case study explores the way in which community festivals can be used to engage and unite, and address social issues in a local community. It explores 'The Big Scream' Halloween festival in North East Inner City Dublin, a festival that was created by the local county council to address anti-social behaviour during Halloween. It highlights the significant positive impact the festival has had on the local community.

Festivals, Social Order And Community Engagement: The Big Scream Halloween Festival, North East Inner City, Dublin., Theresa Ryan Dr

Other resources

No abstract provided.

A Holiday By The Sea: In Search Of Cair Paravel, Reggie Weems

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland is traditionally recognized as an influence on the fictional, imaginative writing of C.S. Lewis. In particular, Dunluce Castle has often been acknowledged as a possible model for Cair Paravel in The Chronicles of Narnia. But Lewis’s own description of the geography of Cair Paravel in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, coupled with several letters he wrote, suggests the possibility of another, earlier and more influential model for the Narnian capitol castle; that of the Bishop’s Palace and Mussenden Temple at Downhill Demesne, adjacent to Castlerock, Northern Ireland.

Media And Information Literacy And Academic Libraries, Philip Russell

Support services (Former ITT) - Conference Papers

Media and information literacy and Libraries: on the frontline of the battle against misinformation which explored how library staff in various sectors are combatting the growth of misinformation.

Friends And Family Matter Most: A Trend Analysis Of Increasing E-Cigarette Use Among Irish Teenagers And Sociodemographic, Personal, Peer And Familial Associations, Joan Hanafin, Salome Sunday, Luke Clancy

Articles

Background

E-cigarette ever-use and current-use among teenagers has increased worldwide, including in Ireland.

Methods

We use data from two Irish waves (2015, 2019) of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) to investigate gender and teenage e-cigarette use (n = 3421 16-year-olds). Using chi-square analyses, we report changes in e-cigarette ever-use, current-use, and associated variables. Using multivariable logistic regression, we analyse the increase in e-cigarette use and socio-demographic, personal, peer and familial associations, focusing on gender differences.

Results

E-cigarette ever-use increased from 23% in 2015 to 37% in 2019, and current-use from 10 to …

How Irish Food Criticism Reflected And Helped Shape A Changing Nation, 1988-2008, Diarmuid Cawley, Claire O' Mahony

Articles

The perception and practice of eating out are linked to larger socioeconomic patterns. Newspaper restaurant reviews provide evidence of these trends which can be traced along a specific timeline. The early 1980s in Ireland were a difficult time for restaurants due to high taxes on food, a national recession and a lack of positive restaurant reviews. The economic upturn in the following decade contributed to unprecedented developments in the restaurant industry. Dining out became a regular activity – fueled in part by restaurant criticism by Irish food journalists, which joined pre-existing theatre, music and book reviews as regular features in …

2021 General Sdr Allocation, International Monetary Fund (Imf)

Documents

No abstract provided.

Ground Ear Maize As An Alternative Forage Source For Beef Cattle In Ireland, P. O'Hanlon, D. Kenny, Tommy M. Boland, G. P. Keane, M. Bridget Lynch

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.