Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland

The purpose of this report is to enhance our knowledge of the social dimensions of sport in Ireland and highlight their significance for public policy.

The structure and regulation of the Irish equine industries: Links to considerations of equine welfare

The equine industries in Ireland are vibrant and growing. They are broadly classified into two sectors: Thoroughbred racing, and sports and leisure. This paper describes these sectors in terms of governance, education and training in equine welfare, and available data concerning horse numbers, identification, traceability and disposal. Animal welfare, and specifically equine welfare, has received increasing attention internationally. There is general acceptance of concepts such as animal needs and persons' responsibilities toward animals in their care, as expressed in the 'Five Freedoms'. As yet, little has been published on standards of equine welfare pertaining to Ireland, or on measures to address welfare issues here. This paper highlights the central role of horse identification and legal registration of ownership to safeguard the health and welfare of horses

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2007

1. DISABILITY BENEFIT – CONTROLLED OR UNDER-CONTROLLED? Brenda Gannon p. 3 2. CHILD POVERTY AND CHILD INCOME SUPPORTS: IRELAND IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Tim Callan, Kieran Coleman, Brian Nolan and John Walsh p. 23 3. STATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR HORSE RACING IN IRELAND Tony Fahey and Liam Delaney p. 3

Recognising the Place of Food Tourism in Ireland: an Autoethnographic Perspective

This is an autoethnographic account, utilising prior publications, of my role in positioning food as a critical ingredient in Ireland’s tourism policy and strategy since 2009. As the architect and instigator of this project, my priorities were threefold: first, working from the ground up identifying local activists across the food tourism landscape to create an active and vibrant network; second, providing thought leadership for food tourism; and third, encouraging and funding others to conduct and disseminate similar research. I have chosen six book chapters, published as a result of my advocacy strategy, for this PhD by prior publication. They are a series of real-time reflections and reactions as food tourism developed in Ireland during the period 2009-2018. The publications demonstrate that there has been a consistency of approach based on a deep knowledge of, and familiarity with, the public service environment in which I was operating. Throughout this overarching critical document, I contend that the value of the publications is that they are a unique long-term case study of the practice and development of Food Tourism in a specific destination by a practitioner bureaucrat over ten years, and that they make a valuable theoretical contribution by tracking the evolution of shifts in perceptions, or ‘turns’, thus increasing the likelihood of paradigm change. Furthermore, I will show that the publications were very much in step with, and, in relation to the literature on food tourism in Ireland, ahead of, the wider discourse in the tourism literature. I will also show that the literature on food tourism and tourism policy in Ireland appears to be largely silent, and therefore a gap exists. My publications have populated this gap since 2014, by arguing for the importance of food in tourism, by showing that the proportion of food tourists is relatively small, by establishing that food is a motivator of satisfaction not of travel, and by demonstrating the importance of policy as relationship building

Doing It Together Science: D3.2 Innovation Hubs

Report on setting up of citizen science partner innovation hubs, facilities, multiplier arrangements with third parties such as science museums and centres, and future development plan

Predicting uncertainty in sediment transport and landscape evolution - the influence of initial surface conditions

© 2015. Numerical landscape evolution models were initially developed to examine natural catchment hydrology and geomorphology and have become a common tool to examine geomorphic behaviour over a range of time and space scales. These models all use a digital elevation model (DEM) as a representation of the landscape surface and a significant issue is the quality and resolution of this surface. Here we focus on how subtle perturbations or roughness on the DEM surface can produce alternative model results. This study is carried out by randomly varying the elevations of the DEM surface and examining the effect on sediment transport rates and geomorphology for a proposed rehabilitation design for a post-mining landscape using multiple landscape realisations with increasing magnitudes of random changes. We show that an increasing magnitude of random surface variability does not appear to have any significant effect on sediment transport over millennial time scales. However, the random surface variability greatly changes the temporal pattern or delivery of sediment output. A significant finding is that all simulations at the end of the 10,000 year modelled period are geomorphologically similar and present a geomorphological equifinality. However, the individual patterns of erosion and deposition were different for repeat simulations with a different sequence of random perturbations. The alternative positions of random perturbations strongly influence local patterns of hillslope erosion and evolution together with the pattern and behaviour of deposition. The findings demonstrate the complex feedbacks that occur even within a simple modelled system

Square pegs and round holes: Dublin City’s experience of the RAPID Programme.

This paper is concerned with the governance of spatial inequalities in metropolitan areas. As in other countries, Irish metropolitan areas are characterised by significant socio-economic inequalities. Despite various local initiatives Ireland has yet to achieve an effective model of urban or metropolitan governance capable of reducing these metropolitan socio-economic inequalities. This paper reviews, by way of an evidenced-based Dublin City case study, an Irish metropolitan governance process designed to counter specific metropolitan spatial inequalities - the RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development) Programme. The paper begins by situating the analysis in literature relating to globalisation, governance, multi-level governance and new localism. It proceeds to briefly outline a profile of Dublin as a city characterised by high levels of spatial-economic disadvantage and an ongoing process of badly managed planning and development (Redmond et al 2008). To review the experience of recent innovations in metropolitan governance and their effectiveness at tackling social exclusion this paper utilises evidence from three recent evaluations/reviews of the Dublin RAPID Programme supplemented with stakeholder interviews1. Having analysed Dublin’s experience of innovations in metropolitan governance the paper concludes by outlining the key lessons for broader metropolitan governance theory and practice. These include the problem of geopolitical fragmentation and the difficulties of working in highly complex patterns of local administrative governance processes, the degree to which vertical and horizontal arrangements have hampered rather than assisted strategies to mitigate spatial social inequalities and finally key issues of community capacity and political participation

DEFINING PROFESSIONALISM IN THE TOURISM CONTEXT

The Tourism Policy Review Group (TPRG) (2003, p. 54) has highlighted the need for the development of the professionalism of the Irish tourism industry, warning that “unless this is done across the industry as a whole, the status and credibility of education and training programmes will be called into question.” Yet, although there is a general academic consensus that professionalism is a prerequisite for success (cf. Smith and Westerbeek, 2004) and is seen as positively related to innovation (Sundbo et al., 2007) (which is perceived as essential to enhancing Irish tourism competitiveness (TPRG, 2003)), a review of the literature indicates that there is both a scarcity of knowledge on what tourism professionalism is and a lack of consistency in its use and meaning. For example, Smith and Westerbeek (2004, p. 39) have noted that the concept “has not commonly been addressed, and when it has, it has usually been concerned with broad assumptions and sociological interpretations.” Professionalism‟s multidimensional nature has been argued by Johnson et al. (2006) to involve: (1) altruism, (2) high quality standards, and (3) specialist skills – yet, how relevant and definitive is their conceptualisation in the tourism context? Both Johnson et al. (2006) and Sundbo et al. (2007) have argued that professionalism can be realised through education, hence the need for a precise conceptualisation of what professionalism actually is. Based on the foregoing, and in the tourism context, the purpose of the proposed paper is to identify the key dimensions of professionalism. Dimensionalising this concept is necessary to its evaluation and measurement in order to ensure that educational interventions to enhance professionalism are having a positive impact - a goal which is central to the authors‟ ongoing longitudinal study on improving the tourism sector‟s professionalism through education. This paper argues that altruism, the existence of a code of ethics, a body of knowledge and specialist skills are key dimensions of tourism professionalism

The oxygen isotopic composition of phytolith assemblages from tropical rainforest soil tops (Queensland, Australia): validation of a new paleoenvironmental tool

Phytoliths are micrometric particles of amorphous silica that form inside or between the cells of higher plant tissues throughout the life of a plant. With plant decay, phytoliths are either incorporated into soils or exported to sediments via regional watersheds. Phytolith morphological assemblages are increasingly used as proxy of grassland diversity and tree cover density in inter-tropical areas. Here, we investigate whether, along altitudinal gradients in northeast Queensland (Australia), changes in the δ<sup>18</sup>O signature of soil top phytolith assemblages reflect changes in mean annual temperature (MAT) and in the oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation (δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>precipitation</sub>), as predicted by equilibrium temperature coefficients previously published for silica. Oxygen isotopic analyses were performed on 16 phytolith samples, after controlled isotopic exchange (CIE), using the IR Laser-Heating Fluorination Technique. Long-term mean annual precipitation (MAP) and MAT values at the sampled sites were calculated by the ANUCLIM software. δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>precipitation</sub> estimates were calculated using the Bowen and Wilkinson (2002) model, slightly modified. An empirical temperature-dependant relationship was obtained: δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>wood phytolith-precipitation</sub> (‰ vs. VSMOW) = −0.4 (±0.2) <i>t</i> (°C) + 46 (±3) (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.4, <i>p</i> < 0.05; <i>n</i> = 12). Despite the various unknowns introduced when estimating δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>precipitation</sub> values and the large uncertainties on δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>wood phytolith</sub> values, the temperature coefficient (−0.4 ± 0.2‰ °C<sup>−1</sup>) is in the range of values previously obtained for natural quartz, fresh and sedimentary diatoms and harvested grass phytoliths (from −0.2 to −0.5‰ °C<sup>−1</sup>). The consistency supports the reliability of δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>wood phytolith</sub> signatures for recording relative changes in mean annual δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub>soil water</sub> values (which are assumed to be equivalent to the weighted annual δ<sup>18</sup>O<sub> precipitation</sub> values in rainforests environments) and MAT, provided these changes were several ‰ and/or several °C in magnitude