New Visions in Ireland in 1948: Clann na Poblachta and Our Country

The period covered by this paper will range from the creation of Clann na Poblachta in 1946 to the outcome of the 1947-8 campaign. In the first part, we will focus on Clann na Poblachta and Our Country, a documentary film commissioned by Clann na Poblachta in November 1947, in relation to the term 'vision'. The explicit reference to the term by one of the commentators in the film, its wide use over the period in the party's electoral literature and speeches, and the active viewing itself, all contribute to render the choice of the term 'vision' relevant to determine to what extent Clann na Poblachta and Our Country can be considered as new visions in Ireland in 1948. Then, on the basis of a study of the film, its objectives and TV interviews of the party leader and the film directors, the second part will argue that Our Country goes beyond its avowed aim of providing Irish audiences with an impartial documented vision of their country and becomes instead an illustration of a political programme, thus making it an electoral manifesto in visual form, the first of the sort in Ireland. This article was written for a conference of doctoral students at University College Dublin, Ireland, in the course of research conducted under the supervision of Prof. Paul Brennan and Prof. Wesley Hutchinson for the Irish Studies Centre, Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle in 2005

The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937 Bunreacht na hÉireann

Publié par deux historiens, Dermot Keogh et Andrew J. McCarthy, dans le cadre d’un programme de recherche financé par le gouvernement irlandais, cet ouvrage, consacré à un des documents fondateurs de l’Irlande et une des réalisations majeures de M. de Valera, la Constitution irlandaise de 1937 (ou Bunreacht na hÉireann), est appelé à faire date. Au premier regard, principalement à la lecture des premières sections de la table des matières, l’ouvrage peut apparaître, pour celles et ceux qui on..

My Autobiography

En présentant sa démission au Dáil en novembre 1994, Albert Reynolds avait promis que le moment venu, il s’expliquerait et mettrait les choses au clair (set the record straight). Le moment semblait opportun quinze ans plus tard puisque, comme il l’écrit dans le prologue, la paix était installée en Irlande du Nord de manière durable. Bien que son récit s’organise autour des deux points précédents, l’on peut diviser cette autobiographie en trois parties, d’une manière fort arbitraire il est vra..

How Ireland Voted 2007

Ce sixième opus de la série des How Ireland Voted (lancée en 1987) s’attache à comprendre, dans une perspective comparative, comment se sont déroulées les élections législatives de 2007 et comment peuvent s’expliquer ses résultats (formation d’un gouvernement tripartite) alors qu’existait une alternative à la coalition sortante, que l’on s’attendait à voir une montée des petites formations politiques, que l’on relevait comme préoccupations principales à la sortie des urnes des thèmes comme la..

Architects of the Resurrection

D’une façon générale, quiconque recherchant des informations sur Ailtirí na hAiséirghe devait, jusqu’à présent, se contenter de quelques lignes, au plus quelques paragraphes, expliquant qu’il s’agissait d’une organisation nationaliste d’extrême droite active en Irlande dans les années 40. À partir de l’examen de nombreuses sources primaires (en premier lieu les archives personnelles du fondateur du mouvement disparu en 1991 mais aussi les archives militaires, celles des services secrets irlan..

How Ireland Voted 2007

Ce sixième opus de la série des How Ireland Voted (lancée en 1987) s’attache à comprendre, dans une perspective comparative, comment se sont déroulées les élections législatives de 2007 et comment peuvent s’expliquer ses résultats (formation d’un gouvernement tripartite) alors qu’existait une alternative à la coalition sortante, que l’on s’attendait à voir une montée des petites formations politiques, que l’on relevait comme préoccupations principales à la sortie des urnes des thèmes comme la..

Arthur Griffith

Si l’on s’en tient à la première page, le titre de l’ouvrage pourrait paraître trompeur. En effet, seuls les quatre premiers chapitres semblent s’attacher de près à des moments clés de la vie d’Arthur Griffith : son enfance dans les quartiers pauvres de la capitale (expliquant ses prises de position futures en faveur de l’amélioration des conditions de logement via la rétention d’une partie des sommes versées au Trésor britannique), sa formation politique et ses années de journalisme en Afriq..

Direct Regulation of CLOCK Expression by REV-ERB

Circadian rhythms are regulated at the cellular level by transcriptional feedback loops leading to oscillations in expression of key proteins including CLOCK, BMAL1, PERIOD (PER), and CRYPTOCHROME (CRY). The CLOCK and BMAL1 proteins are members of the bHLH class of transcription factors and form a heterodimer that regulates the expression of the PER and CRY genes. The nuclear receptor REV-ERBα plays a key role in regulation of oscillations in BMAL1 expression by directly binding to the BMAL1 promoter and suppressing its expression at certain times of day when REV-ERBα expression levels are elevated. We recently demonstrated that REV-ERBα also regulates the expression of NPAS2, a heterodimer partner of BMAL1. Here, we show that REV-ERBα also regulates the expression another heterodimer partner of BMAL1, CLOCK. We identified a REV-ERBα binding site within the 1st intron of the CLOCK gene using a chromatin immunoprecipitation – microarray screen. Suppression of REV-ERBα expression resulted in elevated CLOCK mRNA expression consistent with REV-ERBα's role as a transcriptional repressor. A REV-ERB response element (RevRE) was identified within this region of the CLOCK gene and was conserved between humans and mice. Additionally, the CLOCK RevRE conferred REV-ERB responsiveness to a heterologous reporter gene. Our data suggests that REV-ERBα plays a dual role in regulation of the activity of the BMAL1/CLOCK heterodimer by regulation of expression of both the BMAL1 and CLOCK genes

Lipid profiles of prostate cancer cells

Lipids are important cellular components which can be significantly altered in a range of disease states including prostate cancer. Here, a unique systematic approach has been used to define lipid profiles of prostate cancer cell lines, using quantitative mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS), FTIR spectroscopy and fluorescent microscopy. All three approaches identified significant difference in the lipid profiles of the three prostate cancer cell lines (DU145, LNCaP and 22RV1) and one non-malignant cell line (PNT1a). Specific lipid classes and species, such as phospholipids (e.g., phosphatidylethanolamine 18:1/16:0 and 18:1/18:1) and cholesteryl esters, detected by LC-ESI-MS/MS, allowed statistical separation of all four prostate cell lines. Lipid mapping by FTIR revealed that variations in these lipid classes could also be detected at a single cell level, however further investigation into this approach would be needed to generate large enough data sets for quantitation. Visualisation by fluorescence microscopy showed striking variations that could be observed in lipid staining patterns between cell lines allowing visual separation of cell lines. In particular, polar lipid staining by a fluorescent marker was observed to increase significantly in prostate cancer lines cells, when compared to PNT1a cells, which was consistent with lipid quantitation by LC-ESI-MS/MS and FTIR spectroscopy. Thus, multiple technologies can be employed to either quantify or visualise changes in lipid composition, and moreover specific lipid profiles could be used to detect and phenotype prostate cancer cells

Low-dose statin treatment increases prostate cancer aggressiveness

Prostate cancer is diagnosed late in life, when co-morbidities are frequent. Among them, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes or metabolic syndrome exhibit an elevated incidence. In turn, prostate cancer patients frequently undergo chronic pharmacological treatments that could alter disease initiation, progression and therapy response. Here we show that treatment with anti-cholesterolemic drugs, statins, at doses achieved in patients, enhance the pro-tumorigenic activity of obesogenic diets. In addition, the use of a mouse model of prostate cancer and human prostate cancer xenografts revealed that in vivo simvastatin administration alone increases prostate cancer aggressiveness. In vitro cell line systems supported the notion that this phenomenon occurs, at least in part, through the direct action on cancer cells of low doses of statins, in range of what is observed in human plasma. In sum, our results reveal a prostate cancer experimental system where statins exhibit an undesirable effect, and warrant further research to address the relevance and implications of this observation in human prostate cancer