Beyond Hostile Borders: Re-negotiating the Gendered Embodiment of Resistance and Agency in the film, Some Mother’s Son.

This paper focuses on the re-deployment of gendered bodies as sites of resistance in the Northern Irish conflict It brings together an interdisciplinary mix of Peace, Film and Gender Studies in a close analysis of the film Some Mother's Son (Terry George 1996). In focusing on this film text we are able to identify the extent to which socially patrolled gendered binaries dictated the levels of agency afforded to mothers and their sons in the context of the 1981 Hunger Strike in Northern Ireland. We make explicit connections between the gendered embodiment of resistance and the atrophying effects of fixed notions of rendered violence and power. We argue that the disfigurement and self-harm inscribed upon the bodies of the imprisoned male hunger. strikers enacted a characteristically 'feminine' strategy of resistance. Indeed, the foregrounding of the body in their campaign of resistance also positioned them as in a relatively 'feminised' position in relation to the political (and, ostensibly, 'rational') discourse of those enforcing their incarceration. The subsequent agency and public profile of their mothers, who initially spoke and acted on behalf of their sons, allowed for their exploration of different gender roles and for the adoption of different modes of operation within the wider conflict, leading to altered priorities within the political struggle. The transgressive agency enacted by these mothers challenged longstanding borders between male and female and secular and state, demonstrating that the larger conflict was underpinned by various culturally entrenched hostilities

Report of consultations with children on after-school care

There has been an increasing focus on developing policy in the area of after-school care in Ireland in the past two years. In January 2015, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs announced the establishment of an Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) on Future Investment in Early Years and School-age Care and Education. The purpose of this group was to identify and assess policies and future options for increasing the quality, supply and affordability of early years and school age care and education services in Ireland. In order to inform the work of the IDG, an Open Policy Debate was held with a range of stakeholders and representatives from the early years and school-aged care and education sector and online consultations were also held with the general public. Future Investment in Early Years and School-Age Care and Education was published in 2015. In light of the commitment in the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020 to consult with children and young people on policies and issues that affect their lives, in March 2016, a proposal was sought from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) for the provision of services to develop a report of consultations with children (age 5–12 years) on after-school care. These consultations were to be conducted by the Citizens Participation Unit of the DCYA with the aim of identifying what children like and dislike about after-school care and to identify the places where children most like to be cared for after school. Consultations were held with 177 children and young people in total comprising 81 children aged 5–7 years and 96 children aged 8–12 years from primary schools in Dublin, Dundalk, Limerick, Meath, Monaghan, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow. The research team from University College Cork: Attended all of the consultations with children on after-school care in May and June 2016; Removed, documented and analysed the data generated at each consultation; Produced a report on the process and findings of the consultations. This report provides an overview of the process and findings from these consultations with children. It analyses the data generated at the consultations and discusses the rationale, methodology and findings from consultations with children on after-school care

Preclinical atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: There is accumulating evidence of an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in rheumatoid arthritis patients. A combination of both traditional cardiovascular risks and rheumatoid specific factors appear to be responsible for driving this phenomenon. Rheumatoid arthritis has been an orphan of cardiologists in the past and rheumatologists themselves are not good at CVD screening. Identifying the extent of preclinical atherosclerosis in RA patients will help us to appreciate the magnitude of this serious problem in an Irish population. Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional study of 63 RA patients and 48 OA controls and compared the 2 groups with respect to 1) traditional CV risks factors, 2) serum biomarkers of inflammation, including CRP, TNFα, IL6 and PAI-1, 3) carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), carotid plaque and ankle-brachial index (ABI) as markers of pre-clinical atherosclerosis, 4) biochemical and ultrasonic measures of endothelial dysfunction and 5) serum and echocardiographic measures of diastolic dysfunction. Within the RA group, we also investigated for associations between markers of inflammation, subclinical atherosclerosis and diastolic dysfunction. Results: Prevalence of traditional CV risks was similar in the RA and OA groups. A number of biomarkers of inflammation were significantly higher in the RA group: CRP, fibrinogen, IL- 2, -4, -6, TNFα. PAI-1, a marker of thrombosis, correlated with disease activity and subclinical atherosclerosis in RA patients. With regard to subclinical atherosclerosis measures, RA patients had a significantly lower ABI than OA patients. Carotid plaque and cIMT readings were similar in RA and OA patients. Assessment of endothelial function revealed that RA patients had significantly higher concentrations of adhesion molecules, in particular sero-positive RA patients and RA smokers. Adhesion molecule concentrations were associated with markers of diastolic dysfunction in RA. Urine PCR, another marker of endothelial dysfunction also correlated with diastolic dysfunction in RA. Assessment of endothelial function with flow mediated dilatation (FMD) found no difference between the RA and OA groups. Disease activity scores in RA patients were associated with endothelial dysfunction, as assessed by FMD. Conclusions: We did not find significant differences in measures of subclinical atherosclerosis, flow mediated dilatation or diastolic function between RA and OA patients. This is most likely in part due to the fact that there is increasing evidence that OA has an inflammatory component to its pathogenesis and is associated with metabolic syndrome and increased CV risk. We reported a significant association between urinary PCR and measures of diastolic dysfunction. Urinary PCR may be a useful screening tool for diastolic dysfunction in RA. The association between RA disease activity and measures of vascular function supports the theory that the excess cardiovascular burden in RA is linked to uncontrolled inflammation

Key issues in the process of implementing shared decision making (DM) in mental health practice

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Shulamit Ramon, Helen Brooks, Sarah Rae, Mary-Jane O’Sullivan, "Key issues in the process of implementing shared decision making (DM) in mental health practice", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 22(3):257-274, July 2017. The Version of Record is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-01-2017-0006 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2017.Purpose: This review paper will look at internationally existing publications in the English language on mental health shared decision making (SDM) implementation of a variety of interventions, including different methodologies and research methods, age groups and countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of: process, degree and outcomes of implementation; barriers and facilitators; perspectives on implementation by different stakeholders; analysis of the process of implementation in mental health services through the lenses of the normalisation process theory (NPT). Design/methodology/approach: Following a targeted literature search the data were analysed in order to provide an overview of methodologies and methods applied in the articles, as well as of the variables listed above. Three different types of information were included: a content analysis of key issues, reflective understanding coming out of participating in implementation of an SDM project in the form of two narratives written by two key participants in an SDM pilot project and an NPT analysis of the process of implementation. Findings: Only a minority of mental health SDM research focuses on implementation in everyday practice. It is possible and often desirable to achieve SDM in mental health services; it requires a low level of technology, it can save time once routinized, and it is based on enhancing therapeutic alliance, as well as service users' motivation. Implementation requires an explicit policy decision, a clear procedure, and regular adherence to the aims and methods of implementation by all participants. These necessary and sufficient conditions are rarely met, due to the different levels of commitment to SDM and its process by the different key stakeholders, as well as due to competing providers' objectives and the time allocated to achieving them. Originality/value: The review indicates both the need to take into account the complexity of SDM, as well as future strategies for enhancing its implementation in everyday mental health practice. Perhaps because applying SDM reflects a major cultural change in mental health practice, current value attached to SDM among clinicians and service managers would need to be more positive, prominent and enduring to enable a greater degree of implementation.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Developments in love poetry in Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic, before 1650

This thesis looks for evidence of continuity and of change in love poetry in the Celtic languages of the British Isles before l650.The items studied are generally first-person statements of love. Poetry that is clearly intended as bardic panegyric or as elegy, as proverbial description of women's failings, or that adopts a sharply satirical or abusive attitude to women in general, is not made the subject of detailed discussion or emalysis, although occasionally I have found it necessary to refer to such poetry. Chapter One looks at the surviving poetry on themes of love and attraction from eighth to twelfth century Ireland and suggests that the separate traditions of monastic and pre-monastic Ireland can be identified. Chapter Two shows that the type of beauty praised in Irish and Scottish classical poetry before 1400 is dependent on conventions that were already established in the Old and Middle Irish period. It then looks at the content of poems composed before 1400,A11 but one of the poems describesd are by Gearoid larla (died 1398) ,some of them from an unedited Scottish manuscript source. I find that Gearoid's tone when: writing of women is generally ironic, or openly unflattering, Although his poems and the other one mentioned show some differences from the poems described in the first chapter, they do not enable one to decide whether foreign love poetry was being imitated in the classical metres during the fourteenth century. Chapter Three looks at a group of edited and unedited poems from an early sixteenth century Scottish manuscript, and shows that their chosen themes are women, love suid sexual fantasy. Attention is focused on a group of pos that I identify as love poems, Their possible back, ground in Irish and otter literatures is discussed, and it is suggested that they provide evidence of new fashions in the syllahic poetry of fifteenth century Ireland, fashions closer to those of the continent. Poems for which there are grounds for thinking that they were composed before 1630 form the next group discussed, in Chapter Four, It is shown that while some of the new topoi found in them might be expected to arise within any tradition of love poetryothers have characteristics that align them specifically with European writing. One can however distinguish a distinctively Irish treatment of most of the themes, and possible explanations for this are put forward. It is argued that a further group of poems surviving in maiuscripts of the late seventeenth century were probably composed at the same time as, or shortly after, the first group. Finally the distinctive characteristics of the earliest surviving Scottish Gaelic folksongs are noted, auid it is suggested that they belong to traditions of composition that predate the absorption of foreign styles into Irish and Scottish writing. Chapter Five looks at the earliest surviving Welsh love poetry ,i.e. that written by the bards in the twelfth and. thirteenth centuries, and at the prose of the same period, As a result of this study I discount the possibility that Welsh love poetry is already heavily influenced by foreign styles at this date. Chapter Six studies the work of Dafydd ap Gwilym (c.1320- c.1380),and sets out the ways in which his love poetry resembles and differs from earlier Welsh models. It is suggested that he disregards earlier conventions in order to extend the emotional and intellectual range of Welsh love poetry, Little evidence is found to show that he knew of or imitated, foreign styles of love poetry. Chapter Seven looks at other writers in the strict metres of the post-bardic period, and finds that their chief inspiration is the work of Dafydd and the bairds. I conclude with a study of the surviving verse in the ''free metres" (i.e.ones that lack or make little use of the traditional ornament of Welsh verse) and set out the reasons for regarding it as heavily influenced by sixteenth century English composition, A debt to traditional Welsh styles of poetry is also cleaxly apparent, and is probably the result of knowledge of recent poetry in the formal metres