The effects of leaf litter treatments, post-harvest urea and omission of early season fungicide sprays on the overwintering of apple scab on Bramley’s Seedling grown in a maritime environment.

peer-reviewedThe theory that orchards with zero or low levels of apple scab post harvest do not need scab protection at the start of the next growing season was evaluated under Irish conditions. In addition, a range of post-harvest orchard sanitation practices (application of urea to rot overwintering leaves, mowing the orchard or total leaf removal in February) were also evaluated. Due to the high summer rainfall in Ireland (compared to all other European apple growing areas) and the severe susceptibility of the apple cultivar Bramley’s Seedling to scab (Venturia inaequalis), neither clean orchards in the autumn nor sanitation practices were sufficient to eliminate the requirement for full fungicide protection programmes at the start of the following growing season. Post harvest applications of urea proved difficult due to late harvesting of pollinator fruit for the juice market and wet weather. Total removal of leaf litter from plots prior to the commencement of growth did not significantly reduce disease incidence. Regardless of orchard cleanliness in autumn, missing the first fungicide application in the spring always reduced yield.This work was funded by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland

The Experience at Trinity College Dublin

This is a script of a play(ing). A performance once enacted and then reflected upon is herein described

Language, typography and placemaking: walking the Irish and Ulster-Scots linguistic landscape

This article examines the ways in which the public display of the Irish and Ulster-Scots languages intersect with the politics of place in Ireland and Northern Ireland

Ireland and the financial crisis.

The growth of the Irish economy in the years 1995-2007 was dramatic and unparalleled by Western economies, earning Ireland the moniker “The Celtic Tiger”. Emerging from conditions of high unemployment, very high rates of emigration of graduates, and enormous government debt in the 1980s, the transformation of the Irish economy in two decades was remarkable and lauded by economists and commentators. High growth rates were facilitated by a number of factors, including the presence of a large number of multinationals producing goods for export, generally benign world economic conditions, low interest rates, a low taxation regime, and an expansionary government policy which embraced the tenets of the ‘free market’. With the onset of the financial crisis, however, came another rapid transformation in the Irish economy. From being one of the fastest growing Western economies in the late 1990s, in 2009 Ireland suffered the greatest contraction of any OECD country since the second world war. The reasons for this dramatic reversal of fortune were attributable not only to the global financial crisis, but also to government policies and the structure of the Irish economy. In this chapter, the remarkable rise and fall of the Irish economy is described and analysed. Influences on the performance of the Irish economy in this period, including the benign world economy, government policy, and the structure of the Irish economy are analysed and examined. Proposals on how best to initiate recovery are also assessed, particularly the narrow focus of discourse which largely concentrates on attempts to ‘fix’ the current system, without considering alternative approaches

The Cultural Production of English Masculinities in Late Modernity

Students enter schools today amid difficult, rapid social change, their sexuality and gender partly formed by family, peers, and the media. We are only beginning to understand the complex articulation between schooling, wider learning networks, and sexual/gender subjectivities. Current empirical and theoretical work in mas- culinity, sexuality, and education in England enables us to go beyond critiques of the New Right and re-engage critically with emerging social democratic models of education and to reconnect education with wider theoretical debates in the social sciences and political movements in civil society. Aujourd’hui, les jeunes entrent à l’école dans une période difficile, marquée par des changements sociaux rapides; leur perception de la sexualité et du sexe est déjà partiellement formée par leur famille, leurs pairs et les médias. Nous ne faisons que commencer à comprendre la jonction complexe entre l’école, les réseaux plus vastes d’apprentissage et les subjectivités ayant trait à la sexualité et au sexe. Les travaux théoriques et empiriques actuels sur la masculinité, la sexualité et l’éducation en Angleterre nous permettent de dépasser les critiques de la nouvelle droite, de réanalyser de façon éclairée les nouveaux modèles d’éducation de la démocratie sociale et de relier l’éducation aux débats théoriques plus vastes suscités par les sciences sociales et les mouvements politiques dans la société civile.

Mentoring students can lead to increased engagement and success with mathematics

In September 2009, the author commenced a research project with colleagues to investigate the reasons why students do or do not engage with mathematics. The initial stages of this project involved contacting and meeting students who were repeating at least one of their first year mathematics modules. The author decided to offer the students an opportunity to participate in a mentoring scheme. This paper will describe the scheme, the mathematical background of the students and focus on their engagement levels, their behaviour and feedback. We look at the students’ reactions when they were asked to bring in their attempted work. We also present evidence that suggests a positive impact on student progression, and we will briefly present the outcomes of the project in terms of how it impacted on further initiatives and interventions run by our department

Introducing the history of mathematics to third level students with weak mathematical backgrounds: a case study

Many students who traditionally struggle with basic aspects of Mathematics have little or no concept of Mathematics as a living and growing subject area. They appear not to appreciate the background of the day-to- day Mathematics that they study, and which some of them may one day teach. These students generally have no exposure to this material and are unlikely to investigate the History of Mathematics independently. In this paper we will discuss the incidents that lead us to consider how to introduce students with weak mathematical backgrounds to the History of Mathematics. We will briefly mention the reasons why there are such significant numbers of students with these issues. We will also provide some detail on the first steps taken by the Mathematics Support Centre in the National University of Ireland Maynooth to try to introduce the background and context of Mathematics to these students. Based on the feedback we have received to date, we will discuss if these initiatives have had a positive impact in terms of students’ attitudes and results

Introducing the history of mathematics to third level students with weak mathematical backgrounds: a case study

Many students who traditionally struggle with basic aspects of Mathematics have little or no concept of Mathematics as a living and growing subject area. They appear not to appreciate the background of the day-to- day Mathematics that they study, and which some of them may one day teach. These students generally have no exposure to this material and are unlikely to investigate the History of Mathematics independently. In this paper we will discuss the incidents that lead us to consider how to introduce students with weak mathematical backgrounds to the History of Mathematics. We will briefly mention the reasons why there are such significant numbers of students with these issues. We will also provide some detail on the first steps taken by the Mathematics Support Centre in the National University of Ireland Maynooth to try to introduce the background and context of Mathematics to these students. Based on the feedback we have received to date, we will discuss if these initiatives have had a positive impact in terms of students’ attitudes and results

The provision of mathematics support and the role of the history of mathematics

There is a well-documented crisis in mathematics education both nationally and internationally. Increasing numbers of students are struggling with many of the basics of mathematics when they enter third level. One response has been the widespread establishment of mathematics support services for students who are deemed at risk. These supports are constantly analysed and quantified to establish best practice and to measure the impact they have on students. In this paper we give an overview of these issues. We also discuss how introducing struggling students to topics in the historical development of mathematics can help them deal successfully with many of the issues that they have