Shelta: an historical and contemporary analysis

Travellers, have historically been separated from the larger group of Irish society; customs and practices emphasise the division and reinforce Travellers' internal security: the main symbol of their difference, their linguistic code, which operates as a secret or protective language, is known variously as Shelta, Gammon or Cant. The Thesis provides a critical examination of the historical and academic analysis to date of Shelta and reports on the results of an empirical study carried out by the researcher into sociolmguistic aspects of Shelta in Ireland today. Theories about the background and history of Irish Travellers are reviewed and the relationship between Travellers and Gypsies is analysed. Traveller identity and aspects of Traveller culture are examined with particular emphasis on family organization and ritual cleanliness because these show how Travellers maintain the borders between themselves and settled people. The Gypsy language, Romani, is well known and has been widely studied. Shelta has been less documented and its relationship with English Cant has been obscure. A theory is put forward about this historical relationship. Up to now, Shelta has generally been considered to be an artifically devised jargon constructed for disguise purposes. It is suggested, however, that there is reason to believe that Shelta may be the remains of a natural language augmented by a disguised vocabulary from Irish and English, having moved to an English syntactic structure. In recent years, Travellers have undergone rapid social change: their former patterns of employment have been rendered obsolete and there has been a movement towards the towns. Changes in Shelta are examined in this new context and the future role of Shelta as part of Traveller culture is considered

Human Rights, Constitutions and Non-Citizens

Las constituciones contemporáneas contemplan la protección de los derechos fundamentales no solo de sus ciudadanos sino de cualquiera que se encuentre en su territorio. En este trabajo se analiza normativa y sobre todo jurisprudencia comparada en relación con esta cuestión. Concretamente en mecanismos internacionales de protección de derechos humanos y en los sistemas constitucionales de Estados Unidos, Canadá, Sudáfrica e Irlanda.Contemporary constitutions provide for the protection of fundamental rights not only for citizens but for anyone in its territory. This paper discusses legislation and comparative jurisprudence on this issue. Specifically that in international mechanisms for the protection of human rights and the constitutional systems of the United States, Canada, South Africa and Ireland

Achieving equity of access to higher education in Ireland, the case for travellers

This study contains the results of two separate, but connected, studies on the access and provision for Traveller students in education in Ireland: • A review of existing policy documentation pertaining to Traveller education provision in Ireland contained within Chapter 1 of this document • A qualitative research study profiling Travellers who have accessed third level education which sought their views on existing provision and on possible developments of places for Traveller students contained within Chapter 2 of this document The two studies provided a basis for the comprehensive recommendations regarding achieving equity of access to higher education in Ireland, and for developing a best practice model for academic support for Traveller students contained within Chapter 3 of this document

Molecular analysis of HLA-DQB1 alleles in childhood common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Epidemiological studies suggest that childhood common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (c-ALL) may be the rare outcome of early post-natal infection with a common infectious agent. One of the factors that may determine whether a child succumbs to c-ALL is how it responds to the candidate infection. Since immune responses to infection are under the partial control of (human leucocyte antigen) HLA genes, an association between an HLA allele and c-ALL could provide support for an infectious aetiology. To define the limit of c-ALL susceptibility within the HLA region, we have compared HLA-DQB1 allele frequencies in a cohort of 62 children with c-ALL with 76 newborn controls, using group-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. We find that a significant excess of children with c-ALL type for DQB1*05 [relative risk (RR): 2.54, uncorrected P=0.038], and a marginal excess with DQB1*0501 (RR: 2.18; P=0.095). Only 3 of the 62 children with c-ALL have the other susceptibility allele, DPB1*0201 as well as DQB1*0501, whereas 15 had one or the other allele. This suggests that HLA-associated susceptibility may be determined independently by at least two loci, and is not due to linkage disequilibrium. The combined relative risk of the two groups of children with DPB1*0201 and/or DQB1*0501 is 2.76 (P=0.0076). Analysis of amino acids encoded by exon 2 of DQB1 reveal additional complexity, with significant (P<0.05) or borderline-significant increases in Gly26, His30, Val57, Glu66-Val67 encoding motifs in c-ALL compared with controls. Since these amino acids are not restricted to DQB1*0501, our results suggest that, as with DPB1, the increased risk of c-ALL associated with DQB1 is determined by specific amino acid encoding motifs rather than by an individual allele. These results also suggest that HLA-associated susceptibility to c-ALL may not be restricted to the region bounded by DPB1 and DQB1

The Returned Yank as Site of Memory in Irish Popular Culture

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.cambridge.org/AMSThis article charts conceptual developments in the field of history of women in the Americas over the past forty years since the author began her career. It compares women’s and gender history and the contributions of key figures such as Joan Scott, Alice Kessler-Harris, and Barbara Welter along with recent developments in the field such as the history of women in the Atlantic world. The article also proposes reasons for the separation of American women’s history into North American, Latin American, and Caribbean fields

El oppidum de San Cibrán de Las y el papel de la religión en los procesos de centralización en la Edad del Hierro

Nuevas investigaciones permiten cuestionar la datación tradicional de los oppida del Noroeste hispano en época romana, mostrando que muchos de estos sitios tuvieron su origen ya en el siglo II-I a.C. El oppidum de San Cibrán de Las (Ourense) representa uno de los yacimientos clave para esta discusión. Las excavaciones en área llevadas a cabo en los últimos años han ofrecido una gran cantidad de información acerca de la estructura interna del asentamiento, sus viviendas y fortificaciones, así como el especial simbolismo del área de la acrópolis; en esta última se encuentran documentadas varias esculturas de divinidades y epígrafes religiosos. No obstante, el descubrimiento más importante es la larga secuencia de ocupación del yacimiento puesta en evidencia por una amplia serie de dataciones de C14. La frecuentación del sitio se inició varios siglos antes de la fundación del oppidum, y parece haber estado vinculada con un uso de la acrópolis para celebraciones religiosas. Una comparativa con la evidencia arqueológica encontrada en otros oppida de la Europa templada, las fuentes escritas y la toponimia regional ponen de manifiesto el papel central de asambleas y festivales religiosos en la construcción de identidades colectivas y en los orígenes del urbanismoNew research challenges the traditional dating of the oppida of NW Iberia into the Roman period, showing that many of these sites already originated in the late 2nd and 1st century BC. The oppidum of San Cibrán de Las (Ourense) constitutes a key case-study for this discussion. The large-scale excavations of the last years have provided extensive information about the inner structure of the site, its houses and fortifications, and the special significance of the area of the acropolis; the latter includes several sculptures of deities and religious inscriptions. However, the most important discovery is the long sequence of occupation revealed by a large sample of C14 dates. Frequentation of the site starts several centuries before the foundation of the oppidum, and seems to have been related with a use of the acropolis for religious gatherings. A comparison with the archaeological evidence found at other oppida from temperate Europe, literary sources and regional place names points towards the crucial role of assemblies and religious festivals in the construction of collective identities and the development of early urbanis