Travellers and Communal Identity: Memory, Trauma and the Trope of Cultural Disappearance

Until now many representations of Travellers and their history have been “written out” of the unitary version of Irish history which was promulgated during the early 1900s and upon Irish independence. This essay explores the manner whereby Irish Travellers, a long-ostracised cultural minority within Ireland have initiated a counter-hegemonic challenge to the “Othering” discourses and tropes which have categorized them previous to this. Once viewed as the quintessential “outsider” this marginalizing discourse encompassed a received body of “lore” and a range of stereotypes with respect to Travellers and other migrants. Recent years have seen a challenge to this history of representation however. An essential element in this counter-hegemonic challenge is the emergence of a small, but vibrant, canon of literature from within the Irish Traveller community itself, a literature the core impulse of which counters the representational traditions of the past. This literature brings Travellers in from the margins of public discourse and counters the trauma induced by generations of “Othering”, the long-established reification of image as produced culturally, politically and ideologically.Nombreuses sont les représentations des Travellers ou de leur histoire qui ont été « effacées » du récit unificateur de l’histoire irlandaise, tel qu’il fut énoncé dans les années 1900 et à partir de l’Indépendance irlandaise – et qui le sont encore à ce jour. Cet article s’intéresse à la manière dont les Travellers irlandais, minorité culturelle longtemps ostracisée, sont en train, en un mouvement anti-hégémonique, de questionner les discours qui les posent comme « autres » ainsi que les figures récurrentes qui ont longtemps été liées aux Travellers. Leur position par excellence « extérieure » et le discours marginalisant qui leur est associé envisageait les histoires transmises oralement et les stéréotypes comme le réceptacle de l’altérité des Travellers et des autres migrants. Au cours des dernières années, ceci a été soumis à un questionnement et un canon de la littérature Traveller se dessine, issu de cette communauté elle-même, qui vise essentiellement à interroger les représentations traditionnelles du passé. Tirée hors de la marge vers la sphère publique, la littérature Traveller élabore dorénavant une réflexion sur les effets traumatisants de cette ostracisation et sur les images culturelles, politiques et idéologiques véhiculées

Writing in Britain and Ireland, c. 400 to c. 800

No abstract available

Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past

This contribution explores the mechanisms by which the Benedictine foundation of Bury St Edmunds sought to legitimise and preserve their spurious pre-Conquest privileges and holdings throughout the Middle Ages. The archive is extraordinary in terms of the large number of surviving registers and cartularies which contain copies of Anglo-Saxon charters, many of which are wholly or partly in Old English. The essay charts the changing use to which these ancient documents were put in response to threats to the foundation's continued enjoyment of its liberties. The focus throughout the essay is to demonstrate how pragmatic considerations at every stage affects the development of the archive and the ways in which these linguistically challenging texts were presented, re-presented, and represented during the Abbey’s history

Ortha an Ghreama as a lesser-known Irish traveller narrative: symbolic inversion and resistance

Irish folk tradition includes a long-established discourse whereby the formerly nomadic or semi-nomadic group known as Irish Travellers, who comprise a tiny minority within Irish society are depicted not only as quintessential “outsiders” but also as a projective mechanism for the hates and fears of the settled (non-Traveller) community. Th is essay examines a counter-tradition in Irish oral tradition that rejects these essentialist and reductionist representations and constructs Travellers very diff erently. This alternative portayal sets Travellers within a very different discourse, one where they serve as a counter- hegemonic undercurrent in Irish society that remains symbolically central despite attempts at its suppression. Th is more radical and nuanced discourse, one whereby that which is initially deemed lowly or subordinate is inverted and becomes paramount, is circumscribed within the traditions of symbolic inversion and holy wisdom as long established in other European countries. This counter-hegemonic discourse is linked to a discussion concerning the philosophical possibilities for a movement beyond the politics of difference that is constitutive of Traveller Otherness or alterity and the potential for a more nuanced or postmodernist theorisation of Self/Other relations

An gioblacán : finnsgéal nuaḋ-ḋéanta /

Mode of access: Internet

Enhancing student literacy with online reading lists: reflections on the initial phase at the Glucksman Library, UL

no abstract availabl

Software quality: perceptions of managers and developers.

The research presented in this paper focuses on software quality in small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland. We carried out qualitative research with software developers and managers, where we examined the general state of software quality within their company and followed this up with a detailed analysis of the specific software quality and maintenance processes used in their company. Following data analysis we achieved an understanding of the attitudes of management and developers towards a range of issues. Those presented in this paper include the priority given to software process, the ranking of software processes and market-driving considerations. We conclude that there are still two major stakeholders who need to be convinced – management and customers – before software process will be adopted on a wide scale among SMEs