bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding craniosynostosis as a growth disorder
Authors: Flaherty Kevin , Singh Nandini , Richtsmeier Joan T.
Published: March 2016

Craniosynostosis is a condition of complex etiology that always involves the premature fusion of one or multiple cranial sutures and includes various anomalies of the soft and hard tissues of the head. Steady progress in the field has resulted in identifying gene mutations that recurrently cause craniosynostosis. There are now scores of mutations on many genes causally related to craniosynostosis syndromes, though the genetic basis for the majority of nonsyndromic cases is unknown. Identification of these genetic mutations has allowed significant progress in understanding the intrinsic properties of cranial sutures, including mechanisms responsible for normal suture patency and for pathogenesis of premature suture closure. An understanding of morphogenesis of cranial vault sutures is critical to understanding the pathophysiology of craniosynostosis conditions, but the field is now poised to recognize the repeated changes in additional skeletal and soft tissues of the head that typically accompany premature suture closure. We review the research that has brought an understanding of premature suture closure within our reach. We then enumerate the less well‐studied, but equally challenging, nonsutural phenotypes of craniosynostosis conditions that are well characterized in available mouse models. We consider craniosynostosis as a complex growth disorder of multiple tissues of the developing head, whose growth is also targeted by identified mutations in ways that are poorly understood. Knowledge gained from studies of humans and mouse models for these conditions underscores the diverse, associated developmental anomalies of the head that contribute to the complex phenotypes of craniosynostosis conditions presenting novel challenges for future research. WIREs Dev Biol 2016, 5:429–459. doi: 10.1002/wdev.227

This article is categorized under:

Birth Defects > Craniofacial and Nervous System Anomalies
Computational modeling approaches to the dynamics of oncolytic viruses
Authors: Wodarz Dominik
Published: March 2016

Replicating oncolytic viruses represent a promising treatment approach against cancer, specifically targeting the tumor cells. Significant progress has been made through experimental and clinical studies. Besides these approaches, however, mathematical models can be useful when analyzing the dynamics of virus spread through tumors, because the interactions between a growing tumor and a replicating virus are complex and nonlinear, making them difficult to understand by experimentation alone. Mathematical models have provided significant biological insight into the field of virus dynamics, and similar approaches can be adopted to study oncolytic viruses. The review discusses this approach and highlights some of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to build mathematical and computation models that are clinically predictive.WIREs Syst Biol Med2016, 8:242–252. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1332

This article is categorized under:

Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods
An interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for the CATGIXRF program – for microstructural evaluation of thin film and impurity doped surfaces
Authors: Tiwari M. K. , Das Gangadhar
Published: March 2016

This paper is a continuation and extension of our earlier work (X‐ray Spectrom. 2010, 39, 127–134, DOI:10.1002/xrs.1215) on the development of a software platform CATGIXRF, as a solution to provide non‐destructive evaluation of nanostructured materials. Here, we describe an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for the CATGIXRF program. The newly developed GUI interface facilitates determination of microstructural parameters on angstrom length scale for the nanostructured thin layered materials using synchrotron as well as laboratory X‐ray sources. It allows combined analysis capabilities for both the X‐ray reflectivity and grazing incidence X‐ray fluorescence (GIXRF) data simultaneously, thus enabling us a greater sensitivity for the determination of microstructural parameters such as thickness, interface mixing, and roughness of a thin film medium with improved accuracies. The utility and various newly added salient features of the GUI‐CATGIXRF program are described by providing example calculations as well as by analyzing experimentally a few thin film structures with different surface‐interface properties. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Phase 1 study of pembrolizumab (MK-3475; anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody) in Japanese patients with advanced solid tumors
Authors: Shimizu Toshio , Seto Takashi , Hirai Fumihiko , Takenoyama Mitsuhiro , Nosaki Kaname , Tsurutani Junji , Kaneda Hiroyasu , Iwasa Tsutomu , Kawakami Hisato , Noguchi Kazuo , Shimamoto Takashi , Nakagawa Kazuhiko
Published: March 2016

Background This phase I study evaluated the safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, immunogenicity, and antitumor activity of pembrolizumab in Japanese patients with advanced solid tumors. Methods Following an initial dose and a 28-day rest (cycle 1), pembrolizumab was administered as an intravenous infusion at escalating doses (2 or 10 mg/kg) every 2 weeks (Q2W) until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Adverse events (AEs) were assessed using CTCAE v4.0, and tumor response was assessed using both RECIST v1.1 and immune-related response criteria (irRC). Full pharmacokinetic sampling was performed during cycle 1. Results Three patients received pembrolizumab at 2.0 mg/kg and seven at 10 mg/kg. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed during cycle 1. Eighty percent of patients experienced drug-related AEs (mostly grade 1 or 2); the most common drug-related AEs were nausea, malaise, pyrexia, and aspartate aminotransferase/alanine transaminase (AST/ALT) elevations (n = 2 each). No drug-related grade 4 or 5 AEs occurred. Immune-related AEs comprised grade 3 ALT elevation (n = 1), grade 3 AST elevation (n = 1), grade 1 pneumonitis (n = 1), and grade 1 thyroid-stimulating hormone elevation (n = 1). The safety and pharmacokinetic profiles of Japanese patients were similar to those previously reported for Caucasian patients. A partial tumor response was observed in one patient with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in one patient with melanoma. Conclusions Pembrolizumab at both 2 and 10 mg/kg Q2W was well tolerated in Japanese patients with advanced solid tumors and showed encouraging anti-tumor activity against melanoma and NSCLC.
Granular cell tumor of anal border
Authors: Araújo Angelo Fontes , Vasconcelos Igor Blohem , de Souza Dias Jadeilton Jipso , de Miranda Ferreira Luciano Santana , Andrade Rodrigo Guimarães , Santos Paulo César Boente
Published: March 2016

The objective of this report is to describe a case of granular cell tumor of the anal border and to review the most relevant topics of the literature on the subject. Ours is a female patient, 57 years old, with an asymptomatic nodule in the anal border for 2 years. Surgical excision was performed, with a histopathological diagnosis of granular cell tumor. The first description of this tumor was carried out in 1926 by Abrikossoff. The techniques of immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy allowed us to determine its origin in Schwann cells. These are rare tumors, most often diagnosed between the 4th and 6th decade of life and, in general, are benign formations – only 2% of them are malignant. These tumors can occur in any part of the body, although they are more common in the oral mucosa, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. The treatment solely by surgery has a curative effect, and its recurrence is unusual. The location in the anal/perianal area occurs even more rarely, and we found only 48 cases previously described in the literature.
Analysis of the main surgical techniques for hemorrhoids
Authors: de Freitas Magno Otávio Salgado , Santos Jaciara Aparecida Dias , Figueiredo Maria Fernanda Santos , Sampaio Cristina Andrade
Published: March 2016

Introduction Surgical treatment of hemorrhoidal disease is used in about 5–10% of cases where conservative treatments have not been effective.

Objective To learn the surgical techniques used in the treatment of hemorrhoidal disease grades III and IV in the light of literature.

Methods This is an exploratory study, with an integrative review of literature published from 2009 to 2015 from databases LILACS, SciELO, MEDLINE, PUBMED and the Portal of CAPES, using the following descriptors: “hemorrhoidectomy” and “hemorrhoids”, in the period from March to May 2015.

Results Nineteen articles were selected. In the four more described techniques, the surgical time ranged from 19.58 to 52 min, with relapses from 5%, from 17.5 to 35 min and recurrences of 7.5% to 8.2%, 23–35 min was 20% and 22.5% relapse, 12.5 and 13.2 min, 3.5% of relapses.

Conclusion Conventional techniques are still the most commonly performed with a good acceptance on the long-term resolution and low recurrence rate.
Global engineering services: Shedding light on network capabilities
Authors: Zhang Yufeng , Gregory Mike , Neely Andy
Published: March 2016

This paper addresses the operations challenges of effectively managing professional services on a global scale. The specific context for the study is professional engineering services and particularly those that are delivered globally – global engineering services (GES). Estimates suggest that the market for GES was around US$930 billion in 2012, rising to US$1.4 trillion by 2020 (ISG, 2013). Yet this influential sector receives scant attention in the operations management literature. The paper draws on six case studies to explore the operations management challenges of delivering GES. In doing so the paper introduces the concept of network capabilities for GES, highlighting the centrality that: (i) network resources – accessing and deploying dispersed resources, (ii) network coordination – coordinating and integrating network activities, and (iii) network learning – collective learning and knowledge management, all play in enabling the successful operational management of GES.
Can immediate second resection be an alternative to standardized second transurethral resection of bladder tumors?
Authors: Doğantekin Engin , Girgin Cengiz , Görgel Sacit Nuri , Soylemez Haluk , Dinçel Çetin
Published: March 2016

This study analyzed the impact of an immediate second transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) protocol on residual tumor status at the initial TURBT session and the recurrence rate in the primary resection area. We prospectively evaluated and randomized 47 consecutive patients who underwent TURBT sessions for bladder cancer. In accordance with the inclusion criteria, of the 47 consecutive patients, 19 (Group I) underwent immediate second resection of the tumor bed after complete TUR and 28 (Group II) did not. After standard TURBT, Group I underwent a second cystoscopy and resection of the bed of the tumor or an ignored tumor, which was performed by a different urologist. After 4–6 weeks, delayed second TURB was performed, and all pathological results were evaluated. Tumors were detected in two patients during the immediate second resection. Of these, one was a misdiagnosed tumor, whereas the other was diagnosed at the bed of the tumor by pathological examination. Tumors were detected in nine patients at the delayed second TURB, of which only one was part of Group I, while the others were part of Group II (p = 0.04). The results of this study demonstrated that residual tumors may remain after initial TURB, either in the tumor bed or in a different location within the bladder. Although this was a pilot study enrolling only a small number of patients, our initial results supported the assertion that immediate second resection can be an alternative to standard second TURBT.
Hundred-Joule-level, nanosecond-pulse Nd:glass laser system with high spatiotemporal beam quality
Authors: Li Sensen , Wang Yulei , Lu Zhiwei , Ding Lei , Chen Yi , Du Pengyuan , Ba Dexin , Zheng Zhenxing , Wang Xin , Yuan Hang , Zhu Chengyu , He Weiming , Lin Dianyang , Dong Yongkang , Zhou Dengwang , Bai Zhenxu , Liu Zhaohong , Cui Can
Published: March 2016

A 100-J-level Nd:glass laser system in nanosecond-scale pulse width has been constructed to perform as a standard source of high-fluence-laser science experiments. The laser system, operating with typical pulse durations of 3–5 ns and beam diameter 60 mm, employs a sequence of successive rod amplifiers to achieve 100-J-level energy at 1053 nm at 3 ns. The frequency conversion can provide energy of 50-J level at 351 nm. In addition to the high stability of the energy output, the most valuable of the laser system is the high spatiotemporal beam quality of the output, which contains the uniform square pulse waveform, the uniform flat-top spatial fluence distribution and the uniform flat-top wavefront.
‘A parallel much closer’: the 1918 act of union between Iceland and Denmark and Ireland’s relations with Britain
Authors: Sigurdsson Davíd Logi
Published: March 2016

In his pamphlet The independence of Iceland: a parallel for Ireland, published in June 1921, Alexander McGill, a Scotsman of Irish descent, argued that Irish nationalists could learn salutary lessons from the history of the people of Iceland, not least from their pertinacity, since the Icelanders had never wavered in their demands for independence from the kingdom of Denmark. McGill went so far as to say that Icelandic history could be used to justify the strategy of Irish nationalists, who were at the time making a last stand in their bloody and violent war of independence. ‘Iceland is a small land, but a very interesting one, and her people understand Ireland’s demands and rights. She understands the problem of the Irish people, because Iceland as a nation has been evolved from similar beginnings.’
Missionaries of science: provincial lectures in nineteenth-century Ireland
Authors: Leaney Enda
Published: March 2016

For social reformers in nineteenth-century Ireland, science had an important role to play in national development. Non-denominational or secular education was targeted by the government as a possible panacea for the Irish problem, submerging sectarian and political differences. In order to promote this secular ethos, the government established agencies such as the Board of National Education (B.N.E.) in 1831 and the Queen’s Colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway in 1845. Science seemed to be an area of discourse particularly appropriate to the promotion of economic prosperity and social harmony through the common cause of education. The rhetoric of cultural transcendence was long associated with the advancement of science — from the Royal Society of London (1660) to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1831) — and took root in nineteenth-century Ireland.
The Irish Anti-Partition League and the political realities of partition, 1945–9
Authors: Lynn Brendan
Published: March 2016

At the end of the 1960s the outbreak of widespread civil unrest in Northern Ireland forced the authorities in London and Dublin into confronting an issue which had seemingly been settled some time before. The emergence of the Civil Rights movement among the minority community and the reaction of unionist opinion to it had set in motion a series of events that were to raise once again the whole topic of partition. Yet for a short time in the period immediately following the Second World War it looked as if this subject was, to the delight of some and the dismay of others, about to re-emerge. One of the elements behind this development was the establishment by northern nationalists in 1945 of an organisation called the Irish Anti-Partition League (I.A.P.L.). The formation of the I.A.P.L. was significant on a number of grounds.
Football and sectarianism in Glasgow during the 1920s and 1930s
Authors: Davies Andrew
Published: March 2016

Of all the cities of England and Scotland, Glasgow is most widely associated with sectarianism. As Bill Murray has remarked, the city is renowned for its religion, violence and football, three elements which crystallise in the uniquely bitter encounters between the city’s two major football clubs, Rangers and Celtic. The clubs are identified as ‘Protestant’ and ‘Catholic’ respectively, although, as Tom Gallagher has commented, supporters’ allegiances tend to be more tribal than doctrinal. Religion is inextricably bound up with nationalism in these sporting contests.
Federalism, devolution and partition: Sir Edward Carson and the search for a compromise on the Third Home Rule Bill, 1913–14
Authors: Smith Jeremy
Published: March 2016

Four days after the dramatic launch of the anti-home rule campaign at Craigavon on 23 September 1911, where Sir Edward Carson was ‘delivered to his people’, Fred Oliver, a keen Unionist, passionate federalist and peddler of various constructive political initiatives, wrote to Geoffrey Robinson, editor ofThe Times.In the course of a long and pessimistic letter he expressed deep distress at the violent tone adopted by Carson at Craigavon, admitting that ‘he was glad to see theIrish Timeshas been “pole-axing” Carson and co’ and imploring Robinson to criticise similarly ‘all this Ulster shouting and drum-beating and treasonable Tom Foolery’.
British intelligence and the Anglo-Irish truce, July–December 1921
Authors: McMahon Paul
Published: March 2016

Conspiracy theories have always accompanied the shadowy and ambiguous interventions of British intelligence in Irish affairs. Commentators in Ireland often accuse British intelligence and security agencies of being stubbornly hostile to Irish nationalist aspirations and inclined to oppose, and even sabotage, official British peace initiatives This attitude has a long heritage and can be traced back to the Anglo-Irish treaty negotiations in 1921. There was a widespread belief in Irish nationalist circles that intelligence officers were exercising a baleful influence on British politicians: at one point during the negotiations Michael Collins angrily brandished a warlike British military intelligence document that had fallen into his hands and claimed that the army was working to destroy the truce.
The fifth earl of Clanricarde and the founding of the Confederate Catholic government, 1641–3
Authors: Debe Demetri D.
Published: March 2016

Ulick Burke, fifth earl of Clanricarde, presents a compelling character. His connections crossed the sectarian boundaries as well as the national borders of the Stuart kingdoms. He was the half brother of the earl of Essex, a prominent English noble, and later a general for the parliamentary cause. In fact, Clanricarde was one of very few of Charles I’s subjects who had gained footing in more than one of the Stuart kingdoms. He had significant landholdings in both England and Ireland, inheriting not only the Clanricarde and St Albans earldoms from his father, Richard Burke, but also following in the fourth earl’s footsteps as an important figure in the court of Charles I. The foundation was laid for many of his achievements by the fourth earl’s unwavering commitment to establishing himself as an English noble. However, the fifth earl eclipsed his father’s success at court when appointed an English Privy Counsellor in 1641.
Irish Free State newspapers and the Abyssinian crisis, 1935–6
Authors: McMahon Cian
Published: March 2016

Twenty-four years ago, Terence Brown raised very few eyebrows when he portrayed the Irish Free State in the 1930s as an insular society obsessed with self-sufficiency. The theme of insularity has dominated most narratives of the period, with emphasis on the Anglo-Irish Economic War, the Censorship Board and the 1937 Constitution. The de Valera government’s intention in the Economic War, after all, was to create native industries behind high-tariff barriers and to favour agricultural labourers by shifting the tillage/pasture ratio in Ireland in favour of crop production. This protectionist programme was insularity writ large. Likewise, the government’s censorship of domestic and imported literature ‘concelebrated’, according to J. J. Lee, ‘the intellectual poverty of the period’.
The limits of diplomatic pressure: Operation Safehaven and the search for German assets in Ireland
Authors: Hale Korcaighe P.
Published: March 2016

The Allies developed Operation Safehaven towards the end of the Second World War in order to prevent a Nazi resurgence after the war. The overall goal of the programme was to create a census of German assets all over the world, with a particular focus on the European countries that had been neutral during the war. In addition to preventing the Nazis from regrouping, the idea also emerged among its developers that Safehaven could be employed to gather money for reparations to the victors and as compensation to Nazi victims. The process of persuading the neutrals to count and collect German assets proved lengthy, not least because Safehaven lacked an enforcement mechanism. There was little legal precedent for the Allies’ request to neutral and sovereign nations for assistance in their efforts. The negotiations with the various neutrals continued for years; in some cases, certain amounts of restitution were not paid until the 1990s.
Select document: Exchequer malpractice in late medieval Ireland: a petition from Christopher Fleming, Lord Slane, 1438
Authors: Mercer Malcolm
Published: March 2016

Preserved amongst the Chancery masters’ exhibits at the National Archives of the U.K., formerly known as the Public Record Office, is a box of documents concerning the Fleming family, Lords Slane, in Ireland. These papers, dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, relate primarily to a protracted inheritance dispute between the heirs male and heirs general of Christopher Fleming, Lord Slane, who died in 1458. This case had been brought into the English Chancery because the family were also landowners in Devon and Cornwall, and it had then rumbled on for decades. Within this box, however, there is also a parchment roll containing a number of entries relating to their Irish lands. The eighth item on this roll is especially interesting.
Patriots and politics in Navan, 1753–5
Authors: Fleming David A.
Published: March 2016

The structure and nature of the electoral system in Hanoverian Ireland remains an under-explored aspect of Irish political history. A number of older works remain influential, partly because they have not been superseded by modern studies. Of these, Edward and Annie Porritt’sThe unreformed House of Commonsstands out. In a section on the parliamentary representation in Ireland, the Porritts examined the differences between the British and Irish systems, contrasting the more open and generally progressive British system to that of a closed and restricted Irish one, where the Protestant political elite maintained a firm grip on local power and preferment. While now superseded for England, the Porritts’ thesis remained -and to some extent remains - popular among Irish historians.
‘The great war correspondent’: Francis McCullagh, 1874–1956
Authors: Horgan John
Published: March 2016

Trotsky of Russia knows Francis McCullagh. So does President Calles of Mexico. Peter, the King of Serbia, was McCullagh’s friend. The headhunters of the upper Amazon list Francis McCullagh as one of their principal deities. The warring tribes of Morocco call him blood brother. A room is always ready for him in the imperial palace of Siam. The latchstrings of hundreds of Siberian peasant huts are out in anticipation of his coming.
Accounting for the emergence of violent activism among Irish revolutionaries, 1916–21
Authors: Augusteijn Joost
Published: March 2016

Why certain Irishmen came to use violence to obtain their political objectives during the Anglo-Irish War of 1919–21 has proved a difficult question. A number of local studies of the experience of volunteers, following the example of David Fitzpatrick, have provided insights into the process of radicalisation but have not dealt with this aspect of the subject explicitly. A more systematic approach has been taken in the attempt to explain the strong variations in the intensity of activity throughout the country. What caused these variations has indeed been a matter of contention ever since the Anglo-Irish War itself. Michael Collins often voiced complaints about ‘slack’ areas in language that left little to the imagination. Since the publication of Erhard Rumpf’sNationalismus und Sozialismus in Irlandin 1959 historians have sought to explain the unequal distribution of violence by comparing the level of I.R.A. activity in a particular county with certain geographically distributed social and economic variables. Hitherto these attempts have been unable to produce a full explanation for regional variations.
Venereal disease in the Irish Free State: the politics of public health
Authors: Riordan Susannah
Published: March 2016

In his article ‘Venereal disease and the politics of prostitution in the Irish Free State’ Philip Howell argues that in 1926, following the submission of the Report of the interdepartmental committee of inquiry regarding venereal disease, the Irish government was confronted with ‘a series of proposals to regulate prostitution in the Free State’ These proposals are associated with the influence brought to bear by the army on the committee’s deliberations, and it is suggested that this preferred military solution to venereal disease falls into a European pattern in which state formation was frequently accompanied by such regulation. The example of Italy is offered as the most pertinent. However, Howell suggests, the government rejected the regulation of prostitution in favour of ‘a moral regulation of sexuality marked by elements of Catholic social purity’.
Introduction
Authors: Sinclair Georgina
Published: March 2016

Contributions to this special issue of Irish Historical Studies come under the dedicated theme of ‘Ireland and the British Empire-Commonwealth’. The papers originate from a workshop entitled ‘Ireland and empire’ that took place at the University of Leeds in March 2005. One of the key objectives behind the organisation of this workshop was to bring together specialists in British, Irish and imperial and Commonwealth history with an interest in the wide-ranging debates linked to the issue of ‘Ireland and empire’. At the workshop, the papers presented a range of topics within the context of literature and the arts; agriculture and industry; metropolitan politics and diplomacy. The overarching theme was the ‘Irish experience’ within an ‘interconnected British world’ during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Marx on nineteenth-century colonial Ireland: analysing colonialism as a dynamic social process
Authors: Slater Eamonn , McDonough Terrence
Published: March 2016

Discussion of the relationship between Ireland and colonialism has often revolved around similarities and differences between the Irish situation and other, more iconic, examples of colonised societies. This tendency has been partially encouraged by the prominence within Marxian scholarship of dependency theory, which contends that the underdevelopment of colonial societies is due primarily to their integration into the capitalist world economic system. In this analysis, all colonised societies can be characterised by this integration into world capitalism, and consequently share a common source of exploitation and disadvantage. This perspective has often located its source in Marx’s writings on India and, crucially for our current concern, Ireland. This article explores a different perspective on colonialism which the authors believe can be found in Marx’s consideration of the Irish situation.
The 1830 budget and repeal: Parliament and public opinion in Ireland
Authors: McElroy Martin
Published: March 2016

During the budget speech of 1830, Henry Goulburn, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced: ‘On the people of that country [Ireland] the same stamp duties will be imposed as are imposed here.’ The government planned ‘to assimilate the laws relating to the stamp duties in different parts of the empire to place the management of the whole of that branch of the revenue under the Stamp-Office in England.’ This proposal was one of several announced by Goulburn to counter the economic slump that the United Kingdom was experiencing after a number of poor harvests. Along with specific measures designed to relieve distress, the Wellington government aimed at ensuring there was no loss of revenue in order to prevent further government borrowing.
The reform of the undertaker system: Anglo-Irish politics, 1750–67
Authors: Powell Martyn J.
Published: March 2016

Thomas Bartlett, in his Ph.D. thesis of 1979 and subsequent articles, highlighted deficiencies in the accepted interpretation of the administration of Lord Townshend. Bartlett challenged the widely held view that the constant residency of the Irish lord lieutenant was imposed by order of the British government. He argued that the decision was taken by Townshend himself and that it was unconnected with the meeting of George Grenville’s cabinet in February 1765, when it was determined that constant residency should be imposed at the earliest possible opportunity. Moreover, Bartlett rejected the existence of a linear approach to policy-making by the British government. He contended that constant residency was the result of opportunism and not evolution of policy.

The significance of the alteration to the lord lieutenant’s period of residence lay in the challenge it posed to the undertaker system. Constant residency promised centralisation of British authority and the erosion of the power wielded by the Irish magnates. The undertaker system was sustained by the effective distribution of patronage to a select few members of the higher echelons of the Irish gentry — men who transformed this patronage along with their own status and power at borough level into control over blocs of M.P.s in the Irish House of Commons. These blocs were transferred to the support of the lord lieutenant in order to facilitate the passing of government legislation. J. L. McCracken argued that this system emerged as the most suitable method of controlling parliament after the Wood’s Halfpence crisis of the early 1720s. However, subsequent research by David Hayton refuted this claim, arguing that a recognisable form of the undertaker system existed in Ireland before this episode.
Sir James Craig and the constrution of Parliament Buildings at Stormont
Authors: Greer Alan
Published: March 2016

Architecture has its political uses: public buildings being the ornament of a country; it establishes a nation, draws people and commerce, makes the people love their native country, which passion is the original of all great actions in a Commonwealth.

Sir Christopher Wren

When the prince of Wales formally opened the new Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings at Stormont on 16 November 1932, it brought to an end over ten years of controversy, delay, confusion, and wrangling over both finance and design. Although approval to build a new parliament house and administrative offices was given in the autumn of 1922, and preliminary work began on the site in 1923, the above-ground foundation stone was not laid until 1928, and the departmental offices were not occupied until April 1931. There is an extensive literature which stresses the political significance of the architecture of civic and public buildings such as parliament houses, law-courts, government offices and even theatres. Other writers have noted the linkages between architecture, empire, nationalism and state formation. Thomas Metcalf commented that distinctive architectural forms ‘sought to manifest the ideals of imperialism’ and were designed to enhance ‘the hold of Empire over ruler and ruled alike’. For architects such as Herbert Baker, classical design, with its monumentality and ideals of law, order and government, was the only architectural form appropriate for the representation of empire. This was an architecture which gave a ‘visible shape to the new imperialism of the turn of the twentieth century’.
Review article: Reclaiming the rebellion: 1798 in 1998
Authors: McBride Ian
Published: March 2016

Few Irish men and women can have escaped the mighty wave of anniversary fever which broke over the island in the spring of 1998. As if atoning for the failed rebellion itself, the bicentenary of 1798 was neither ill-coordinated nor localised, but a genuinely national phenomenon produced by years of planning and organisation. Emissaries were dispatched from Dublin and Belfast to remote rural communities, and the resonant names of Bartlett, Whelan, Keogh and Graham were heard throughout the land; indeed, the commemoration possessed an international dimension which stretched to Boston, New York, Toronto, Liverpool, London and Glasgow. In bicentenary Wexford — complete with ’98 Heritage Trail and ’98 Village — the values of democracy and pluralism were triumphantly proclaimed. When the time came, the north did not hesitate, but participated enthusiastically. Even the French arrived on cue, this time on bicycle. Just as the 1898 centenary, which contributed to the revitalisation of physical-force nationalism, has now become an established subject in its own right, future historians will surely scrutinise this mother of all anniversaries for evidence concerning the national pulse in the era of the Celtic Tiger and the Good Friday Agreement. In the meantime a survey of some of the many essay collections and monographs published during the bicentenary will permit us to hazard a few generalisations about the current direction of what might now be termed ‘Ninety-Eight Studies’.
Review article: Cohesion and diversity in the Irish diaspora
Authors: Doyle David Noel
Published: March 2016

Ireland’s uses of knowledge of the diaspora, much matured since the 1950s, now provide two master images from which to approach it: diversity and cohesion. On 2 February 1995 President Mary Robinson pinpointed its diversity as embodying the multifaceted nature of native Irish identities, and as a makeweight in domestic argument and experiment as to the recognition and acceptance of those identities. In March 1998 President Mary McAleese spoke of ‘our global Irish family’; she accepted such diversity, but sought its reintegration in a master image of cohesion, one obtaining both at home and abroad. The new Article 2 of the Irish constitution states that ‘The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.’

In each case, desired standards are merged with claimed realities as to the diaspora. But any such emphasis whether on cohesion or diversity among the overseas Irish matches a growing body of work on the diaspora itself, much of it by the scholars within those communities. Critical work on this scale has not appeared before now. In the past collective work of this kind typically consisted of reprints and dissertations. One might question whether this scholarship answers the external burdens placed upon it.

The manpower alone here involved would suggest so. Over two hundred writers produce the Irish diaspora subjects in the four works here reviewed. And two of the editors, O’Sullivan, born in Kilmallock in 1944, a youthful migrant to Britain, and Glazier, an adult migrant to America, both epitomise the curiosity and enterprise of the newer emigrant scholars.
The collapse of the Gaelic world, 1450–1650
Authors: Ellis Steven G.
Published: March 2016

This article offers some reflections on the processes of nation-making and state formation as they affected the oldest ethnic and cultural grouping in the British Isles, that of theGaedhil,roughly in the period 1450–1650, and examines the ways in which these processes have been portrayed by historians. At the present day the Gaelic language remains the normal medium of communication in small areas of western Ireland and western Scotland; and in respect of political developments in both Scotland and Ireland, Gaelic customs and culture have exercised a much more substantial influence. Despite these similarities, there remain significant differences between British and Irish historians in the ways in which the Gaelic contribution to nation-making and state formation have been presented.

A basic distinction advanced by historians both of Ireland and Scotland has been one between the Gaelic peoples inhabiting Ireland and those resident in Scotland. It can be argued that this may reflect the relative importance of the Gaelic contribution to the making of two separate kingdoms, and ultimately two separate states; but it also means that the wider process of interaction and assimilation betweenGaedhilandGaillis split into separate Irish and Scottish experiences. In theory, these two Gaelic experiences should provide material for a comparative study of a particularly illuminating kind, but in practice other historiographical influences have generally militated against this kind of comparative history. One such is the more marginal position of Gaelic studies within Scottish historiography than is the case in Ireland. Considering that half of Scotland was still Gaelic-speaking in 1700, for instance, it is remarkable how few Scottish historians seem able to make use of Gaelic sources. Another is the practice of establishing separate departments of history in the universities for the teaching of national history. This has meant, for instance, that students are usually taught that portion of theGaedhil/Gaillinteraction process which relates to the ‘nation’ by specialist teachers of national history. Yet, since these national surveys reflect modern nations and modern national boundaries, students are trained to study Irishmen and Scots in the making rather than to consider how the inhabitants of late medieval Gaeldom might have viewed developments in the wider Gaelic world. Arguably, behind these approaches lies the influence of the modern nation-state. Scotland and Northern Ireland remain part of a multi-national British state which is dominated by England.
Irish migration to England in the late middle ages: the evidence of 1394 and 1440
Authors: Bolton J. L.
Published: March 2016

In 1440, for the first and only time in the late middle ages, the Irish in England were treated as aliens for taxation purposes. At the Reading session of the parliament of 1439–40 the Commons had granted an alien subsidy. It was a poll tax, to be paid at the rate of 16d. per head by householders and at 6d. per head by non-householders, by all those either not born in England or Wales or who did not have letters of denization, that is, naturalisation. Men of religious obedience and children under the age of twelve were also exempted, as were alien women married to English or Welsh men. The grant was to last for three years, and the first assessments were to be made around Easter 1440 for a tax to be collected in two parts, at Easter and the following Michaelmas. Caught in the tax net were Gascons and Normans, Bretons and Flemings, Scots and Channel Islanders, French and Italians, Spanish and Portuguese, the occasional Icelander, Swede and Finn — and the Irish. Like all new taxes, it met with resistance, and pressure groups such as the Genoese and Hanseatic merchants were soon able to claim exemption by virtue of their charters. There were also protests from Ireland. The earl of Ormond, as head of the Dublin administration, pointed out to the king that this was something new and asked Henry VI that Englishmen born in Ireland should have the same rights and freedom as Englishmen born in England.
Irish merchants and seamen in late medieval England
Authors: Childs Wendy R.
Published: March 2016

Most studies of Anglo-Irish relations in the middle ages understandably concentrate on the activity of the English in Ireland, and unintentionally but inevitably this can leave the impression that the movement of people was all one way. But this was not so, and one group who travelled in the opposite direction were some of the merchants and seamen involved in the Anglo-Irish trade of the period. Irish merchants and seamen travelled widely and could be found in Iceland, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Brittany and Flanders, but probably their most regular trade remained with their closest neighbour and political overlord: England. They visited most western and southern English ports, but inevitably were found most frequently in the west, especially at Chester and Bristol. The majority of them stayed for a few days or weeks, as long as their business demanded. Others settled permanently in England, or, perhaps more accurately, re-settled in England, for those who came to England both as settlers and visitors were mainly the Anglo-Irish of the English towns in Ireland and not the Gaelic Irish. This makes it difficult to estimate accurately the numbers of both visitors and settlers, because the status of the Anglo-Irish was legally that of denizen, and record-keepers normally had no reason to identify them separately. They may, therefore, be hard to distinguish from native Englishmen of similar name outside the short periods when governments (central or urban) temporarily sought to restrict their activities. However, the general context within which they worked is quite clear, and this article considers three main aspects of that context: first, the pattern of the trade which attracted Irish merchants to England; second, the role of the Irish merchants and seamen in the trade; and third, examples of individual careers of merchants and seamen who settled in England.
Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish propaganda war
Authors: Doherty M. A.
Published: March 2016

Most Irish people, when asked what they know of the life and death of Kevin Barry, will pause for a moment while they recall the words of a famously maudlin ballad. A few points will emerge: ‘a lad of eighteen summers’ … ‘British soldiers tortured Barry’ … ‘refused to turn informer’ … ‘hanged him like a dog’ … ‘another martyr for old Ireland, another murder for the crown’. That they know anything at all about Kevin Barry is testimony, among other things, to the power of popular music for the making of political propaganda. Along with Father Murphy, Seán South and Fergal O’Hanlon, Kevin Barry figures in the pantheon of nationalist Ireland’s popular historical heroes, largely because somebody happened to write a good song about him. In many ways this is unfortunate, for Barry and the rest were once living people, and the process of iconographifying them in popular balladry, like all forms of political propaganda, serves not to clarify their roles in the historical events in which they played a part, but rather to obscure and distort them. So it is worth reconsidering the story of Kevin Barry, for a number of reasons. To begin with, his short life reached its climax at a vital moment in the long struggle for Irish self-government, a moment when the violence unleashed in 1916 burst forth again with renewed savagery on both British and Irish sides, involving in the Barry case the deaths of four young men aged between fifteen and twenty.
The Ulster Volunteer Force and the formation of the 36th (Ulster) Division
Authors: Bowman Timothy
Published: March 2016

Traditional accounts of the establishment of the 36th (Ulster) Division in October 1914 suggest that this unit was formed purely from the pre-war U.V.F. Writing in 1922, Cyril Falls (himself an officer in both the U.V.F. and the 36th Division) declared:

The Ulster Division was not created in a day. The roots from which it sprang went back into the troubled period before the war. Its life was a continuance of the life of an earlier legion, a legion of civilians banded together to protect themselves from the consequences of legislation which they believed would affect adversely their rights and privileges as citizens of the United Kingdom.

Modern historians have echoed this view. Tom Johnstone, for example, has
noted that ‘the battalions of the (36th) Division, based on the Ulster Volunteer Force (U.V.F.) order of battle, had been in existence since before the war’. Meanwhile Philip Orr has even suggested that the 36th Division was a ‘covenanting army’, all its members supposedly having signed the Ulster Covenant opposing home rule. In this article the validity of these claims will be considered, particularly with regard to the continuity in personnel and equipment between the U.V.F. and the 36th Division and the military efficiency that the formation had achieved by the time it arrived on the Western Front.
The Carrigan Committee of 1930-31 and the ‘moral condition of the Saorstát’
Authors: Finnane Mark
Published: March 2016

The character of modern Ireland after partition has long been the subject of debate, by columnists, poets, novelists and historians. John Whyte’s outstanding study of the process by which what he called the ‘Catholic moral code’ became enshrined in the ‘law of the state’ summarised the ‘remarkable consensus’ achieved in the years 1923-37, a time when there was ‘overwhelming agreement that traditional Catholic values should be maintained, if necessary by legislation’. Based on personal reminiscences and published documents, Whyte’s contribution is of enduring value to those seeking to understand the culture of modern Ireland. His account is even more impressive when read against the background of materials which have more recently become available in the National Archives. These enable some of the detail to be filled in, but they also provoke some new questions about the state of the country and the means by which a peaceable Ireland was to be constructed in the aftermath of a war of independence and a civil war.
Providence and posterity: a letter from Lord Mountnorris to his daughter, 1642
Authors: Little Patrick
Published: March 2016

The political career of Sir Francis Annesley, Lord Mountnorris, is well known to historians. A first-generation settler, he held plantation lands in Ulster and Munster; as vice-treasurer of Ireland he became a rival of the Boyle faction in the Dublin administration in the early 1630s; and after a spectacular fall from grace in 1635 he became one of Lord Deputy Wentworth’s bitterest enemies and spoke against him at his trial in 1641. Yet, unlike his rival, the first earl of Cork, there is little information about Mountnorris’s personal attitudes, his religious views or his family life, other than what can be gleaned from official sources, and from the (mainly hostile) comments of contemporaries. The discovery, therefore, of a cache of family papers in the Public Record Office at Kew provides a unique opportunity to flesh out the bones of his political career. It also allows a comparison between the Annesleys and the Boyles, whose extensive archive has moulded our view of the New English in general. Perhaps the most interesting of these documents is Mountnorris’s letter to his daughter, Beatrice Zouche, dated 5 February 1641[/2], in which he outlines how he expects her to order her day with prayer and meditation and domestic concerns appropriate for a godly matron. This letter reveals a great deal about Mountnorris’s own religious beliefs and his attitudes to his children, and provides some important clues about the mindset of the New English in Ireland.