bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reflection and Comment: Health GIS in the mid-west: Unexpected developments and directions
Authors: Houghton Frank
Published: January 2024

The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to address health issues is growing rapidly internationally. In Ireland, however, health GIS remains in its infancy. Nonetheless, significant progress has been made recently in one former Health Board in connection with developments in primary care. This project has dramatically increased the profile of GIS in health circles within the region. However, concerns emerged around with the growing professionalisation of the GIS function during this project. These included the tendency to hire GIS experts from technical, rather than social science backgrounds, and the conceptualisation of GIS in senior circles as a management control tool. Health (Medical) Geographers need to decide whether they wish to oppose the introduction of GIS in Irish health circles, ignore it, or actively try to lead and influence developments in this field. This last option is proposed to ensure that GIS remains a tool for exploring, identifying, highlighting and combating inequalities in health status,. healthcare provision and healthcare access.
Changing religions in the Republic of Ireland, 1991-2002
Authors: Gillmor Desmond A.
Published: January 2024

In contrast with Northern Ireland, there has been little study by geographers of religion in the Republic of Ireland. The consistent trend in religions, as recorded at the Census of Population, had involved an increasingly very high level of Roman Catholic affiliation and a continuous decline in the share of minority denominations. The 1991-2002 intercensal period marked a striking reversal of this trend, with substantial expansion and diversification of the minority religions sector. The nature and spatial patterns of these changes are considered. Attention is given to factors that might have had an influence on them, comprising the census questions and answers, migration, natural demographic change and age structure, households of mixed religions and religious mobility. The changing religious structure of its population is a part of what might be considered to be a shift towards a multicultural society in the Republic of Ireland.
Shooting Ireland: the American tourism market and promotional film
Authors: Meaney Sheila , Robb John
Published: January 2024

The 1950s emerges as a key decade in the development of modem Irish tourism. This paper explores the interplay of romantic and nostalgic images of Ireland with the opening of the Irish tourist market to a wider audience through the medium of film. Irish American influence is clearly seen in the projection of a traditional, rural lifestyle. Though dominant culturally, mid-century Irish American visitors tended to belong to the 'visiting friends and relations' category, less lucrative than the general vacation market. The early promotion of 'non-genealogical' American tourism can be seen to extend to European markets later. Ironically, American finance and advice tended to confirm pre-independence places, tastes and activities rather than nationalist alternatives.
The interface between the Gaelic clan system of Co. Clare and the emerging centralising English nation-state in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century
Authors: Nugent Patrick
Published: January 2024

At the beginning of the sixteenth century a clan-based system still informed Co. Clare society. Such a societal system had an inherent flexibility that allowed it to adapt to changing internal and external circumstances. This ability appeared to work in its favour in the context of its engagement with the feudal world. However, the collapse of feudalism and the emergence of a market-based economy seriously undermined this system. There was a distinct geography to this collapse, which can be interpreted using Dodgshon's hypothesis on the tensions between fundamental differences within a society towards the maintenance or abandonment of a particular ideology and its impact on societal change and the consequent emergence of zones of inertia and unused freedoms. A detailed analysis of the inquisitions post mortem 1577-1637 reveals the varied responses of the different clans to these changing socio-economic and political circumstances providing a suitable opportunity to broaden our understanding of the dynamics of societal change during this key period.
Policy approaches to developing the region in the Information Age: evidence from Ireland and Europe
Authors: Collins Patrick
Published: January 2024

This paper interrogates the use and application of the term 'Information Society' in policy-making circles and beyond. It analyses how the concept has been employed both in Brussels and Dublin as a catchall term in relation to social and economic transformations bought about by new technologies. It traces the co-evolution of theory and policy making from its origins in industry to its more recent application in the social sphere. The European Commission's Regional Information Society Initiative was seen as a significant shift in EU policy of enabling regions to adapt to the information age. The institutional approach to developing the region from the 'bottom-up' came from 'Brusselsdown' and ran in conjunction with other regional and national programmes. This approach is then contrasted with the Irish development model which is characterised by the presence of large foreign-owned technology operations and what can best be described as a neoliberal-inspired approach to development in the information age.
EU structural funding in Ireland's capital city: Europeanization and regeneration in Dublin, 1989-2003
Authors: Marshall Adam
Published: January 2024

Fifteen years of European Structural Funding have profoundly impacted the built environment, community-based regeneration programmes and governance norms in Ireland's capital. This article argues that a process of Europeanization catalysed by the Structural Funds has altered the way that local actors approach physical and socio-economic urban regeneration projects. At the same time, however, the article notes that European adaptational pressures have not resulted in large-scale local governance change. After laying out examples of Europeanization in the Dublin conurbation, the article engages in a lesson drawing exercise to determine how Dublin's experience with the Structural Funds can point the way forward for beneficiary city-regions in new EU Member-States.
Reviews
Authors: Rour Joanne , Hourihane Jim
Published: January 2024

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY: Sustainability, Policy and the Citizen by Stewart Barr, Hampshire, UK & Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. 296pp. €65 (Hardback) ISBN 978–0‐7546–4343–2PEOPLE AND PLACE: A Census Atlas of the Republic of Ireland, edited by James A. Walsh. Maynooth: National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), 2007. 341 pp., €50 (hardback) ISBN 978–0‐9015–1938–2.
Statistical downscaling of temperature, radiation and potential evapotranspiration to produce a multiple GCM ensemble mean for a selection of sites in Ireland
Authors: Fealy Rowan , Sweeney John
Published: January 2024

Irish climate is experiencing changes which have been found to be consistent with those occurring at a global scale. Consequently there is now growing confidence that these changes are largely attributable to global warming. Based on the data from four long-term monitoring, synoptic stations, between 1890 and 2004, mean annual temperatures in Ireland rose by 0.7°C. In the absence of strict emissions controls, a doubling of global atmospheric concentrations of CO2 is likely by the end of the twenty-first century. As a consequence, global temperatures are projected to increase by between 1.8°C and 4°C over the same period depending on the climate sensitivity to increased levels of greenhouse gases. In order to determine the likely impact on Irish temperatures and related climatic variables, this paper illustrates a technique for downscaling Global Climate Model (GCM) output for a selection of sites in Ireland. Results of a weighted ensemble mean, derived from multiple GCMs, are presented in an attempt to address some of the various uncertainties inherent in climate modelling. Projected changes in selected indices of temperature extremes are also presented for a high emissions scenario (A2), as changes in extremes are likely to have a larger and more immediate impact on human society than changes in the mean climate state.
Quantifying the viability of farming in Ireland: can decoupling address the regional imbalances?
Authors: Hennessy Thia , Shrestha Shailesh , Farrell Maura
Published: January 2024

Irish agriculture has undergone fundamental transformations in the last two decades. A growing divergence between farming and non-farming incomes and a significant increase in part-time farming have led to intense debates surrounding the future viability of the Irish farmer. Irrespective of such deliberations, agriculture still remains an important employer and contributor to the regional economies of Ireland, a factor that is discussed in this paper. An analysis of the financial performance of farms shows that the regions that rely most on agriculture as an employer have the most economically and physically disadvantaged farms. The paper examines the role of agricultural policy in addressing this regional imbalance. In particular, the recent decoupling policy is examined. The results of economic models suggest that the decoupling reform increases the viability of farming in Ireland across all regions. However, the decision to implement the historical decoupled payment scheme has served to perpetuate the economic disadvantages of farming in the western half of the country.
Embeddedness and innovation in low and medium technology rural enterprises
Authors: Heanue Kevin P. , Jacobson David
Published: January 2024

There has been a resurgence of interest in the relationship between location and the innovativeness of firms. The research question addressed in this paper is the role that location plays in the innovation processes of low and medium technology firms. The literature on innovation and geographic proximity, combined with a reconceptualisation of the Granovetterian concept of embeddedness, provide the theoretical context. Case studies of four Irish low and medium technology firms, two in the furniture industry and two in the metal products industry, provide the empirical setting. Among the issues addressed are whether or not deep, local embeddedness is essential for innovativeness and if there is a pattern of change over time in the nature of the relationship between embeddedness and innovation. The relevance of the research to rural industrial development is also assessed.
Revisiting contemporary Irish migration: new geographies of mobility and belonging
Authors: Gilmartin Mary , White Allen
Published: January 2024

Though immigration has become one of the key issues facing Irish society, geographers in Ireland have been slow to respond. This is despite a long tradition of studying migration, particularly emigration, within Irish geography. This is even more surprising given recent developments within the discipline, as geography moves to assert its centrality to the study of international migration. This paper outlines the ways in which geographers in Ireland could contribute to broader debates about migration, both empirically and theoretically. It also introduces the five papers in this special issue of the journal, which provide a comprehensive overview of research on Irish migration, as well as detailed discussions of Irish migration to the UK, return migration and migration to Ireland from Poland, China and Nigeria.
Immigration into the Republic of Ireland: a bibliography of recent research
Authors: Einrı Piaras Mac , White Allen
Published: January 2024

Until relatively recently, research on migration to the Republic of Ireland has been limited to a handful of texts. As immigration into Ireland has increased over the last decade, so has the volume of published research exploring this phenomenon, with a significant increase in the number of published research reports, policy studies and submissions, conference proceedings, monographs, academic papers, book chapters and theses. However the piecemeal and often ad hoc nature of the growth of this bibliography presents specific problems for both researchers and participants. This paper draws together a comprehensive (though not exhaustive) bibliography of research into immigration in Ireland. The bibliography is organised into a typology of research on migration into Ireland by considering the existing corpus of work under nine headings. The paper concludes by highlighting the potential contribution that human geography can offer to our understandings of the processes and dimensions of migration to twenty-first century Ireland.
From ‘flood’ to ‘trickle’: Irish migration to Britain 1987
Authors: Walter Bronwen
Published: January 2024

A dramatic change in the size and direction of emigration from Ireland has taken place over the past 20 years. The most striking feature is the sharp decline in movement to Britain from the Republic of Ireland, a traditional supplier of labour for well over 200 years. By contrast there has been a small increase in emigration from Northern Ireland, an important element of which is higher education students from Protestant backgrounds, who may be permanent migrants. Detailed statistics available from the Central Statistics Office of the Republic of Ireland show that proportionately more women have left as gross numbers have declined. This reflects the persistence of social, rather than predominantly economic, causes of emigration, also evident in the range of socially excluded people for whom Britain represents a ‘safety valve’. Two groups now characterise the Irish population in Britain; the ageing 1950s cohort and their children and grandchildren, the large second and third generations.
Target earning/learning, settling or trampolining? Polish and Chinese immigrants in Ireland
Authors: King-O’Riain Rebecca Chiyoko
Published: January 2024

This article provides a theoretical and an empirical analysis of the migration patterns and experiences of Chinese and Polish migrants in order to understand the human geography of these movements and the qualitative parameters and dimensions of contemporary migration into Ireland. Using theories of transnationalism, I argue that there are three general types of immigrant transnational orientations in the interviewees studied: target earners, target learners and trampoliners. Immigrant abilities to imagine a future in Ireland were shaped in large part by structural conditions such as: their visa status, race, gender and class backgrounds, the ability to move across borders freely, educational backgrounds and occupational skills. Their orientations were often expressed in terms of their communication with home, Ireland and many countries in between, through the use of digital media and technology.
An urban–rural classification for health services research in Ireland
Authors: Teljeur Conor , Kelly Alan
Published: January 2024

To analyse small area variation in health status and outcomes, it is important to understand area type and the degree to which an area is urban or rural. The previous urban-rural classification for Ireland was based on a simple dichotomy which ignored the range of settlement and area types. Multiple data sources including population density, settlement size and land-use were used to develop a new urban-rural classification for small areas in Ireland. This classification provides better distinction between the variety of settlement types that exist than the simple dichotomous classification. Comparison using proxies for socio-economic and health status shows how the various classes are distinctive. This classification provides a useful new tool for Irish health research.
Sympathies, apathies and antipathies: the Falls–Shankill Divide
Authors: Shirlow Peter
Published: January 2024

Fred Boal’s paper, entitled ‘Territoriality on the Shankill-Falls Divide, Belfast’, written in 1969, has stood the test of time and remains cited to this day. That paper aimed to look at activity patterns but instead produced findings that indicated ethno-sectarian immobility given the ‘presence of two very distinctive territories’ (Boal 1969, 49). Territories that, within a matter of months, were to become ever more polarised as a pernicious and complex conflict emerged.
The ‘Historical Poetics’ of Kate O'Brien's Limerick: a critical literary Geography of Saorstát Éireann and the 1937 Bunreacht na hÉireann Plebiscite
Authors: Travis Charles
Published: January 2024

The polemics of place operating in Catholic bourgeois Saorstat Eireann in 1937, the year of the Bunreacht na hEireann plebescite are aptly mapped, illustrated and critiqued in Kate O’Brien’s 1938 novel Pray for the Wanderer. O’Brien’s subtle and audacious literary technique charts the social and political landscapes of the Saorstat which emerged in the two decades after independence. O’Brien creates a spatial metonym for her native Limerick, to represent the increasingly binding relations between family, class, religion, gender and sexuality. The theoretical lenses which bring the critical literary geographies of O’Brien’s writing into focus employ Mikhail Bakhtin’s Historical Poetics to excavate the ‘aesthetic landscape’ of her text and to explore and discuss its relevant social and political themes.
Mapping peat soils in Ireland: updating the derived Irish peat map
Authors: Connolly John , Holden Nicholas M.
Published: January 2024

Determining the spatial extent of peat soils is essential for measuring soil carbon (C) stocks. The Derived Irish Peat Map (DIPM) estimated the spatial extent of peat soils as 13.8% of the national area. The DIPM was derived from the Peatland Map of Ireland, CORINE land cover database (CORINE) 1990 and the General Soil Map of Ireland. This paper presents an updated version, the Derived Irish Peat Map Version 2 (DIPMV2), using the same rules-based decision tree methodology, but CORINE 2000 and the Indicative Soil Map of Ireland (ISMI) replaced CORINE 1990 and the General Soil Map of Ireland. The DIPMV2, a best-estimate, illustrates that peat soils occur more extensively than previously mapped, especially in the ‘drumlin belt’ of counties Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. The producer, user and overall accuracies are 88, 91 and 85%, respectively. This is an improvement on the DIPM (87, 84, and 85%). The DIPMV2, estimates that peat soils cover 1,466,469 ha, or 20.6%, of the national land area. The DIPM methodology may provide a long-term tool for updating national peat soil map data. It can be concluded that data for peat soils will become more important because peat has high carbon density and modifications to peat soils have implications for climate change.
New residential neighbourhoods within the inner city: an examination of neighbouring
Authors: Howley Peter
Published: January 2024

In recent times, similar to many other cities such as London, Manchester and New York, there has been a considerable population influx into Dublin’s inner city. The attraction of new residents back into the central area has resulted in economic and social restructuring and the creation of new ‘social spaces’, as new urban residents are often very different in demographic and socioeconomic terms than members of established communities (i.e. younger, more affluent and ethnically diverse). The overall aim of this paper is to examine the extent and significance of neighbourly ties in these new relatively high density residential environments in the central area of Dublin city. Findings in this paper demonstrate that these new residential neighbourhoods are characterised by a lack of ‘neighbourliness’ which call into question the long-term stability and cohesion of these new residential environments. Results from a binary logistic model indicate that background variables such as age, gender and ethnicity emerge as significant predictors of neighbourly interaction. The presence of friends and or relatives in the neighbourhood, the level of trust in neighbours and finally respondents’ intended future mobility behaviour were further factors found to have a significant influence on the level of interaction with neighbours.
The Irish question and the question of drunkenness: Catholic loyalty in nineteenth-century Liverpool
Authors: Beckingham David
Published: January 2024

This article examines how stereotypes of Irish drunkenness were linked to the formation of Irish Catholic identity in Liverpool. It shows how judicial statistics produced a moral geography of drunkenness that encouraged the scrutinising of Irish cultural practices precisely because drunkenness was conceived as a public problem. The issue of drunkenness was connected to broader questions of loyalty and citizenship. This article pays particular attention to the response of church leaders, for whom curbing Irish drunkenness was seen as a way to remake the Irish in Liverpool. Against that moral geography of Irish drunkenness, I argue that the emergence of a Catholic Total Abstinence League offers a unique way to explore the politics of drink and the tensions around questions of loyalty and community formation.
Reflections on the science and art of using a GIS to locate a new national children's hospital in Ireland
Authors: Houghton Frank
Published: January 2024

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T. S. EliotWhere is the information we have lost in data? CDC2 EditorsThe paper by Murphy and Killen (2007) represents the latest in a growing body of Irish work exploring the use of GIS as spatial decision support systems to investigate future developments in hospital provision in Ireland (see also Teljeur et al. 2004, Kalogirou and Foley 2006). The uneven and relatively delayed development of Health GIS in Ireland to date has previously been noted (Houghton 2001a, 2001b, 2004a). Similar to the work of Teljeur and Kelly (2006), this latest piece by Murphy and Killen explores options for the location of the proposed new national paediatric hospital using a GIS. A focus on the issue of access to healthcare is crucial, because as Wennberg (1998, p. 2) notes ‘in health care, geography is destiny’.
A quiet revolution? Beneath the surface of Ireland's alternative food initiatives
Authors: Murtagh Aisling
Published: January 2024

Getting food to our plates has become a highly complex, industrialised and globalised process. However, transformations in how our food is supplied are not without resistance. Initiatives are emerging that take a step back to simpler, alternative methods of food supply, bringing the producer and consumer closer together. Alternative food initiatives which are commonly found in Ireland include allotments, community gardens, farmers’ markets, farm shops and on-farm food enterprises. Understanding alternative food activities as a social movement can illuminate a fresh perspective on their nature and potential. While briefly considering the broad dynamics of alternative food activity in Ireland, this exploratory paper looks at the question of the nature of resistance and whether a collective vision may exist across initiatives, illustrated by two examples, a community garden and consumer food co-op. Finally some conclusions as to how alternative food initiatives may play a transformative role within the contemporary food system are discussed.
An inventory of trees in Dublin city centre
Authors: Ningal Tine , Mills Gerald , Smithwick Pamela
Published: January 2024

While urban areas are often considered to be comprised chiefly of artificial surfaces, they can contain a substantial portion of green space and a great diversity of natural habitats. These spaces include public parks, private gardens and street trees, all of which can provide valuable environmental services, such as improved air quality. Trees play a particular role in cities as they are often placed along roadsides and in the median strip of busy streets. As such they regulate access to sunshine, restrict airflow, provide shelter, scavenge air pollutants and manage noise at the street level. A tree planting policy can be an important part of a broader environmental strategy aimed at improving the quality of life in urban areas but this requires up-to-date knowledge of the current tree stock, which does not exist for Dublin. This article presents an inventory of trees in Dublin’s city centre, defined as the area between the Grand and Royal canals. The results show that there are over 10,000 trees in the study area representing a density of 684 trees km-2 or one tree to approximately every 50 residents of the city centre. The tree canopy extent when in full foliage was nearly 1km2 in extent or 6% of the study area. A more detailed analysis of those trees planted along streets shows little species variation but clear distinction in the sizes of trees, which is indicative of the age of planting. These data are used to estimate the carbon stored in Dublin’s trees.
Representing cultural divides in Ireland: Some nineteenth- and early twentieth-century mappings of variation in religion and language
Authors: Horner Arnold
Published: January 2024

While the availability of suitable census statistics may be a necessary precondition, it may not be in itself sufficient for the production of particular types of thematic map. For over half a century, the collection and publication of Irish census statistics on the Irish language (from 1851) and religion (in 1834, and regularly from 1861) stimulated a rather limited cartographic response. This paper focuses on the Irish maps of Reverend Abraham Hume (1814_84), inter alia Church of England clergyman, antiquarian, ethnographer and maker of maps of the social condition of Liverpool. Thomas Larcom may have inspired manuscript maps showing the distribution of religions during the 1840s, but Hume has the distinction of putting into print what may be the first maps to record some of those divisions of religion and language that remain significant for regional identity in Ireland. He pre-dates by two decades a small band of outsiders - among them the statistician E.G. Ravenstein, the geographer E´ lise´e Re´clus and various atlas makers _ who were interested in making small-scale maps of Ireland related to these topics. However, the production of more detailed, larger-scale maps of language and religion gained very little momentum until the period when issues of power and identity had their most immediate expression: the 1910s and the 1920s.
Age and palaeoenvironmental significance of an inter-tidal peat bed at Ballywoolen, Bann estuary, Co. Londonderry
Authors: Wilson Peter , Plunkett Gill
Published: January 2024

A recently exposed inter-tidal peat bed at Ballywoolen, Bann estuary, Co. Londonderry, has yielded new information about mid-Holocene coastal environmental change in the north-east of Ireland. Pollen analytical data and wood detritus demonstrate that peat accumulation occurred in a terrestrial environment that was free from marine influence. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the peat accumulated rapidly during a period of low relative sea level subsequent to the maximum of Holocene relative sea-level rise along the north coast of Northern Ireland. The absence of marine/brackish indicator taxa at the site suggests that the tidal range was somewhat less than that at present and/or that the channel of the river was located some distance east of its present alignment. The dates indicate that the low stand lasted for at least ~0.2 ka and possibly for ~1.1 ka. Stable, woodland-dominated landscapes are indicated at both this site and neighbouring ones around ~6.4-5.3 cal ka BP. There is no evidence for large-scale aeolian sand movement or human impact on the landscape during the period of peat accumulation.
Against a ‘wait and see’ approach in adapting to climate change
Authors: Murphy Conor , Bastola Satish , Hall Julia , Harrigan Shaun , Murphy Nuala , Holman Colin
Published: January 2024

Simulations of future climate change impacts are highly uncertain, particularly for catchment hydrology, where output from models of complex dynamic systems (global climate) are used as inputs to models of complex dynamic systems (hydrology models). This is problematic where decision-making for adaptation is underpinned by future climate predictions, and where policy-makers have opted to delay adaptation until either uncertainties are reduced, or climate change signals emerge from observations. This paper, using the Boyne catchment in the east of Ireland as a case study, discusses the uncertainties involved in climate change impact assessment for catchment hydrology and highlights why uncertainties are unlikely to be constrained or reduced in the time-scale required for adaptation. In addition, by calculating the time required for climate change signals to emerge from the observational record and the magnitude of change required for detection, it is highlighted that waiting for climate signals to be statistically detectable is not an option for effective adaptation. The paper concludes by considering how a paradigm shift in how we use the output from climate impact assessments can progress the adaptation agenda given the limits to prediction identified.
Selling the colonial spa town: The contested therapeutic landscapes of Lisdoonvarna and Te Aroha
Authors: Foley Ronan , Wheeler Abbey , Kearns Robin
Published: January 2024

The spa town is one of the foundational sites in the study of therapeutic landscape. As settings in which health informs the production of place and in which place is shaped by reputational associations with healing, spa towns have distinctive health and historical geographies. Drawing on a comparison between two spa towns, Te Aroha in New Zealand and Lisdoonvarna in Ireland, a number of critical therapeutic landscapes themes are explored. Two themes in particular are studied in empirical depth, the first being the commodification of health and place within common spa town narratives from the mid-nineteenth century to the early- to mid-twentieth century. A second core theme concerns itself with the contested identities of the watering-place, in relation to the relative importance of health over social identities and in framing native inhabitations against wider colonial place productions. In the tangled narratives of both towns’ health histories, we argue there is much to be learned about spatial similarities and variations in a process whereby place is commodified and sold on its reputational therapeutic characteristics. This is a process with local socio-cultural variation but with an additional potential for global-local narratives which moves beyond the spa town to wider watering-place forms.
Boom, bust and the changing geography of Irish tourism
Authors: Clancy Michael
Published: January 2024

Whereas considerable scholarly attention has been paid to Ireland’s leading economic activities, such as computer hardware and software, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, far less has been focused on tourism’s role in the Irish economic boom and subsequent bust. Tourism was central to the economic transition during the early years of the Celtic Tiger, especially in the area of job creation, but has equally been heavily implicated in the economic crisis, particularly due to the degree of speculative property investment in the hotel sector. The paper shows how the tourism industry changed qualitatively during this longer period, by considering the trajectory of the Irish hotel sector, and examining both the changing geography of overseas tourist origins and the internal distribution of tourism within Ireland.
Studentification in Ireland? Analysing the impacts of students and student accommodation on Cork City
Authors: Kenna Therese
Published: January 2024

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland have experienced a considerable growth in student numbers over the last 10 years. This growth in enrolments is predicted to continue for at least the next decade. The geographies of the student population in cities has been a largely overlooked research area in the Irish context, yet the major HEIs in Ireland accepting these growing enrolments are located in urban centres. Further, urban renewal schemes of the late 1990s actively encouraged the development of purpose-built student accommodation in Ireland to relieve the supply pressures being felt in the private rental sector at the time. The Irish government introduced tax incentives to encourage private investment and development in urban areas, with a particular scheme aimed at student accommodation. This paper offers the first analysis of the impacts of student populations and targeted urban renewal schemes for purpose-built student accommodation in Ireland. After a review of the current research field, the paper offers a brief overview of the student population nationally and then examines a number of recent purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) developments in Cork to offer an understanding of the scale and extent of newly-constructed student accommodation. Finally, the paper offers an analysis of the impacts of PBSA in Cork city.
Allotments in Dublin 1900–1950
Authors: Forrest Mary
Published: January 2024

Allotments, more commonly called ‘plots’, were first laid out in inner city Dublin in the early 20th century. Their purpose was to allow ‘plotholders’ to grow vegetables primarily for their own use. A range of state and voluntary organisations supported the allotment movement. Following the introduction of Government regulations in 1917, the number of allotments increased in an attempt to boost wartime food production. Following a decline in the early 1920s, the Acquisition of Lands (Allotments) Act of 1926 spurred further growth. However, many allotments were lost to housing schemes, while new allotments were located further into the developing suburbs. Dublin Corporation continued to provide allotments, especially during the Second World War. By 1949, however, the supply of allotments exceeded demand. This paper draws on government, trade and newspaper reports to consider the evolution of the allotment movement in Dublin during the first half of the twentieth century, illustrating the changing numbers of allotments and their location.
Radiocarbon dates from the inter-tidal peat bed at Portrush, County Antrim
Authors: Wilson Peter , Westley Kieran , Plets Ruth , Dempster Michael
Published: January 2024

Two new 14C dates from a bed of compact inter-tidal peat at Mill Strand, Portrush, are reported and discussed in relation to two previously obtained ages from peat at Dhu Varren, a short distance inland. The date from the top of the Mill Strand peat is statistically inseparable from that of the peat top at Dhu Varren. Together these dates indicate the cessation of peat growth occurred _6950-6550 cal. BP as a result of sand deposition associated with sea-level rise. However, dated samples from deeper within the respective stratigraphies are not compatible. Their respective ages in relation to their elevations pose a problem of interpretation.
Potential for longevity of novel genetically modified herbicide-tolerant traits in the Irish landscape
Authors: Collier Marcus J. , Mullins Ewen
Published: January 2024

With the renewed interest in genetically modified crop technology in Ireland, some concern has been raised in relation to the potential impact on biodiversity in the Irish agri-environment. This concern can focus on the potential for a transgenic trait to cross to wild relatives. A novel trait will be judged to have persisted in a wild population via the successful production of seeds, such that these seeds are viable and result in the establishment of a self-sustaining population. In the case of an herbicide-tolerant (HT) trait, feral and volunteer populations can only remain viable if managed with applications of the herbicide that the trait is designed to resist. This surviving population of HT plants would then need to compete successfully with other wild plants in order to prevail in the landscape and persist over time. There are few agricultural crops that can manage this combination, but as oilseed rape plants are often noted along roadsides and hedgerows in Ireland; it is correct to assume that this crop has the ability to be a successful feral survivor. This paper presents the results of a thought experiment, derived exclusively using the academic literature, on the issue of longevity. This is done by taking four hypothetical case scenarios and examining the potential for a combination of events to take place for oilseed rape (Brassica napus); this is selected here because it has a high potential for ‘escaping’ via pollen- and/or seedmediated gene flow. A lack of quantitative data on Irish farmland biodiversity hinders solid conclusions, but when management pressure is eased, biodiversity stress is lessened.
Sensitivity of spaceborne radar to near-surface soil moisture in grasslands across southern Ireland
Authors: Barrett Brian , Dwye Edward , Whelan Padraig
Published: January 2024

The amount of water stored in the soil is a key parameter for the energy and mass fluxes at the land surface and is of fundamental importance to many agricultural, meteorological, biological and biogeochemical processes. This study investigates the potential of retrieving surface soil moisture in grassland areas from a time series of 68 ENVISAT advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) wide swath mode (WSM) scenes, acquired between 2007 and 2009, using an empirical regression approach. WSM data enable larger areas to be observed with a higher temporal sampling capability, compared to image mode (IM) data, and provide an appropriate spatial resolution for regional applications. As expected, the radar backscatter signal was found to increase with increasing soil moisture. Interseasonal analysis showed that the VV (Vertical transmitVertical receive) polarisation radar signal is more sensitive to surface soil moisture during the spring and autumn months, where average signal increases of about 4 dB corresponding to relative soil moisture increases of 40% were obtained. Results also display significant (pB0.05) correlations between the HH horizontal transmitHorizontal receive) polarisation signal and surface soil moisture, with r2 values ranging from 0.67 to 0.86 for some of the test sites. Overall, the results suggest that the use of an empirical linear regression approach is a good approximation of the relationship between ASAR WSM backscatter coefficients and surface soil moisture over grassland areas.
Religious change in twentieth-century Ireland: a spatial history
Authors: Cunningham Niall , Gregory Ian
Published: January 2024

The conflicts that have deeply affected the island of Ireland in the twentieth century have been political, rather than religious, in basis. However, the powerful coalescence of Catholicism and nationalism on one hand, and Protestantism and unionism on the other, has meant that religious affiliation in Ireland has come to embody a wider range of cultural, political and social values. Furthermore, the successive waves of organised colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have left the island with the legacy of a distinctive religious geography, which became the explicit template for the political division of the island in 1921 as well as having profound implications for its development since the European Reformation of the early modern period. Yet, despite its centrality to Irish history and geography, it has been difficult to assess detailed change in that religious geography due to the inconsistency of territorial units over time. This article presents findings from a major research project funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council which used Geographical Information Systems technology to standardise administrative boundaries across the island in the twentieth century. In doing so, it is able to shed new light on the radically divergent religio-spatial trajectories of different parts of the island in relation to political, social and economic developments.
The long-term temperature record from Markree Observatory, County Sligo, from 1842 to 2011
Authors: McKeown Michelle , Potito Aaron P. , Hickey Kieran R.
Published: January 2024

This study analysed long-term temperature patterns in the north-west of Ireland using a previously unexplored data-set from Markree Observatory, County Sligo. The Markree series extends back to 1842, making it one of the longest instrumental temperature records in Ireland and is renowned for holding the lowest recorded temperature for the island of Ireland, 198C on 16 January 1881. Despite its length, this record has been largely absent from past analyses of Ireland’s long-term temperature trends, rendering spatial coverage for the extended Irish climate chronology incomplete. Daily data stored in a variety ofthe historical archives were gathered and digitised and monthly records created. Calibrations to account for instrumentation, time of reading and exposure were applied where possible in order to standardise the record. Trends were subsequently investigated for seasonal averages of daily minimum, maximum and mean temperatures, and a comparison with previously published long Irish temperature records was carried out to situate the Markree record among the existing long-term series. Although the Markree series follows similar patterns to the other long-term temperature records, it displays more decadal variability,particularly in its minimum values which show a higher rate of late twentiethcentury warming compared to the other records. Due to its geographic location and surrounding topography shielding the site from direct ocean influences and prevailing south-westerly winds, Markree displays characteristic features of a more inland station (low minimum temperatures and large diurnal ranges) even though it is located only 7 km from the Atlantic Ocean. Such findings highlight the necessity of including the Markree data-set in future Irish climate change research.
Accessibility and the local concentration of economic activity: a case study for county Galway
Authors: Vega Amaya
Published: January 2024

Road infrastructure investment has been a major policy instrument to achieve higher levels of accessibility and connectivity among distant regions in Ireland. Increased connectivity is generally regarded as a mechanism to provide strong inter-regional linkages and regional growth. This paper contributes to the debate on the relationship between accessibility and the concentration of activity at the local level in Ireland by investigating the spatial patterns of accessibility and the concentration of economic activity by industrial sector in a particular region of the West of Ireland, County Galway. Geographic Information System (GIS) network analysis is used to construct a gravity-based accessibility index. Standardised Employment Rates (SERs) are computed to generate reliable measures of spatial employment distribution and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) is carried out to identify local concentrations of economic activity by industrial group. Results show that in general, local spatial concentrations of activity vary by industrial group. While some sectors favour accessibility-rich locations, local concentrations of activity by other sectors are also found in poor accessibility areas. The results from the analysis are discussed in the context of regional policy and the direct implications for transport planning at the local level in Galway.
Relationships between meteorological data and grass growth over time in the south of Ireland
Authors: Hurtado-Uria Cristina , Hennessy Deirdre , Shalloo Laurence , O’Connor Declan , Delaby Luc
Published: January 2024

Ireland has conditions that favour grass growth throughout most of the year, resulting in a competitive advantage in providing ruminant production systems with a cheap feed source. Grass growth is highly seasonal with little growth over the winter period due to low temperatures and low levels of sunshine/solar radiation. Peak grass growth occurs in late spring and early summer, and growth in the late summer and autumn is restricted as temperature and solar radiation decrease. Meteorological conditions influence grass growth over the course of the growing season, as a result there are variations in grass growth within and between years, making grass budgeting at farm level challenging. Meteorological patterns were examined, factors having the greatest influence on grass growth were determined and start of grass growth was studied from 1982 to 2010 at Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland. Statistically significant patterns over the studied period were found in all of the meteorological variables studied. As expected, temperature had a big influence on grass growth in all seasons; evapotranspiration also plays a key role. These results suggest that it may be possible to use meteorological data to predict grass growth to help farmers to anticipate and organise the grazing management to match feed supply and demand. The study suggests that there are significant patterns in climate in Ireland, and that it might have future consequences on the rate of grass growth and on farm grassland management.
Geographers and planning: some reflections
Authors: Horner Arnold
Published: January 2024

In this ‘decade of anniversaries’, where 2014 was dominated by the drama of commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of a calamitous war, geographers and others may all too easily under-value other significant dates. For example, 2014 also marked the 50th anniversary of the coming into force of the 1963 Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, and was also the centenary of the Dublin Civic Exhibition whose associated planning competition resulted in the visionary Dublin of the Future. Spearheaded by the English architect-planner, Patrick Abercrombie, the latter was an ambitious unofficial agenda laying out principles and possibilities for the grandiose renewal of an ailing city (Bannon 1985). Notwithstanding its utopian dimensions, this seminal work (finally published in 1922) and the companion Dublin Civic Survey (1925) were profoundly significant influences, being repeatedly re-visited, as the suburban girdle developed and as the central city morphed during the middle decades of the last century (McManus 2002). Deservedly, if belatedly and perhaps all too briefly, the exhibition, the competition and Abercrombie were recognised in ‘City Assembled: A Moving Panorama inspired by the Dublin Civic Exhibition’, which was on display at the City Assembly Rooms in Dublin during early 2015 (McDonald 2015). More permanently, the University College Dublin Library, in association with the Irish Architectural Archive, has added to its digital library a unique collection of the three surviving competition entries, among them being the winning Abercrombie submission (UCD 2014).
Yoga como prática integrativa e complementar de saúde no Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS
Authors: Dos Santos Aline Monteiro Rodrigues Alves , Cordeiro Bruna Fernanda Leite , E Silva Bruno Teodoro , Jucá Luana de Almeida
Published: January 2024

No Brasil, o Yoga foi introduzido na Saúde Pública por ser uma ferramenta tanto para a prevenção de doenças, quanto para o tratamento complementando os métodos convencionais, assim como para os cuidados dos profissionais atuantes nas redes de saúde.