Cointegration and equilibrium-correction modeling techniques are employed to examine aggregate and sectoral implications for Irish-UK trade of breaking the Sterling/Irish pound link, motivated by models of exchange rate uncertainty effects on trade and pass through. A UK demand function for Irish exports, including estimates of non-price competitiveness, measures the impacts of real and nominal exchange rate volatility on trade. A negative short-run impact of nominal volatility on aggregate Irish exports is found and volatility effects are present in four sectors. A mark-up model of prices, using a specially constructed data set, reveals complete long-run exchange rate pass-through for aggregate and sectoral Irish imports from the UK, consistent with the hypothesis that Ireland is a small open economy. Incomplete short-run pass-through is observed for all sectors. UK production costs in three sectors display negative signs, suggesting UK producers may follow a strategy of pricing in Euros. The role of trade In explaining Irish output is also investigated using innovative Granger-causality tests using a production-function V AR approach based on a seven-variable model, where aggregate, sectoral, and destination-specific tests are conducted. Bi-directional aggregate export-output causality is estimated. Labour and capital show no statistically significant causal relationship to aggregate Irish output. The strict export-led-output hypothesis is supported for US and European (excluding UK) trade while causation is measured from Irish output to Irish exports to the UK. Sectors reveal differing causality patterns.

There are new, and increasing, pressures on the coast of the island of Ireland, including, socio-economic and environmental change, exploitation of resources, urban development (including the legacy of past planning decisions) and the predicted impacts of climate change. The cumulative and interacting effect of these challenges potentially results in socio-economic and physical degeneration. Subsequently, many are seeking to rejuvenate and re-invent themselves through various regeneration schemes and investment strategies. Whilst academic and policy attention regarding coastal resort regeneration is increasing, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the effectiveness of regeneration in the coastal context. This thesis addresses this gap by utilising a resilience perspective and a multiple-case study design. Several key findings can be drawn which may be used to inform future regeneration approaches and research. First, socio-economic deprivation exists outside large urban areas and inner city neighbourhoods which have traditionally been the focus of regeneration policy and research. Importantly, traditional urban regeneration responses to decline may not be transferable to the distinctive context and conditions confronting coastal resorts. It follows that policy transfer is limited and more bespoke interventions are required. Second, the diversity of coastal resorts presents a particular challenge to devising a coastal specific response and highlights the inadequacies of a one-size-fits-a ll approach. A typology of small coastal settlements has sought to classify coastal resorts into one of six categories based on their relative socio-demographic and economic performance. This differentiation helps isolate and reflect specific coastal characteristics; providing for a more informed and consistent approach to intervention and policy development. Third, this research argues that regeneration approaches which fail to a d~n owl edge a place's resilience to future socio-economic and environmental change will fail to set the resort on a more sustainable trajectory. Thus by exploring the complimentary and co-influencing concepts of regeneration and resilience this thesis has enhanced understandings of resort resilience and advanced an all-island strategic understanding of coastal resort degeneration and regeneration. To this end, the Octagon Values Model offers a heuristic device with which to imagine a more strategic vision in securing resilient outcomes for small coastal resorts.

This study investigates the theology of wealth, with reference to the parables of Jesus, in dialogue with recent Irish economic history. Poverty is commonly seen as a societal problem, but in the teaching of Jesus, especially in his parables, the status of the wealthy is called into question. This thesis explores what it means to be followers of Jesus in societies where historically high levels of wealth and comfort are widespread. It begins by considering that societal context, naming neoliberalism as the complex of economic, political, and cultural factors that combine to generate wealth. The parables of Jesus are introduced as a collection of narratives which puncture the philosophical assumptions at work in neoliberalism. Reading them after the twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth, the parables are found to be apocalyptic interruptions which reorientate the reader towards the reign of God. With these two strands – neoliberalism and the parables – in play, the thesis reconsiders Ireland's recent economic history. It is argued that the ethical significance of the “Celtic Tiger” boom and the subsequent 2008 crash is best accessed not via the language of economics but through narratives. The re-telling of the events of the crash and its aftermath through parables exposes how markets are embedded in thick cultural, historical, and political settings and how simple and settled statistical accounts can miss much of ethical significance. The decisive chapter takes up the constructive task. Building on this re-described account of a wealthy society, it proposes that the appropriate response for Christians to the problem of wealth is to turn to worship as a reparative therapy that forms congregations in practices and ways-of-seeing that run counter to the normative perceptions of neoliberalism. This is achieved by means of a robust engagement with the work of the contemporary moral theologian, William Cavanaugh. A final chapter underlines the original contribution of the project, sketches some future areas of research, and proposes that lament is the initial stance that results from this study.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between political authority and economic change in the tenth to twelfth centuries AD. This is often interpreted as a period of dramatic economic and political upheaval; enormous growth in commerce, the emergence of an urban network and increasingly centralised polities are all indicative of this process. Ireland has rarely been considered in discussion of this sort but analysis of Ireland’s political economy has much to contribute to the debate. This will be tackled through a consideration of the coinage struck in Ireland between c.995 and 1170 with focus upon the two themes of production and usage. In analysing this material the scale and scope of a monetary economy, the importance of commerce and the controlling aspects of royal authority will each be addressed. The approach deployed is also overtly comparative with material from other contemporary areas, particularly England and Norway, used to provide context. Ultimately, in seeking to analyse these questions within this comparative context, the issue of where economic agency behind changes in the European economy will be considered. Chapters 1 and 2 situate the research within the wider scholarly debate and precise historical context respectively. Chapters 3 to 6 are a consideration of the manner in which the Hiberno-Scandinavian coinage was produced and administered. This reassesses questions of the scale of production, administration and the role of royal authority in the production of the coinage based upon a comprehensive re-categorisation and re-dating of the material. Chapters 7 and 8 concern the use of coins in the urban environment of Dublin and across the entirety of Ireland, with coinage analysed within its archaeological contexts. Ultimately, this thesis suggests that monetary economy and levels of commerce were substantial, variable and yet relatively geographically constrained. When considered in relationship to contemporary political contexts, the importance of royal authority in directing the economy is determined to be minimal with agency behind economic change seen to rest with an urban, mercantile community.