Magister Artium - MA / Rae and her sister, Alina, are young women who have travelled from Australia to visit their aunt, Trudy, in Ireland. Rae’s suspicions that something is amiss with the arrangement are confirmed when they discover that their parents have been arrested for settling in Australia without the appropriate visas. The two young women, who are half Irish, must remain in Ireland until their parents are able to join them. Rae enrols at a university to continue her studies, and Alina finds a job that requires her to move out. Rae is upset with Alina for leaving, and drops out of contact for a while, but then when she does reach out, her messages aren’t returned. Eventually she goes in search of her sister and finds that Alina has left Dublin without saying where she went. Months pass in fruitless searching. Rae settles down at Trinity College, makes friends, and also befriends Joe, a rough sleeper on the Dublin streets. When she discovers that her sister might be in Galway, Rae travels there, accompanied by two friends. Joe offers to aid them. While there, they encounter someone who claims to know Alina, but demands payment before revealing anything. Rae asks Joe – who is familiar with the backstreets – to deliver the cash. Joe is never seen again, and Rae, after some time, finally admits she has been betrayed. One of her two friends decides to explore the clubs and stumbles on Alina who is working there. When Rae approaches her sister, there is a confrontation with the possessive employer, Murphy, who strikes Alina, putting her in hospital. Alina returns to Dublin, and life resumes where it left off, but then Murphy attempts to take Alina back. Rae hurries home and finds Trudy blocking the door to the house with a shotgun which she fires at Murphy’s knee. The demonstration of protectiveness shows Rae how badly she misjudged her aunt. She then discovers that she misjudged Davin, whom she admired from the beginning but incorrectly assumed he was interested in her sister. The novella ends with a recognition of her flawed perceptions which stands in juxtaposition to her confident judgements of people in the opening chapter.

Thesis advisor: Michael Keith / This paper examines global media’s construction of Irish musical identity beginning with Irish radio in the 1920s and focusing on the Irish traditional music organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, which was founded in 1951. Central to the arguments in this paper is the claim that media outlets in Ireland and abroad package a simplified version of Irish culture for the purpose of cultural tourism. Through the analysis of both Irish and American media productions, as well as existing research on the topic, this paper argues that: Global media’s presentation of Irish music fails to accurately portray the reality of Irish musical identity. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

The tectono-sedimentary evolution of the enigmatic Old Red Sandstone terrane of the Northwest Dingle Domain perplexed generations of geologists. The Domain remained largely misinterpreted, unappraised or simply disregarded. Its fundamental impact on regional basin dynamics was grossly overlooked. This integrated sedimentological, stratigraphical and structural research unravels the complexities of this unique red-bed collage. The Northwest Dingle Domain is largely structurally-constrained between two ENE- trending Caledonian structures: the North Kerry Lineament and the Fohemamanagh Fault. It comprises four unconformity-bounded Groups: the Lower Devonian Smerwick Group; the Middle Devonian Pointagare Group; and the Late Devonian Carrigduff and Ballyroe Groups. Their fluvial-aeolian, and locally tidal, sedimentation patterns profile Late Caledonian transpression to Middle-Late Devonian extension. The inherent primary structural control on basin location, development, geometry, sedimentary-fill and preservation is manifest in the Northwest Domain. A hierarchical cyclicity to fluvial-aeolian basin-fill architecture is established in order to differentiate between climatic, tectonic and eustatically-controlled 'sequence stratigraphy' in active strike-slip and extensional syn-rifi basin settings. The Acadian emplacement of the Smerwick Group Terrane set the foundations of the Northwest Dingle Domain. The Smerwick Group documents sandy and gravelliferous ephemeral-fluvial and erg-margin aeolian processes on an ancient terminal fan. The Pointagare Group is cogenetic with the Caherbla Group of south Dingle. Together they record the renewed influx of coarse-grained sediment in the form of transverse alluvial fans and axial braidplains in response to increased tectonism followed by overstep of an erg complex. The Pointagare-Caherbla basin model highlights the fundamental structural control on basin topography, palaeodrainage patterns, provenance, palaeowind directions and sedimentation style in tectonically-active extensional basins. The Ballyroe and Carrigduff Groups record syn-rift basin-margin fluvial and precursive tidally-influenced sedimentation on the active northern margin of the Munster Basin half-graben. These coarse clastic wedges represent feeder zone deposition proximal to the finer-grained distributary zone terminal fan deposits which infilled the Munster Basin to the south.

This thesis investigates the concept of ‘diaspora’ as it applies to the Scandinavian settlements of Orkney and Dublin in the eleventh century. Comparative analysis identifies how key differences in the settlements’ location and make-up affected their dynamic, and even opportunistic, set of relationships with their Scandinavian ‘homelands’ and with their Insular neighbours. Drawing on archaeological and written evidence, and adopting an interdisciplinary approach, produces a more sophisticated and holistic examination of Orkney and Dublin’s political, ecclesiastical, economic, and cultural connections, while helping to reveal when our source information is concentrated in a particular area, or lacking in another. As regards politics in Chapter One, Norwegian kings were only occasionally able to exert control over Orkney, but Scandinavia had even less direct political influence on Dublin. In the ecclesiastical sphere, explored in Chapter Two, it is shown that Dublin was the site of various cults but often looked to England for episcopal matters, while Orkney was influenced by both Scandinavia and northern Britain. Turning to economics in Chapter Three, little evidence of direct trade between the international commercial hub of Dublin and Scandinavia can be found, whereas Orkney’s very location guaranteed economic interaction with Norway. When it comes to cultural matters in Chapter Four, it is argued that a hybrid urban identity may have been more significant and more prevalent than a Scandinavian one in Dublin. Unlike Dublin, Orkney remained, in many respects, on a cultural axis that stretched from Norway to Iceland. The definitions of ‘diaspora’ set out by Lesley Abrams and Judith Jesch in relation to Scandinavian settlements abroad are used as a point of reference. The findings of this thesis suggest that ‘diaspora’ is not a one-size-fits-all label, as diasporic features were not always transmitted directly in a straightforward fashion. Some Scandinavian features may have reached Dublin via England, with which it had strong connections. Even if Orcadians and Dubliners were aware of their shared Scandinavian heritage, this does not seem to have played a particularly important part in their foreign policy and decision-making. Being part of a diaspora does not necessarily mean that this was their primary affiliation.

This research explores the civic and political participation of Polish migrants in Northern Ireland from a transnational perspective. Examining how migrants construct belonging at multiple scales, it emphasises the role of place in shaping their civic and political participation, attitudes and interests. Despite a significant body of work examining the experiences of Polish migrants in the UK, their civic and political participation remains under-explored. Moreover, given Northern Ireland's status as a relatively recent immigration destination, little is known about how migrants engage in politics and civil society in the region. Employing a mixed methods approach that entailed in-depth interviews, an online survey and ethnographic participant observation, this research elicits a range of insights regarding migrants' motivations for participation in civil society, in formal politics and in political parties. It also sheds light on the barriers to participation which they experience. Drawing on Thomas's (2002) idea of a 'contract' as a means through which claims to citizenship are articulated, the research develops the idea of a 'place-based contract' to conceptualise how migrants construct belonging to civic and political communities, and how this shapes and facilitates their civic and political engagement. I argue that participation is facilitated by a sense of belonging to place which has legal, personal and societal dimensions, and which includes both practical and emotional elements. Highlighting how this process operates across multiple scales, I argue for the need to 'rescale the polity' in order to pay closer attention to how migrants form attachments to place at a scale 'below' the nation-state and how this facilitates engagement in different forms of civic and political activity. As such, the research urges that greater attention be paid to the geographical context in which politics is practised, as well as focusing on the interconnections between migration, political participation, citizenship, identity, belonging and place.

Face à la révolution gastronomique en marche et face au regain d’intérêt pour la culture culinaire irlandaise depuis ce début de 21ème siècle, cette thèse de doctorat cherche à mettre en lumière les facteurs historiques, culturels et sociologiques vecteurs de changement, envisagés dans une perspective identitaire. Ce travail de recherche présente tout d’abord l’espace social du mangeur irlandais contemporain sous plusieurs angles d’approche (enquêtes, média, livres de recettes, observations in situ…) et analyse les pratiques alimentaires et culinaires depuis les années 1960-70. Le rôle des institutions du tourisme (Bord Fáilte puis Fáilte Ireland) dans le développement d’une cuisine nationale et dans la revalorisation de la culture alimentaire est apparu moteur et porteur d’un dynamisme économique et artistique sans précédent. Cette forme de nationalisme culturel contribue à la construction d’une légitimation historique, à la patrimonialisation d’une culture culinaire longtemps dénigrée et réprimée. La perspective historique et mythologique que nous offrons en seconde partie permet de mieux appréhender la symbolique des aliments phares de l’irlandicité contemporaine ainsi que l’hospitalité au cœur de la rhétorique touristique et nationaliste. Les relations conflictuelles avec l’occupant anglais au cours des siècles, dans le champ alimentaire, sont également analysées dans le but de mieux saisir le besoin de fierté retrouvée. Cette thèse intègre pour la première fois la dimension religieuse de l’alimentation en Irlande. Caractérisée par une valorisation de l’acte pénitentiel de « non-ingestion », par une répression des appétits alimentaire et charnel et par une culture de l’abnégation jusqu’aux bouleversements sociétaux engendrés par le Concile Vatican II, la société irlandaise, aujourd’hui lancée à corps perdu dans une nouvelle ère de consommation, vit désormais sa relation à l’alimentation de manière anomique et hédoniste. / Affected by globalisation, secularism and multiculturalism, Irish society has undergone many radical changes since the turn of the 21st century, food consumption being one of the most striking. This PhD thesis examines and analyses past and contemporary eating and cooking practices from a sociological and historical perspective. Taking into account the dramatic effects engendered by the English colonisation (acculturation, extensive exploitation of resources, contempt vis-à-vis indigenous customs…), the aim of this research is to stress the importance that religious principles had in shaping the dietary practices until the 1960s and to analyse the consequences on contemporary eating behaviours. Particular emphasis is given to the essential role played by Bord Fáilte and Fáilte Ireland in developing a national cuisine and promoting Ireland’s food culture. The late development of a gastronomy for all (not just for the Protestant elites), is explained by the importance for centuries of the spiritual act of “non-ingestion” over the bodily act of ingestion. Fasting was for so long engrained into everyday life that rejoicing in food consumption was not acceptable until the reforms of penitential laws brought by the Second Council of Vatican in the late 1960s. Contemporary excessive food consumption and growing interest in all things food is also analysed through the concepts of hedonism, hypermodernity and gastro-anomy, aftermath of the collapse of the traditional authoritative institutions.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: leaves 107-110. / by Jeanne Strain. / M.C.P.

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Human rights are a defining feature of how the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been 'imagined and made' in its post-conflict society. This thesis marks the first attempt to make sense of how human rights are articulated, interpreted and applied by those intimately involved in Northern Irish policing. Based on extensive access to the PSNI, I marshal qualitative data collected from interviews with over one hundred police officers from various departments. I tour four sites of local policing to expose and examine the vernaculars and practices of human rights that lurk within each. The story I tell over the course of eight chapters is one of a police service trying to sustain human rights as a central narrative to explain its daily work and build its organisational identity in a divided society, to varying degrees of success. I argue that human rights are, in fact, a malleable, contested and conditional concept to 'imagine and make' a police service and regulate the decision-making of its officers; perhaps much more so than police reformers in Northern Ireland had realised or the PSNI wish to acknowledge. In the first half of the thesis, I identify and deconstruct how the PSNI's chief officers and local political parties seek to express and mobilise competing visions, values and agendas through human rights narratives. I then pay close attention to how human rights are interpreted and translated by junior officers performing two forms of routine policing in N.Ireland: the 'dirty work' of the Tactical Support Group and the 'community work' of Neighbourhood Policing Teams. I ask to what extent officers have internalised human rights as way of making sense of their daily work. In the second half of the thesis, I explore police officers as an important, but poorly understood, class of human rights practitioner. To better grasp how officers interpret and apply human rights standards, I closely analyse two sites of policing where distinct schemes of human rights-based regulation exist: public order policing and police custody. This thesis contributes to understandings of the concept of human rights, its interactions with law and politics and the condition of policing in contemporary Northern Ireland.

The history of nineteenth-century Ireland has traditionally been understood in terms of resistance to state coercion imposed ‘at the point of a bayonet’. This thesis offers an alternative approach by shifting focus away from metropolitan centres of power (Westminster, Dublin Castle) and the state's formal apparatus, toward an understanding of power as environmentally constructed. Using the case of Cork, the thesis traces the emergence of a non-sectarian ethos of urban ‘politeness’ rooted in middle-class reactions to the violent upheavals of the 1790s. Here, I argue a range of new public spaces emerged to ‘moralise’ the masses, anticipating state legislation by decades. In chapters on the spread of time-keeping technology and the reform of market spaces, the thesis argues effective authority inhered as much in clocks and weights as ‘at the point of a bayonet’. The corresponding rise of the ‘private sphere’, materialising the ideology of ‘separate spheres’ in the city’s first suburbs, provided an alternative pole of moral reform. Here, the invisible agency of pipes and sewers helped to privatize the burden of ‘healthy living’, severing the link between poverty and disease long before ‘Famine fever’ ravaged the city. And when it hit, John Stuart Mill was not alone in dreaming of a ‘tabula rasa’; the ‘Father of Temperance’ Theobald Mathew and his allies expressed precisely this view, ‘feminizing’ the catastrophe as a moment to ‘cleanse’ the city of morally ‘diseased’ prostitutes. Free from such ‘contamination’, new spaces devoted to recreation – parks, theatres, and racecourses – were engineered as arenas ‘free’ from state oversight, with citizens instead positioned to survey one another. The thesis concludes with a call to reinterpret resistance to the state in terms of the ‘rule of freedom’ as much as that of force. The seven chapters and conclusion of the thesis are divided into three parts: ‘The Polite City’, ‘The Purified City’ and ‘The Liberal City’. These overarching themes provide a framework to the chronological and thematic development of the thesis as a whole. The first three chapters explore the rising ethos of ‘politeness’ as an ‘improving’ ideology which sought to engineer certain forms of conduct – domestic, social, and commercial – into the fabric of everyday urban life. Crucial to this was the notion of non-coercive governance aimed at securing ‘the right disposition of things, arranged ... to a convenient end’. ‘The Purified City’ explores ways in which the Famine helped to ‘naturalise’ the alienation of certain classes of deviant from the ‘social body’ of the urban community. ‘The Liberal City’ looks at how mid-Victorian city also invited the consent of the governed by creating spaces where citizenship could be performed in acts of leisure and recreation. It was in this sense that fin de siècle cultural nationalists saw the greatest threat to a revival of Irish popular culture as arising not from police stations or military barracks, but from the respectable world of suburban ‘politeness’.