tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/ireland-62/articles
Ireland – The Conversation
2024-03-22T13:58:21Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226370
2024-03-22T13:58:21Z
2024-03-22T13:58:21Z
Leo Varadkar: the political backdrop to his shock resignation as Ireland’s prime minister
<p>Leo Varadkar stunned Ireland by resigning as taoiseach (prime minister) in an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/irelands-varadkar-step-down-pm-irish-independent-reports-2024-03-20/">emotional speech</a> that saw him claim to be going for reasons both “personal and political”. However, he hasn’t cited any examples of either, leaving us somewhat in the dark about his departure. </p>
<p>Varadkar’s decision to leave office once a successor is agreed came as a surprise, even to many in his own party, the Christian Democratic centre-right Fine Gael (Party of the Irish). Varadkar had said that he would <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2024-03-20/leo-varadkar-resignation-sees-youngest-taoiseach-exit-role-before-age-of-50">resign before the age of 50</a>, but, at 45, is leaving well before his self-imposed deadline. Varadkar was seen as young and enthusiastic – and as an openly gay man of Indian-Irish heritage, his rise was symbolic of a changing Ireland. </p>
<p>Varadkar was marked out for political success early on. He entered parliament in 2007 and has been in the cabinet since 2011. He played key roles in referendums legalising gay marriage and liberalising access to abortion and divorce. Becoming taoiseach the year after the 2016 Brexit referendum, he is credited with ensuring that Irish interests were represented by the EU in the difficult negotiations between London and Brussels. But in the process he became something of a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68617812">maligned figure</a> among Northern Ireland unionists.</p>
<p>In his most recent period as taoiseach since December 2022, he has been at the helm of a booming economy and budgetary surpluses that are a far cry from the austerity which characterised his early years in government.</p>
<p>However Varadkar’s electoral fortunes were less convincing. His party lost almost a third of its seats in the 2020 general election, and only remained in office by governing with its historical rival Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. He also lost all five byelections his party contested during his premiership. </p>
<h2>Why resign, and why now?</h2>
<p>Recently, Varadkar’s coalition government <a href="https://theconversation.com/ireland-referendums-what-went-wrong-for-the-government-and-why-double-defeat-draws-a-line-under-a-decade-of-constitutional-reform-225550">lost surprisingly badly</a> in two referendums aimed at liberalising the national constitution, both of which it had expected to win. A <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/fine-gael-election-fears-amid-stampede-for-the-exit-by-several-tds/a1986438154.html">third of his party’s TDs</a> (MPs) have also announced that they won’t contest the next general election.</p>
<p>This paints a picture of a government at odds with the public mood and an internally unsettled party. That said, a renewal of the current Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition is possible as <a href="https://pollingindicator.com/">poll leaders</a> Sinn Féin lack obvious coalition partners. Even if Fine Gael does return to government, however, it would likely have a reduced majority in parliament. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/ireland-referendums-what-went-wrong-for-the-government-and-why-double-defeat-draws-a-line-under-a-decade-of-constitutional-reform-225550">Ireland referendums: what went wrong for the government and why double defeat draws a line under a decade of constitutional reform</a>
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<p>It’s possible that Varadkar, having already been taoiseach twice and party leader since 2017, doesn’t have the energy for another election campaign. But his successor must hit the ground running if Fine Gael is to return to winning ways in time for local elections in June. A general election must be held by March 2025 but may be even sooner following this resignation.</p>
<p>Resigning now gives Varadkar’s replacement a year to get their message across before the general election, but it has left them in the lurch for June. Perhaps the calculation is to let the electorate vent frustrations at ongoing problems around housing costs and more recently, migration, before the next general election.</p>
<p>For Varadkar, personally, there are few obvious jobs available in the short term, so he may take some time away from the spotlight. However the upcoming European elections might offer opportunities if some of the highest positions in Europe come up for grabs.</p>
<p>The European elections are expected to result in the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) winning the most seats, <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/search/table">a group which includes Varadkar’s Fine Gael</a>. Often this grants the group the chance to appoint someone to the role of president of the European Commission (the president does not have to be an MEP). </p>
<p>Since 2019 that role has been held by a German, Ursula von der Leyen of the EPP, who was backed for the job by compatriot Angela Merkel, also of the EPP. However, much has changed since. Germany is now led by Olaf Scholz whose party is in the centre-left Socialists & Democrats group and he may not want a national rival holding such a high profile post. Similarly, other EU countries may prefer a non-German leader as countries compete for positions and are wary of too much power resting with France and Germany. </p>
<p>Ireland has never had a commission president and is one of just nine EU countries currently led by the EPP. Conveniently for Ireland, this short list does not include European heavyweights France, Germany, Italy or Spain. If it plays its cards right, Fine Gael could leverage itself as the compromise option for that post.</p>
<p>It would be unwise to make firm predictions here, particularly as Poland and Sweden are led by EPP members – but this would be ideal for Fine Gael. Varadkar’s claim to have <a href="https://www.businesspost.ie/news/leo-varadkar-says-he-definitely-does-not-want-eu-job/">no interest in an EU role</a> should be taken with a large pinch of salt. He can’t openly campaign against Von der Leyen but in reality, few politicians would turn down a chance to take her job.</p>
<h2>Ireland’s (newest) youngest PM?</h2>
<p>With other potential candidates declaring their intention not to compete to succeed Varadkar, Simon Harris, minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, <a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0321/1439071-fine-gael-leadership/">looks set to become taoiseach</a>. A vote could be held at the party conference in April, but as the only candidate at time of writing, Harris may have things wrapped up well before then. Aged 37, Harris would beat Varadkar’s record as the youngest taoiseach (he was 38) and is seen as a strong media performer. </p>
<p>Harris is young, but has been a TD since 2011 and a minister since 2014, notably serving as <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/harris-enjoyed-intense-four-years-as-health-minister/39897913.html">health minister during the pandemic</a>. He will take over a party shedding experienced TDs across the country, which will no doubt hurt them at the election.</p>
<p>Opposition parties are already <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41357644.html">calling for the general election to be brought forward</a>, so Harris must align with both Fianna Fáil and the Greens to push for a longer time frame. Otherwise a snap election could be on the cards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The taoiseach has not explained his sudden decision to leave but could he have an eye on Europe’s top job?
Eoghan Kelly, PhD Candidate, Teaching Assistant & Guest Lecturer, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University Belfast
Muiris MacCarthaigh, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225550
2024-03-12T12:36:10Z
2024-03-12T12:36:10Z
Ireland referendums: what went wrong for the government and why double defeat draws a line under a decade of constitutional reform
<p>Ireland, more than any other EU country, has a long and colourful history of referendums. Another chapter in that history has played out in the form of resounding defeats for two government proposals aimed at modernising the constitution. </p>
<p>One sought to remove a reference to a “woman’s” life “within the home” and recognise the value of “care” provided to others within the home. The other aimed to redefine the “family” as being based on “durable relationships” as well as marriage.</p>
<p>This enthusiasm for referendums – there have been 43 since 1937 – stems partly from an unusual quirk of the Irish constitution. Every amendment to the constitution, no matter how minor or obscure, requires a referendum, as well as an act of the Oireachtas (the national parliament). This is almost unique in Europe.</p>
<p>While a lot of these referendums have been about relatively technical matters, such as the court structure or the approval of new EU treaties, there has been a noticeable change in the way referendums are used in Ireland in recent years.</p>
<p>For a long time, referendums were, most typically, proposed by governments as a sort of means to an end. They were a way of permitting policies and acts which would otherwise have been unconstitutional, like making changes to the political system. Referendums were usually just a procedural requirement, imposed by the constitution, for making certain types of legal changes.</p>
<h2>The ‘post-crash referendums’</h2>
<p>In the years following the financial crisis of 2008 – which hit Ireland particularly badly – the approach to referendums noticeably changed. Amid a national crisis of confidence, <a href="https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/hell-at-the-gates-how-the-financial-crash-hit-ireland/36709945.html">following a crash of historic proportions</a>, a degree of soul-searching was in evidence. </p>
<p>Themes of rebirth and renewal came to prominence within what was historically a conservative (and very stable) political system. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/25895/chapter-abstract/193609555?redirectedFrom=fulltext">There was much talk of a “new republic”</a>, or at least of reforming a political system seen as parochial and clientelist, and as bearing much of the responsibility for the scale of the property crash.</p>
<p>This period also coincided with a spate of revelations about the state’s historical complicity with staggering abuse conducted in religious-run industrial schools, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mother-and-baby-homes-inquiry-now-reveal-the-secrets-of-irelands-psychiatric-hospitals-153608">mother and baby homes</a>, and the notorious Magdalene laundries. A series of high-profile disputes between the church and the state followed over the country’s reckoning with this legacy.</p>
<p>And so, in this light, a new style of referendum arguably emerged. Beginning in around 2012, referendums came to be used as part of a distinctive project of constitutional modernisation. There was an emphasis on removing or updating various parts of the constitution seen as archaic, oppressive or outdated. </p>
<p>This began with a referendum to enshrine children’s rights in 2012, followed by two very high-profile referendums to permit <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-irelands-world-first-popular-vote-on-gay-marriage-42033">marriage equality</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ireland-votes-to-repeal-the-8th-amendment-in-historic-abortion-referendum-and-marks-a-huge-cultural-shift-97297">abortion</a> in 2015 and 2018. In 2018 and 2019, referendums were used to liberalise divorce law and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2019.1584846">decriminalise blasphemy</a>.</p>
<p>These referendums were not simply a means of legislating. They were also part of a deeply symbolic and expressive project. They were understood not just as a route to changing the law, but as a way of asserting a new national identity and values. </p>
<p>They became a way of making collective statements about “who we are”. They were also a way both of reckoning with dark aspects of the past and forging a new national “brand” for the future.</p>
<p>It is true, of course that some of these liberalising referendums, which removed controversial aspects of a Catholic-influenced constitution, related to materially significant issues of sometimes existential importance. The referendum repealing notorious abortion restrictions in the constitution was certainly that. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there was, running through these referendums, a noticeable narrative about national image – both Ireland’s self-image, and its image externally. These constitutional changes were a way of making a statement – of crafting a new national identity. </p>
<p>The Irish people were putting distance between themselves and a conservative past, and even making the country a beacon of liberalism and progress in a troubled world. </p>
<p>Some of these liberalising referendums were, indeed, purely symbolic. The <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/c4aa51-the-referendum-relating-to-children/">children’s rights referendums</a> enacted some grandiose-sounding language about the human rights of children, but made almost no material difference to the lives of children in practice. The blasphemy referendum removed an arcane criminal offence which some regarded as having been effectively impossible to prosecute anyway.</p>
<h2>End of an era</h2>
<p>It’s in this context that we must understand the latest referendums. The 39th amendment proposed to reform <a href="https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html#article41">article 41</a> of the Irish constitution to provide that a “family”, in constitutional law, could be based not only on marriage but also on “durable relationships”. Again, this was understood as liberalising and modernising a constitutional framework where only traditional marital families were given constitutional recognition. </p>
<p>The 40th amendment proposed to remove a controversial gendered provision of article 41, which recognises that, “by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”, and goes on to say: “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”</p>
<p>However, the amendment also added a vaguely worded new article on “care”, in which the state was to recognise the care provided “by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them” and pledging to “strive” to support that care.</p>
<p>In the course of the campaign, the opacity and uncertainty both of the phrases “durable relationship” and of “striving” to support care were widely criticised. They were also the subject of sometimes outlandish speculation bordering on disinformation – for example, the idea that recognition of “durable relationships” would enshrine legal rights for “throuples”, or affect inheritance.</p>
<p>Both amendments were roundly defeated, with an historic 73.9% rejecting the “care” proposal in particular. And while no exit polling gave any comprehensive account of why these referendums were defeated, what is clear is that the symbolic aspects of them – the mere signalling of values they represented – failed to resonate with the public.</p>
<p>These referendums showed the limits of the project of constitutional liberalisation that has been conducted since the great recession. It seems unlikely that the problem lay in this liberalisation “going too far”, or in a decisive conservative shift in public opinion. </p>
<p>Rather, the public was unenthused by the promise of mere recognition or of symbolic change, especially in a context of growing, and very concrete social problems that obviously require concrete material solutions. These referendum defeats are therefore likely to draw a line under a recent pattern of symbolic and “expressive” referendum use in Ireland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eoin Daly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Leo Varadkar has been criticised for expecting the public to vote in favour of adding vague language to the constitution.
Eoin Daly, Lecturer Above The Bar, School of Law, University of Galway
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224820
2024-03-05T13:27:43Z
2024-03-05T13:27:43Z
How Ireland’s double referendum fits into a longer history of voting for constitutional change
<p>The referendums taking place in Ireland on March 8 highlight the importance of language. In <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.ie/referendums/referendum-information/what-are-you-being-asked-to-decide-on/">two votes</a>, the public will decide whether to change the wording in the national constitution so that it no longer implies that a woman’s work is in the home and that a family is founded in marriage. </p>
<p>The votes also highlight the potential dangers for governments that seek to amend their constitutions. While both votes look set to pass, there are questions around why, in amending the constitution, the current government hasn’t taken the opportunity to better support people who work as carers for family members – or the people they care for. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml">Eamon de Valera</a>, the primary creator of the 1937 constitution, would not have envisaged the majority of women working anywhere but at home. Equally, it is unsurprising that Leo Varadkar, the current Taoiseach, has been cautious in the wording his government has proposed for the most recent amendments to the constitution. There has been not been much dispute over the proposal to remove gendered language but the <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.ie/referendums/referendum-information/what-are-you-being-asked-to-decide-on/#CareAmendment">proposed replacement text</a> commits the state to “strive” to provide support to people working in the home but not to do any more than that. </p>
<p>This has been taken by many as a missed opportunity and is clear evidence of Varadkar’s reluctance to follow the advice of the <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/report-of-the-citizens-assembly-on-gender-equality.pdf">citizens’ assembly</a> held on this topic and a <a href="https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/committees/33/gender-equality/">parliamentary committee</a>. Both called for a more ambitious form of wording in the amended constitution. </p>
<h2>Court rulings and public votes</h2>
<p>Political disagreements over Ireland’s constitution date back at least to the 1950s. The courts have long interpreted its wording in surprising ways. Broadly, each case before the courts has reflected the prevalent economic and social attitudes of the time.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2023/05/20/a-story-of-church-and-state-in-1950s-ireland-with-an-intriguing-twist/#:%7E:text=The%20Tilson%20case%20involved%20a,the%20Tilson%20family%20tailoring%20firm.">Tilson Case in 1950</a>, which centred around how the children of a Protestant father and Catholic mother should be raised, was the first striking example. It was decided as part of this case that the constitutional article referring to the “special position” of the Catholic church could lead to church and canon law potentially taking precedence over civil law. This article was uncontroversially deleted from the constitution in a 1972 referendum.</p>
<p>It was in that decade, the 1970s, when the major battles began over the constitution. On one side were those who advocated a basic law which upheld traditional Catholic values. On the other were those who argued for a transition to a more liberal, pluralist society. At the same time, an active supreme court was interpreting the constitution in previously unimaginable ways.</p>
<p>A case brought by <a href="https://www.nwci.ie/learn/article/nwc_mark_50_years_since_may_mcgee_won_landmark_contraception_case">May McGee </a> in 1973 hinged on the constitutional right to privacy but was aimed at, and ended up overturning, a 1935 ban on contraception.</p>
<p>A successful court case on the right of women to sit on juries followed. But then the 1980s witnessed the first of a series of divisive referendums. A referendum to make divorce constitutional failed in 1986 and barely passed in 1995.</p>
<p>Even more acrimonious was the <a href="https://www.referendum.ie/archive/referendum-on-the-right-to-life-of-the-unborn-eighth-amendment-of-the-constitution-bill-1982/">referendum</a> in 1983 which made abortion unconstitutional but, in actuality, led in 1992 to the supreme court interpreting the same article in the constitution as <a href="https://www.thejournal.ie/twenty-years-on-a-timeline-of-the-x-case-347359-Feb2012/">granting women the right to abortion</a>. There followed more referendums that year and again in 2018, when a majority of people voted in a referendum to legalise abortion.</p>
<h2>Lessons from Irish referendums</h2>
<p>Ireland has by now held multiple referendums on amending its constitution. Over the course of these events it has become clear that the government is more likely to succeed in getting people to vote for change when it runs an effective campaign that makes them feel engaged. Perhaps more important than that is to prepare the ground well. Governments win support for legislative and constitutional change when those changes are carefully planned and have been clearly articulated and explained to the electorate prior to the referendum.</p>
<p>When that has not been the case, governments have been defeated in their attempts to amend the constitution. Notable examples which stand out here, include the 2001 vote on the European Union’s <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/in-the-past/the-parliament-and-the-treaties/treaty-of-nice">Nice treaty</a> and then the 2008 vote on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/13/ireland">Lisbon treaty</a>. A 2013 referendum on abolishing the senate, the upper house of the Irish parliament also went against the government.</p>
<p>There is some evidence of complacency on the part of the government and political parties ahead of the March 8 referendums but the expectation, generally, seems to be of <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/majority-irish-voters-intend-vote-121645980.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN7yF8PTQXuRf2WVRtnY56tyshdTKSQXzUMOEK2J0ghmwegrPTJStlvgF19A3u30m86QxtqeUZrnEjLkNQh09CHO4jwaz1Q9mE4FhpMXtLz-EuhVSLfBjqw2EV6kWFYHSAGW3wLKhG9jDXkjC1LPzH5TW-094fiPQLwydX5hiawa">healthy majority in favour of change</a>. This would follow strong majorities for change in the 2018 referendum to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/ireland-votes-by-landslide-to-legalise-abortion">legalise abortion</a>, when 66% of people voted yes, and the 2015 vote that saw 62% of people support same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>The question will not, though, perhaps be whether these referendums transform Ireland into a secular society or more liberal society. It will be whether the state will enact the legislative changes to give effect to the constitution amendments, if passed. Will carers and the people they care for receive real support from the state? And will all families be fully recognised in government policies? That is where the hard work begins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomás Finn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Updating the constitution to reflect more liberal values has been the work of decades.
Tomás Finn, Lecturer in History, University of Galway
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222785
2024-02-06T12:06:12Z
2024-02-06T12:06:12Z
How Sinn Féin reinvented itself from IRA associations to realistic leftwing alternative
<p>Addressing the newly restored Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill assured everyone that she would be working equally for “<a href="https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/this-historic-day-represents-a-new-dawn-northern-ireland-first-minister-michelle-oneills-speech-in-full-4504168">Catholics, Protestants and dissenters</a>”.</p>
<p>This iconic quote from the founder of Irish Republicanism, <a href="https://research.tees.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/16053350/Democracy_religion_and_the_Political_Thought_of_Theobald_Wolfe_Tone_submitted.pdf">Theobald Wolfe Tone</a>, needs no contextualisation in Ireland. It was not just meant to reassure those among unionists who might have misgivings about a Sinn Féin-led government. O’Neill was also addressing her own rank and file. She was guaranteeing that while the party will do its utmost to make Northern Ireland work, it has not lost sight of the ultimate prize – Irish unity.</p>
<p>In a carefully crafted speech full of optimistic prophecies, O’Neill announced a “new dawn” and the start of a “decade of opportunity” for Northern Ireland. She wasted little time in clarifying that she believes there will be a referendum on Irish unity within the next decade. Sinn Féin party president <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/03/26/referendum-on-irish-unity-within-a-decade-mary-lou-mcdonald-says/">Mary Lou McDonald</a> echoed the same sentiments almost immediately in Dublin.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Michelle O'Neill’s first speech as first minister.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Good Friday Agreement provided that the governance of Northern Ireland is predicated on a power-sharing system. While this theoretically made it possible for the party most opposed to the very existence of Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, to lead its government, it was an unimaginable scenario at the turn of the century. Unionism remained solid and politically dominant in a system <a href="https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/partition-of-ireland-explained-477342/">designed to make it so</a>. Sinn Féin equally still had a number of obstacles to overcome on its road to respectability and power – not least shedding its controversial image of a party <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526154569/">closely linked to the IRA.</a></p>
<p>Throughout the peace process, Sinn Féin developed a carefully crafted, two-pronged strategy. It would keep the party strongly rooted in its traditional message while developing a socio-economic programme that could win over the electorate from both constituencies. This has now started to pay off. Sinn Féin surged to win the popular vote in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/10/sinn-fein-declares-victory-irish-general-election">2020 general election in Ireland</a>, even though other parties went on to form the government.</p>
<p>The trend was confirmed in the 2022 Northern Ireland assembly election, when it became the biggest party for the first time, giving O'Neill the right to claim the position of first minister. But the Democratic Unionist Party made their participation in the executive conditional on the renegotiation of the 2021 Brexit deal. A more recent <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53724381">deal</a> brokered by prime minister Rishi Sunak and the EU broke the deadlock, with the DUP agreeing to participate in a Sinn Féin-led government.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the Republic, under the leadership of Mary Lou MacDonald, and a team of high-profile spokespeople on issues such as housing (Eoin Ó Broin having made a name for himself as an expert in the field) and finance (Pierce Doherty’s alternative 2024 budget was described <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/10/04/sinn-feins-alternative-budget-is-carefully-calculated-not-to-scare-off-the-middle-ground/">by Irish Times</a> political editor Pat Leahy as “comprehensive and painstakingly costed”), the party reinvented itself. It succeeded in providing a credible, leftwing alternative to the two-party system that had seen Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dominate Irish politics since independence.</p>
<h2>In government and opposition</h2>
<p>As the only political party organised throughout the island (with the exception of People Before Profit, which holds four seats in the Republic and one in Northern Ireland), much of Sinn Féin’s work on one side of the border is scrutinised on the other.</p>
<p>Being in government on one side and in opposition on the other, all at the same time, will therefore be a delicate balance to sustain. In the Republic, Sinn Féin has kept the two main parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, on their toes. But while it has retained its lead over its two rivals, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/ireland/">opinion polls</a> show that the gap is slowly narrowing. Sinn Féin dropped from an all-time high of 33% in September 2023 to 27% in January 2024 – though it is still ahead of the other parties by a comfortable margin. Sinn Féin’s capacity to prove that it can govern consensually and efficiently in an environment as politically divisive as Northern Ireland will be a useful test ahead of the next general election in the Republic.</p>
<p>In the North, the work of the newly nominated executive will be focused on bread-and-butter issues, such as addressing the crisis in the <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/inside-a-northern-ireland-health-and-social-care-system-in-crisis">NHS</a>, which is reaching breaking point. The political vacuum created by the Democratic Unionist Party’s boycott of the institutions has compounded the problems faced by an ailing economy which <a href="http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/comparing-living-standards-north-and-south/">lags behind the Republic</a> in terms of salaries and living standards. The British government has offered a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-67968994">£3.3bn funding package</a> as part of the deal to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland and this will undoubtedly help to address the more immediate questions of public sector pay, which has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-150-000-public-sector-workers-in-northern-ireland-have-been-on-strike-221455">stagnated</a> since the start of the decade and is the lowest in the UK.</p>
<p>Now that it holds the key ministries of finance, economy and infrastructure, Sinn Féin will have the opportunity (or face the challenge) to demonstrate its ability to make a difference. During their visit to Belfast to mark the restoration of the power-sharing executive, on February 5, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar and his British counterpart Sunak played down the <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/02/05/real-work-starts-now-rishi-sunak-tells-stormont-leaders/">prospects of a united Ireland</a> and insisted on the importance of day-to-day matters. </p>
<p>Indeed, only the secretary of state for Northern Ireland can decide on holding of a referendum on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland. But Sinn Féin is determined to make this happen. O'Neill has pledged that she will not ask anyone in Northern Ireland to surrender their identity. However,‘ we can expect her and her colleagues to continue to put Irish unity at the top of the agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agnès Maillot does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
O'Neill has pledged to represent ‘Catholics, Protestants and dissenters’ but has made plain that she sees that as compatible with a referendum on Irish unity within a decade.
Agnès Maillot, Associate Professor, School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222231
2024-02-01T17:20:55Z
2024-02-01T17:20:55Z
Irish referendum: how the Catholic church shaped Ireland’s constitution to define the status of women
<p>It has been 87 years since feminist and activist Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612029700200154">declared</a> that the new 1937 Irish constitution was based on a “fascist model, in which women would be relegated to permanent inferiority”. </p>
<p>Several clauses were labelled “sinister and retrogressive” by women’s groups who feared gender bias embedded within the constitution would restrict Irish women to their domestic roles as wives and mothers.</p>
<p>Since the constitution entered into force, it has been amended 32 times. The ban on abortion, for example, was overturned in 2018 – a move that the current Irish Taoiseach (prime minister), <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44265492">Leo Varadkar</a>, described as the latest step in a “quiet revolution” towards modernity.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/according-to-irelands-constitution-a-womans-duties-are-in-the-home-but-a-referendum-could-be-about-to-change-its-sexist-wording-222477">According to Ireland’s constitution, a woman's duties are in the home – but a referendum could be about to change its sexist wording</a>
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<p>On March 8 2024 (also International Women’s Day), the Irish electorate will vote once again to amend the constitution and formally change the status of women in Ireland. This time the choice is to either retain Article 41.2 – the “woman in the home” clause – or to replace it with Article 42B that acknowledges the wider concept of family care. </p>
<p>According to Article 42B, the state “recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provison”.</p>
<p>The fact that it has taken 87 years for this to happen would have astounded the women who raised the alarm about Article 41.2 in 1937. Their overarching concern was that the text used reflected a prescriptive presumption that the primary function of women in Irish society was that of wife and mother. </p>
<p>Article 41.2 states that: “by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”. It also asserts that mothers “shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.</p>
<p>What women’s groups quickly recognised in 1937 was the inherent danger of assigning women a specific “social function” that was different from men. This perceived difference had already been used to limit the choices of women prior to 1937. The <a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0219/1116230-ireland-women-juries/">1927 Juries Act</a>, for example, made women exempt from automatic consideration for jury service. </p>
<p>Article 41.2 therefore had the potential to further restrict women’s lives, especially with regards to the right to engage in paid work outside the home. But where did the phrasing for Article 41.2 come from? And what ideology underpinned the assertion that the “natural” role for women was that of wife and mother? </p>
<h2>The ‘natural’ social function of Irish women</h2>
<p>The answer is simple. The text of Article 41.2 comes directly, nearly word for word, from Catholic doctrine. </p>
<p>Pope Leo XIII set out the “natural” duty of women in <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html">Rerum Novarum</a>, a pastoral letter issued in 1891. It stated: “woman is by her nature fitted for home work and it is this which is best adapted to preserve her modesty and promote the good upbringing of children and the wellbeing of the family.” </p>
<p>In 1931, another papal letter, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html">Quadregesimo Anno</a>, was published by Pope Pius XI. The pope proclaimed that: “Mothers, concentrating on household duties, should work primarily in the home or in its immediate vicinity.”</p>
<p>Six years later, in 1937, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera oversaw the drafting of the new Irish constitution. The influence of his Catholic advisors is self-evident. </p>
<p>In the archives of the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, a document reflecting on the position of women in the constitution stated that: “it is an unreality to imagine that the position of an electoral vote abolishes for either men or women…diversity of social function. Nothing will change in law and fact of nature that woman’s natural sphere is in the home.” </p>
<p>Another pope, Benedict XV, was cited in the same document giving the opinion that no “new state of things, nor course of events can ever snatch woman, if she realises her mission, from that sphere which is natural to her – the family”.</p>
<h2>Finish the ’quiet revolution’</h2>
<p>We shouldn’t be surprised that the vernacular of Catholic social teaching, with its pronouncements on the “natural” and prescribed social function of women as wives and mothers, became entrenched in the Irish constitution. The influence of the Catholic church was omnipresent in Irish homes, schools, the media and every aspect of public life throughout the 1920s and 1930s. </p>
<p>Its power was evident in the passing of legislation outlawing divorce, access to birth control and abortion. It infiltrated all aspects of social and cultural life, banning dances or censoring Hollywood films and literature deemed to be a moral danger.</p>
<p>What we should be surprised about is that Article 41.2 is still in the Irish constitution. Today, Ireland is a secular nation. Its citizens now have access to divorce, birth control, legal abortion and equal marriage rights. </p>
<p>Ireland is also a nation slowly, and painfully, coming to terms with the trauma inflicted by the abuses of the Catholic church in schools, mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries. And yet it still has Article 41.2. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-woman-in-the-wall-bbc-drama-about-irelands-magdalene-laundries-is-essential-viewing-212061">The Woman in the Wall: BBC drama about Ireland's Magdalene Laundries is essential viewing</a>
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<p>If Ireland is to fully shake off the shackles of its Catholic past and achieve its ambition to be a modern and progressive nation, then Article 41.2 must be consigned to the annals of history on March 8 2024.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222231/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitriona Beaumont receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
She is a Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin, Ireland (2023-2025).</span></em></p>
Ireland is to vote on modernising its conservative Catholic constitution in March.
Caitriona Beaumont, Professor of Social History, London South Bank University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222477
2024-02-01T17:18:52Z
2024-02-01T17:18:52Z
According to Ireland’s constitution, a woman’s duties are in the home – but a referendum could be about to change its sexist wording
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572865/original/file-20240201-21-2wan8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C403%2C4724%2C3288&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-lying-on-kitchen-counter-92597254">Shutterstock/Everett Collection </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 8 – International Women’s Day – Irish citizens will vote in a referendum on whether or not to replace the so-called “woman in the home” clause in the Irish constitution.</p>
<p>This clause, which dates from 1937, specifies that: “The State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.” It goes on to say that: “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”</p>
<p>Originally, the purpose of the provision was to acknowledge the importance of care in the home, which was then provided almost exclusively by mothers. The purpose was to ensure that mothers could remain in the home and would not be forced to work due to financial reasons.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/irish-referendum-how-the-catholic-church-shaped-irelands-constitution-to-define-the-status-of-women-222231">Irish referendum: how the Catholic church shaped Ireland's constitution to define the status of women</a>
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<p>However, the state help implied by the wording was never actually put into practice – women were never supported to provide care in the home. Worse, the constitution was often used to bolster arguments that a woman’s place was in the home and that policies which excluded women from work were acceptable.</p>
<p>Now, as part of a double referendum, Irish citizens will have the chance to change the constitution to a more gender-neutral wording. This is alongside <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1pjlmgp1ro">another vote</a> on whether to change the constitution’s definition of “family” to expand it beyond marriage. </p>
<h2>What’s at stake?</h2>
<p>Some confusion seems to have arisen ahead of the referendum, with some groups arguing that removing the reference to women will mean removing any right of women to stay at home and raise their children.</p>
<p>However, the reality is that the provision has never resulted in any rights for women to remain in the home. Nor has it resulted in any economic duty on the state to provide for those who wish to do so. This is primarily due to the wording which only requires the state to “endeavour” to provide such support.</p>
<p>That effectively means the government only has to make an effort – not that it is obliged to help. In fact, any attempts to use the provision to provide for such rights have <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/what-happened-when-a-badly-beaten-wife-put-the-constitutions-line-about-womens-life-in-the-home-to-the-test/a1475658715.html">failed in the courts</a>. So, the current provision is not only an anachronism but a useless one. It has never had any positive legal effect. We are instead left with the declaration, in the most basic law of the state, that women (and not men) have duties they are expected to attend to in the home.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ireland-abortion-referendum-voters-have-freed-women-from-this-insidious-law-97295">Ireland abortion referendum: voters have freed women from this insidious law</a>
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<p>This part of the constitution has long been controversial and there have been many recommendations to either delete or replace it. The most recent of these came from a <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/report-of-the-citizens-assembly-on-gender-equality.pdf">citizens’ assembly</a> established for the very purpose of advising on the fate of the clause.</p>
<p>In 2022, this assembly voted to replace the clause with a gender-neutral alternative. But the assembly also wanted the words to have meaning rather than just being symbolic, so it proposed a wording that would oblige the state to take reasonable measures to support care, drawing on similar <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#29">wording</a> from the South African constitution. A parliamentary committee set up to consider the proposals also endorsed this wording. </p>
<p>However, the Irish government has decided to put a watered-down version to the people. The amendment being proposed in the referendum reads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>An important change – but an opportunity missed</h2>
<p>The wording is a disappointment for those who had pushed for reform. While it replaces the gendered language and removes the implication that a woman’s proper place is in the home, it fails to commit the state to providing support for people who work in the home caring for others. They can no more expect to receive benefits or rights that compensate them for this essential work than they would have before the referendum.</p>
<p>The proposed text merely replaces the word “endeavour” with the word “strive”. This means it is unlikely to lead to any concrete rights or any legally recognisable duty on the part of the state.</p>
<p>So, while one historical anachronism looks set to be corrected in this referendum, Ireland is still essentially being asked to replace a non-operative clause containing outdated and patronising language with a new non-operative clause with slightly more acceptable language.</p>
<p>But disappointing though it may be that no positive rights or duties are likely to ensue, the removal from the constitution of a 1930s mentality that does not reflect in any way the reality of Irish life in the 21st century is at least an improvement – and surely worth a yes vote.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Cahillane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A vote on International Women’s Day should make the constitution more gender-neutral – but there is still a catch.
Laura Cahillane, Associate Professor of Law, University of Limerick, University of Limerick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220974
2024-01-31T16:54:55Z
2024-01-31T16:54:55Z
Brigid’s Day: how a festival of fire and fertility connects Christian Ireland with its pagan past
<p>Brigid’s Day is the first traditional festival of the calendar year in Ireland and has been for centuries. However, it was only in 2023 that the government <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjlye08lx43o">officially recognised Brigid’s Day</a> as an official holiday. </p>
<p>The Celtic year was traditionally broken up by four festivals, known as the quarter days: Imbolg, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain. Imbolg (also spelled Imbolc) is celebrated on February 1 and signals the beginning of the Celtic season of light, a time for renewal and essentially <a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0131/1112002-how-the-celtic-festival-of-imbolg-marks-the-first-day-of-spring/">a new year</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the rituals associated with Imbolg (and the other quarter days) actually begin on the eve of the festival because, in Celtic belief, days begin at sunset as opposed to sunrise. Imbolg is a festival that has <a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0131/1429449-kildare-st-brigid-cogitosus-tombs-pilgrims-imbolc/">strong associations</a> with Brigit (the early Celtic goddess) and Brigid (the later saint) and is associated with ideas of renewal, light, fertility, fire, food production.</p>
<p>The beliefs and lore around both Brigit the goddess and Brigid the saint are almost identical and it is generally accepted that one developed from the other. </p>
<h2>The connections between Brigit and Brigid</h2>
<p>Brigit was the daughter of Dagda, a member of the mythical <em>Tuatha Dé Dannan</em> (Irish warrior army). She was a poet, a smith and a healer. She was very much associated with women, fire and fertility. During Imbolg, Brigid was honoured with feasts and bonfires, in the hopes that the new season would bring a fruitful harvest and good luck. </p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/8089/chapter-abstract/153513559?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Saint Brigid</a> has similar associations and was said to have been born in the 5th century on the threshold of a door between this world and another. She never wanted to marry, despite her father’s wishes, and was said to have gouged out her own eye to ruin her great beauty. Her sight returned instantly but she gave her life to charity. </p>
<p>In pre-Christian times <a href="https://www.kildare.ie/community/notices/perpetual-flame.asp">a sacred fire was kept burning in Kildare</a>, which according to several scholars, priestesses gathered around invoking the goddess Brigit to protect their herds and provide a bountifully harvest. </p>
<p>Many pre-Christian traditions in Ireland were adapted and it is believed that Brigid’s flame was lit on the <a href="https://brigidine.org.au/about-us/our-patroness/brigids-light-fire/">same site</a> as the pre-Christian fire. In the 12th century, the scholar <a href="https://solasbhride.ie/the-perpetual-flame/">Giraldus Cambrensis</a> (Gerald of Wales) wrote that 19 nuns took turns keeping the fire continuously burning at Kildare in honour of Brigid. </p>
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<img alt="A Brigid's cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572469/original/file-20240131-27-c6b7j3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Brigid’s cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traditional-st-brigids-cross-made-green-2225749173">John and Penny/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>On the eve of the festival of Brigid, rushes were strewn outside the house and doors left unlocked so Brigid could enter. Offerings were often left for her in the house and Brigid would bestow blessings and ensure protection for the year ahead.</p>
<p>The <em>Brat Bhríde</em> (Brigid’s ribbon/cloth) is hung on the handle of the door and it is believed that Brigid endows the cloth with <a href="https://www.creativeireland.gov.ie/en/event/my-brat-bhride/">healing powers</a> . In the <a href="https://duchas.ie/en/info/cbe">Irish Folklore Commission’s Schools’ Collection of the 1930s</a> many descriptions of this tradition exist, as well as the manner in which the cloth was later used to heal headaches and other mild conditions. Many believed that the same piece of cloth or ribbon left out over a number of years would hold even more healing power.</p>
<p>The making of Brigid’s crosses has been the most continuous and widespread of the traditions associated with the festival. Made traditionally on 31 January from rushes or straw, <a href="https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4623000/4622437/4630519?HighlightText=brigid%27s+crosses&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga">the equal-armed crosses</a> were placed above the door of the home, over the fire or placed in the traditional thatched roof to ward off bad spirits, bad luck and to keep the house and its occupants safe for the year ahead. </p>
<p>Regional variations of the crosses were common and the <a href="https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Collection/St-Brigid-s-Crosses">National Museum of Ireland’s collection</a> is quite vast. Like many traditions associated with Brigid, the significance of the crosses is open to interpretation. </p>
<p>Some may connect them with religion but many more consider them simply a tradition long held by their ancestors. A gift of a cross today can simply signal the giving of good wishes and good health for the year ahead.</p>
<h2>The Biddy tradition</h2>
<p>Communities in Mid Kerry in the south-west of Ireland have had a continuous and particular commitment to Brigid. They have always celebrated the masquerade tradition associated with her, known as <a href="https://nationalinventoryich.tcagsm.gov.ie/mid-kerry-biddy/">the Biddy</a>. </p>
<p>A group of performers who dress in mostly white, wear traditional straw hats and parade around the area, calling to various households en route. They bring with them an effigy of Brigid and perform music and songs. </p>
<p>The Biddy tradition is connected with the bestowing of good luck and prosperity on the community, crops and animals for the coming year, and the Brigid effigy in particular is considered a great source of positivity. While the celebration today has expanded to include cross and straw-making workshops, butter-making classes and much outreach work in the community, the Biddy forms the focal point of the celebration.</p>
<p>Increased awareness of the goddess and saint is very apparent throughout Ireland and in diaspora communities today. In 2023, the feast day became <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjlye08lx43o">an official holiday in Ireland</a> and new opportunities to celebrate have arisen. </p>
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<p>Festivals and events are programmed throughout the country and online, many focusing on women, empowerment, food, sustainability and craft as well as the more traditional material culture (crosses, <em>brat bhríde</em> and strawcraft) and storytelling which has always been central to the tradition. </p>
<p><a href="https://dublin.ie/whats-on/brigit/">Brigit: Dublin City Celebrating Women</a> is an example of a new celebration of the festival. Now in its second year, it focuses on workshops and events which are influenced by the Celtic goddess in particular. Crafts traditionally associated with women, such as lace-making, are programmed alongside Smith workshops and screen-printing. The festival definitely presents a contemporary and diverse view of all that Brigit and Imbolg represent.</p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoife Granville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The traditional start of spring in Ireland on February 1 is now marked with celebrations of women, empowerment, food, sustainability and craft.
Aoife Granville, Lecturer in Béaloideas (Folklore), University College Cork
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221699
2024-01-29T17:34:59Z
2024-01-29T17:34:59Z
What Canada can learn from Ireland on citizen engagement to bolster democracy
<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/what-canada-can-learn-from-ireland-on-citizen-engagement-to-bolster-democracy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadian democracy is under pressure. Recent challenges have ranged from Ottawa’s so-called <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/idUSRTS593FA/">Freedom Convoy</a> protests in 2022, which resulted in the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act (unjustifiably, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-federal-court-1.7091891">according to a recent court ruling</a>), to Ontario’s enactment of legislation reducing the size of Toronto City Council during <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2021/2021scc34/2021scc34.html">the 2018 municipal election</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps most worrying, however, is the <a href="https://www.policymagazine.ca/canadas-growing-problem-with-trust-in-government/">consistent trend</a> that shows citizens are increasingly disillusioned with their democratic institutions. </p>
<p>This is a moment that calls out for democratic renewal. In the search for inspiration for methods of re-engaging citizens, Canada might look to Ireland. </p>
<h2>Irish inspiration</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2018.1534832">Ireland has become a trailblazer</a> internationally for integrating citizens’ assemblies into its democratic process. Citizens’ assemblies are a form of what are known as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1sr6gw9">deliberative mini-publics</a>,” representative samples of ordinary citizens who deliberate together and make proposals for reform. </p>
<p>Modern examples of deliberative mini-publics stem from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/robert-a-dahl-dies-at-98-defined-politics-and-power.html">American political scientist Robert Dahl’s</a> idea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547944.003.0002">what he called “minipopulus”</a> in which a random cohort of citizens is tasked with deliberating on an issue with the assistance of experts. Ideally, it then produces a reasoned judgment on the best policies to pursue. </p>
<p>The judgments of the minipopulus, Dahl argued, would represent the views of the wider community if it was given the opportunity to access the best knowledge available and engage in a deliberative process. In other words, the legitimacy of the minipopulus’s views would derive from the legitimacy of democracy itself.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-deliberative-democracy-research-in-nepal-shows-it-could-spur-global-youth-voting-189204">What's 'deliberative' democracy? Research in Nepal shows it could spur global youth voting</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One of the world’s first citizens’ assemblies took place in Canada in 2004, in the form of the <a href="https://participedia.net/case/1">British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly</a> which deliberated on electoral reform. It set the model for the subsequent <a href="https://participedia.net/case/46">Ontario Citizens’ Assembly</a> on the same subject in 2007. </p>
<p>In each case, the assembly’s recommendations were put to referendum, but in neither case did the referendum pass. The momentum around citizens’ assemblies in Canada has since faded.</p>
<h2>Irish abortion laws</h2>
<p>The Irish experience has been different. Citizens’ assemblies in Ireland began in 2012 in response to public distrust of elite institutions following <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/great-recession/">the 2008 recession.</a> </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.constitutionalconvention.ie">Constitutional Convention</a> — an assembly including both elected representatives and ordinary citizens — was mandated to make recommendations on a range of matters, from marriage equality to the voting age. </p>
<p>In 2016, the Irish government established the first <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/overview-previous-assemblies/2016-2018-citizens-assembly/">citizens’ assembly</a> composed entirely of randomly selected citizens. Its first topic was Ireland’s constitutional position on abortion. </p>
<p>Abortion was an explosive issue in Ireland since the controversial insertion of a 1983 amendment to the country’s constitution that effectively banned abortion in most circumstances. Public demand for a referendum on the issue had been building, and the government’s decision to establish a citizens’ assembly was criticized by some as a stalling tactic.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the assembly <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FirstReport_EIGHTAMENDMENT.pdf">ultimately recommended</a> a radical liberalization of the law to allow for abortion without restriction for the first time in Irish history. </p>
<p>Following the resounding referendum result in favour of this proposal, lawmakers enacted a new legislative framework, based around the model recommended by the assembly — an extraordinary example of tangible mini-public impact on a landmark legal reform.</p>
<h2>Not a silver bullet</h2>
<p>Of course, not all citizen processes are so impactful. Indeed, the Irish Citizens’ Assembly has produced recommendations on other topics that have not achieved the same — or any — uptake. </p>
<p>But since 2016, citizens’ assemblies have started to become part of the architecture of constitutional and policy change in Ireland. Since 2020, assemblies have taken place on <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/report-of-the-citizens-assembly-on-gender-equality.pdf">gender equality</a>, <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/ReportonBiodiversityLoss.pdf">biodiversity</a>, <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/report_dublincitizensassembly_final_lowres.pdf">models of local government</a> and <a href="https://citizensassembly.ie/assembly-on-drugs-use/recommendations/">drug use</a>. It remains to be seen how or if the recommendations will eventually result in constitutional or legislative changes.</p>
<p>Citizens’ assemblies are not a silver bullet — their impact depends on the appetite of politicians to implement their recommendations and many other factors. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-eu-citizens-assembly-could-help-to-renew-european-democracy-98894">How an EU citizens' assembly could help to renew European democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is, however, a strong case for revisiting citizens’ assemblies in Canada, not least the significant contemporary challenges facing Canadian democracy. The perceived failings of prior Canadian experiments with citizens’ assemblies are no reason to abandon these efforts. </p>
<p>The disappointing outcomes of the referendums that followed those processes were not attributable to a failure of citizens to deliberate and agree on reform; the reasons for failure were many, both legal and political. </p>
<p>By all accounts, the participants in those assemblies showed <a href="https://cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2008/Leduc.pdf">enthusiasm and energy</a> at becoming engaged in shaping their country’s values.</p>
<h2>Canadian opportunities</h2>
<p>A raft of areas of law in Canada are now in need of reform. The federal government has <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2023/02/government-of-canada-appoints-president-and-commissioners-to-the-law-commission-of-canada.html">outlined a range of priorities</a> for the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/law-commission-canada.html">Law Commission of Canada</a>, including racism in the law, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, access to justice, climate change and technological changes. </p>
<p>The Irish experience has shown that citizens are capable not only of deliberating on broad constitutional issues, but technical legislative matters too. </p>
<p>What’s more, citizens’ assemblies can serve a particularly important role when elected representatives have a vested interest. That includes on topics like electoral reform because it may be unrealistic to expect politicians to substantially reform a system that resulted in their election in the first place. Citizens have no such conflicts.</p>
<p>Canada has so far avoided the more extreme attacks on democracy witnessed by its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/04/us/january-6-capitol-trump-investigation.html">nearest neighbour</a>, the United States. In the face of declining public participation, however, there is no room for complacency. A fresh approach to citizen engagement is an exciting prospect, worthy of serious consideration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seána Glennon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As Canada’s nearest neighbour grapples with serious attacks on democracy, a fresh approach to citizen engagement in Canada is an exciting prospect, worthy of serious consideration.
Seána Glennon, Doctoral Fellow, Constitutional Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221788
2024-01-25T12:21:00Z
2024-01-25T12:21:00Z
Ireland’s asylum debate has turned violent thanks to the spread of misinformation and disinformation
<p>The issue of asylum in Ireland has become increasingly contentious and fraught over the past year. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said arrests will be made after a spate of arson attacks against <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/01/18/varadkar-says-there-will-be-arrests-over-recent-arson-attacks-on-asylum-seeker-accommodation/#:%7E:text=Taoiseach%20Leo%20Varadkar%20has%20said,them%20having%20occurred%20in%202023.">properties linked to housing asylum seekers</a>. </p>
<p>Protests have been held outside hotels and shelters across the country. And, notoriously, the riots that took place in Dublin in November 2023 were sparked by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/27/dublin-riots-far-right-ireland-anti-immigrant">claims spread on social media</a> that several violent stabbings in the city centre were carried out by an immigrant – who turned out to be a naturalised citizen. </p>
<p>A perfect storm has unfolded in Ireland in recent years. The number of asylum seekers has increased sharply <a href="https://ipo.gov.ie/en/IPO/20240109%20IPO%20Website%20Statistics%20Report%20Dec%202023%20FINAL.pdf/Files/20240109%20IPO%20Website%20Statistics%20Report%20Dec%202023%20FINAL.pdf">(to over 13,000 per year in the past two years)</a> and many Ukrainians have sought temporary protection <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?oldid=594548">(about 100,000 since the war began)</a>. All the while, Ireland has been experiencing a housing crisis. Record numbers of Irish people are in emergency accommodation and there has been a surge in <a href="https://homelessnessinireland.ie/homelessness-in-ireland/">rough sleeping</a>. </p>
<p>This creates the impression that asylum seekers may somehow be responsible for the housing crisis or competing with Irish people for scarce resources. That’s certainly an impression that has been cleverly seized on by the far right, which has been spreading damaging tropes and seeking to capitalise on protests by local communities against the opening of <a href="https://tippfm.com/news/community/far-right-protestors-told-leave-roscrea-ipa-protest/">new asylum reception centres</a>. This is therefore a good moment to dispel some of the leading myths.</p>
<h2>‘The inn is full’</h2>
<p>When a County Galway hotel that was due to accommodate asylum seekers was set on fire in December, a local Fianna Fáil councillor <a href="https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/fianna-fil-councillor-states-inn-31696793">said</a> that “the inn is full”. The councillor has been reported to his party over the comments but not before he’d already given the impression that Ireland is inundated with asylum seekers.</p>
<p>There has been a marked increase in the number of people claiming asylum in Ireland over the past two years, placing Ireland for the first time in the top half of EU member states as an asylum destination. However, Ireland received just 1.4% of the almost 1 million people applying for asylum in EU countries in 2022. By contrast, Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Italy received, between them, almost <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tps00191/default/table?lang=en&category=t_migr.t_migr_asy">75% of asylum applications</a>. When further compared with impoverished <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/countries/bangladesh">asylum-hosting countries</a>, any suggestion that Ireland is overburdened does not hold up.</p>
<h2>‘Asylum seekers are causing the housing crisis’</h2>
<p>Given the accommodation crisis in Ireland, it is understandable that some people think asylum seekers are competing with Irish citizens for scarce resources. However, the two problems – the accommodation crisis facing Irish people and the accommodation crisis facing asylum seekers – are distinct from one another, even if they overlap. </p>
<p>The former problem is linked to successive government policies relating to homelessness, housing delivery, planning laws, house and rent prices and support for buyers and renters. The latter problem is a product of direct provision.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving-country/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/services-for-asylum-seekers-in-ireland/direct-provision/#1cebfb">Direct provision</a> is the Irish system of asylum accommodation that has existed since 2000, whereby private contractors profit enormously from providing bed and board to asylum seekers. </p>
<p>The accommodation is often overcrowded, the environment unsafe for children, the food unnourishing and the general conditions a risk to <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/i-live-in-direct-provision-it-s-a-devastating-system-and-it-has-thrown-away-millions-1.4291670">mental health</a>. Direct provision has been the subject of numerous critical domestic and <a href="https://www.ihrec.ie/app/uploads/2020/01/Submission-to-the-UN-Committee-against-Torture-on-the-List-of-Issues-for-the-Third-Examination-of-Ireland.pdf">international reports</a>, not one but two major <a href="https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/93410/d5f81351-2c06-4d50-bfe7-beaa74203a80.pdf#page=null">government reviews</a> and a government <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/7aad0-minister-ogorman-publishes-the-white-paper-on-ending-direct-provision/">white paper</a>. </p>
<p>The weekly allowance paid to asylum seekers places them below the poverty line (€38.80 per week per adult, €29.80 per child). Since the government relies on the private market for supply, it cannot guarantee that enough people will be able to get direct provision places. As a result, asylum seekers are also placed in emergency accommodation or, increasingly, have to sleep rough <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e202e-statistics-on-international-protection-applicants-not-offered-accommodation/">(more than 600 asylum seekers are currently on the streets)</a>.</p>
<p>And yet nothing has been done to dismantle direct provision and replace it with something else. Indeed, only since the issue has gained prominence in recent weeks have tangible alternatives been advanced by government ministers. </p>
<p>The idea of a number (perhaps six) state-owned reception centres has been mooted. While this would be an improvement on private service providers, questions remain about how a public system would work, particularly in light of Ireland’s history of institutional care, such as in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mother-and-baby-homes-inquiry-now-reveal-the-secrets-of-irelands-psychiatric-hospitals-153608">Magdalene laundries</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23724481">industrial schools</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Asylum seekers are dangerous’</h2>
<p>Asylum seekers, and particularly single young men, are often perceived as a <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/02/04/jennifer-oconnell-why-is-the-government-perpetuating-tropes-about-single-male-asylum-seekers/">dangerous group</a>. Their undocumented status and gender make them highly suspect.</p>
<p>Many asylum seekers are indeed undocumented – but not by choice. They end up that way because EU countries including Ireland place asylum-producing countries on visa blacklists, so people coming from those countries will probably be denied a visa.</p>
<p>It is no surprise, then, that asylum seekers have to enter the state on false or fraudulent documentation or via clandestine means, on boats and in shipping containers. Nonetheless, once they claim asylum, extensive checks are done, including cross-checking fingerprints with various EU databases. </p>
<p>Nor is the gender of asylum seekers relevant. In fact, because of conditions in their country of origin and during the perilous journey to get here, many asylum-seeking men are likely to have been victims of criminality and human rights abuses. </p>
<p>The main criminal acts linked to asylum are the trespass and public order offences associated with the protests against new asylum centres, the arson attacks, the intimidation of asylum seekers and the spreading of lies about this vulnerable group.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ciara Smyth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tension has boiled over into threats of violence and suspicious fires at hotels accommodating asylum seekers.
Ciara Smyth, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of Galway
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220428
2024-01-05T16:14:13Z
2024-01-05T16:14:13Z
How Ireland’s Nollaig na mBan evolved from a day off housework to a celebration of women’s achievements
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567868/original/file-20240104-19-8i38k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C16%2C5447%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-asian-friends-praying-over-christmas-2224084259">Butsaya/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing up in west Kerry, Christmas was (and still is) not officially over until after <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> (Women’s Christmas) on January 6 – candles are lit in windows and decorations are not taken down until the next day. </p>
<p>I’ve celebrated this since I was a child. My grandmother loved <em>Nollaig na mBan</em>, when my Dad would collect her around lunchtime and bring her to visit with her sister in Dún Chaoin, a village in west County Kerry. They would both dress in their Sunday best, my grandmother wearing the colourful beaded necklace she saved for special occasions. </p>
<p>Like <a href="https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/stories?SearchText=Nollaig+na+mBan&SearchLanguage=ga&Page=1&PerPage=20">women all over Ireland</a> on January 6, the two sisters would have a catch up, eat some cake and maybe even have a glass of punch before deciding what other calls they wanted to make to their friends that day. My dad was their chauffeur because <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> was traditionally a “day off” for women after organising and executing a busy Christmas holiday for their families.</p>
<p>For my grandmother’s generation in West Kerry, it was a day to catch up and socialise with other local women who had worked hard over Christmas. After currant cake and chats in various homes, my dad would drive them to one of the local pubs to meet other friends and where there might be some music. The ladies would continue their catch-ups there over sherries and hot brandies – a lovely way to finish up their busy Christmas season. </p>
<h2>Celebrating Nollaig na mBan around Ireland</h2>
<p>The tradition of <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> has been celebrated <a href="https://www.rte.ie/archives/2022/1207/1340521-nollaig-na-mban/">for generations</a> in West Kerry. Elsewhere in counties Kerry and Cork, as well as other <em>Gaeltacht</em> (Irish-speaking) areas it was also common, but in many other communities around Ireland it was not a tradition at all. </p>
<p>In these places, January 6 is more likely known as “Little Christmas” (because would finish the leftovers of larger Christmas feasts) or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epiphany">the Feast of the Epiphany</a>, the last of the 12 Days of Christmas. <em>Oíche na dTrí Rithe</em> (the Night of the Three Kings) marks the visit of the three wise men to the baby Jesus. People place the three kings in their Christmas nativity cribs, and often <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1185674">light three candles</a> in their windows to mark the common lore around the kings turning water into wine on the January 6. As Irish folklorist <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1185674">Kevin Danaher wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Oíche na dTrí Rithe,<br>
Sea deintear fíon den uisce</em></p>
<p>(The Night of the Three Kings,<br>
The water turns to wine)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s only been in recent years that I’ve realised how lucky I was to have grown up with such a strong tradition of celebrating women on this day. And from what was traditionally a time when women could visit each other for a chat over the food and drink of their choice, the day has since become a chance to go out, support and celebrate each other. </p>
<p>In 1970, Danaher <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1185674">wrote of <em>Nollaig na mBan</em></a>: “Christmas Day was marked by beef and whiskey, men’s fare, while on Little Christmas Day the dainties preferred by women – cake, tea and wine, were more in evidence”.</p>
<p>While during the Christmas season foods were heavier, by January 6 people were generally finishing off the bits and pieces of leftover food. Certainly, “dainties” and currant cakes were the norm for my grandmother’s gatherings. And <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-40778976.html#:%7E:text=There%20are%20many%20Irish%20folk,and%20women%2C%20says%20the%20historian.">the saying</a>: <em>“Nollaig na mBan, Nollaig gan mhaith”</em> (Women’s Christmas, no good Christmas) was sometimes bandied around by men as a bit of a jibe that alludes to the “lesser” foods typically eaten on the day.</p>
<p>When we read about <a href="https://www.farmersjournal.ie/life/features/today-nollaig-na-mban-means-taking-a-day-to-appreciate-the-women-in-our-lives-740590">the origins</a> of the tradition today, many articles focus on the idea that women took the day off from their <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/nollaig-na-mban-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-being-celebrated/41212081.html">usual housework and chores</a>. But during and since my granny’s time, many women still undertook the usual duties in the morning, putting aside time to rest and socialise from lunchtime onwards.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of a woman standing in front of a sweeping sea view with a donkey." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568022/original/file-20240105-28-iobd5t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s grandmother in 1942, Com Dhíneol Thuaidh (Coumeenoole North), Kerry. The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0621, Page 413 by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://duchas.ie/en/cbeg/20688">Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh / Dúchas, National Folklore Commission</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modern-day Nollaig na mBan traditions</h2>
<p>In the past ten years or so, <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> has <a href="https://youtu.be/X1Wz9i4vkZY?si=giMbbOgG2hxxgFJC">risen in popularity</a> all over Ireland, with city pubs and restaurants from Belfast to Cork advertising special menus and <a href="https://irishwriterscentre.ie/whats-on/nollaig-na-mban-2019/">events</a>. For the second year, a <a href="https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/nollaig-na-mban-seven-events-you-need-to-know-about-in-dublin/a42308933.html"><em>Nollaig na mBan</em> festival</a> is celebrating women in north County Dublin. </p>
<p>Increased awareness of this tradition has spread via social media and other coverage, undoubtedly helping to stoke this enthusiasm. Online discussion around <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> often centres on <a href="https://twitter.com/NGIreland/status/1479063287132209152">celebrating historical figures</a> or creatives, alongside pictures women post of themselves with their female family members and friends. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N0riRMO0iyM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Women celebrating Nollaig na mBan at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin in 2020 name their ‘Herstory Heroines’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today in west Kerry, <em>Nollaig na mBan</em> is <a href="https://www.rte.ie/archives/2022/1207/1340521-nollaig-na-mban/">celebrated with great fervour</a> and in many ways is very similar to my granny’s time, although we tend to gather in local hotels, restaurants and pubs for our catch-ups. Grannies, mums, sisters and daughters often hold brunch and lunchtime meet-ups, while groups of friends and work colleagues might celebrate at night.</p>
<p>January 6 is still a time to remember and <a href="https://twitter.com/NGIreland/status/1479063287132209152">celebrate women</a> in Ireland, but it’s become much more similar to the way International Women’s Day (on March 8) is celebrated: it’s a day to read and share work by <a href="https://irishwriterscentre.ie/whats-on/nollaig-na-mban-2024-bodies-of-work/">female writers</a>, poets and <a href="https://www.windmilllanerecording.com/nollaig-na-mban-at-windmill-lane/">musicians</a>, a day to wear jewellery and clothes by Ireland’s many female designers, whether it’s a <a href="https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/fashion/2023/0712/1394124-margaret-oconnor-on-designing-for-everyday-queens-of-all-class/">Margaret O'Connor neckheadpiece</a> or <a href="https://www.image.ie/style/irish-design-spotlight-manley-754521">an Emma Manley leather skirt</a>.</p>
<p><em>Nollaig na mBan</em> is a day to remember how far women in Ireland have come since the latew 1970s before which bans against <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41041625.html">contraception</a> and <a href="https://ictu.ie/blog/marriage-bar-ban-employing-married-women">married women working</a> limited our freedom. But it also reminds us how far women have yet to go in gaining true equality in business and society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:agranville@ucc.ie">agranville@ucc.ie</a> previously received funding but not currently from Culture Ireland, Arts Council of Ireland, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Kerry County Council. She is affiliated with the Board of the Arts Council of Ireland and works at the Folklore Department, University College Cork. </span></em></p>
Nollaig na mBan marks the end of the Christmas season on January 6, but is also a day to celebrate Mná na hÉireann (women of Ireland).
Aoife Granville, Lecturer in Béaloideas (Folklore), University College Cork
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220251
2023-12-27T09:10:47Z
2023-12-27T09:10:47Z
Seamus Heaney: ten years after his death, the generosity and warmth of his rich poetic voice endures
<p>The English war poet Wilfred Owen once wrote, “Celebrity is the last infirmity I desire.” Killed in France at the age of 25, unpublished and unknown, “celebrity” for Owen was a posthumous phenomenon. By contrast, celebrity status for the Irish poet <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/seamus-heaney">Seamus Heaney</a> – “Famous Seamus” – came early in his life.</p>
<p>The eldest of nine children raised on a small farm called Mossbawn in County Derry – which was so crucial to his imaginative development – his first collection, <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/death-of-a-naturalist/seamus-heaney/9780571230839">Death of a Naturalist</a>, was accepted for publication by Faber when he was just 26.</p>
<p>Thirty years later, he became the fourth Irishman to <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/summary/">win the Nobel Prize for Literature</a>, following <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1925/shaw/facts/">Shaw</a>, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1923/yeats/biographical/">Yeats</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1969/summary/">Beckett</a>. By the time of his death in 2013, Heaney’s books accounted for some <a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/seamus-heaney/">two-thirds of the sales</a> of contemporary poets in the UK.</p>
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<p>Always conscious of Owen’s example, as well as Yeats, Frost or the Romantic poets, Heaney shares with them all the unusual capacity to reach a much larger audience than poetry generally enjoys.</p>
<p>Readers <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/i-grieved-for-my-husband-not-seamus-heaney-the-poet-says-widow-marie/35043954.html">felt his death in 2013 as a personal loss</a>, bereft as they were of a familiar and intimate voice that had accompanied them through half a century’s life of writing, with Heaney’s own story woven into the turbulent story of Ireland.</p>
<h2>A life in letters</h2>
<p>The recently published edition of <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-letters-of-seamus-heaney/seamus-heaney/9780571341085#:%7E:text=Spanning%20his%20early%20days%20in,from%20a%20titan%20of%20poetry.">Heaney’s letters</a>, edited by poet Christopher Reid, is a marvellous addition for an audience always hungry for more Heaney.</p>
<p>Beginning with his “new life” in 1965 – marriage, house-buying in Belfast, manuscript acceptance – it bears witness to what Reid calls “the sheer outward-facing busyness” of Heaney’s life. It was a busyness that brought, alongside celebrity, increasingly obvious pressures on a poet always generous with himself, his time and his work.</p>
<p>It’s unsurprising that as his fame grew, so too did the demands made on him. And as writer Bel Mooney <a href="https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/books/329937">noted recently</a>, although “all of us who wanted a piece of him could have been fobbed off”, he was “just too nice”. The letters – abundant and revelatory, evidencing, as Reid puts it, Heaney’s “delight in his own fertile rhetoric” – are a treasure trove of delights for the reader.</p>
<p>But they prove Owen’s point about the challenges of celebrity, too: “Excuse the stationery … this jotter is to hand”; “Please forgive me for not being in touch”; “Please excuse the pencil, I’m on the plane …”; “You deserved to hear from me before this”; “Hurriedly, with love – Seamus”.</p>
<p>The generosity and warmth of the poet as a public figure is, of course, one of the reasons why he was and is beloved by many – not least those who, in huge numbers, encountered him in person through a lifetime of lectures, readings, workshops and launches. He once joked that one day his unsigned books would be more valuable.</p>
<h2>Faith in poetry</h2>
<p>That warmth and generosity came at a cost to Heaney personally, as he struggled to protect from public scrutiny those “whole areas of one’s life that one wants to keep free from the gaze of print”. He wanted to shield as well those elements of his “remembered soul landscape” that were the source of his inspiration – what Wordsworth termed “the hiding-places of my power”.</p>
<p>Protect them he did since it is, in the end, the imaginative generosity of the poems themselves, not the personal generosity of the man, that ensures his legacy. It does so in part because of Heaney’s faith in the poem – as answering to no agenda other than its own being, operating as its own “vindicating force”, undiminished by, and existing outside of, the noise and “busyness” of life.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/heaney/lecture/">1995 Nobel lecture</a>, Heaney spoke of poetry’s “gift for telling truth” – and beyond that, its capacity “to be not only pleasurably right, but compellingly wise”. It might even be “a retuning of the world itself”.</p>
<p>Few contemporary poets have devoted so much time to writing a defence of poetry as Heaney; fewer still have done so in terms so protective of poetry’s autonomy. Irish poet Leontia Flynn <a href="http://leontiaflynn.com/irish-university-review-radically-necessary-heaney/">writes</a> of finding herself “nearly as grateful for his defence of poetry as … for his poems”. </p>
<p>Heaney’s capacity to “credit marvels” in the world around him is, quite literally, the gift that keeps on giving. As he writes in his poem <a href="https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/online-archive/view/fosterling">Fosterling</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Me waiting until I was nearly fifty</p>
<p>To credit marvels. Like the tree-clock of tin cans</p>
<p>The tinkers made. So long for air to brighten,</p>
<p>Time to be dazzled and the heart to lighten.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In one of his finest lyrics, <a href="https://genius.com/Seamus-heaney-the-harvest-bow-annotated">The Harvest Bow</a>, the “throwaway love-knot of straw” plaited by his father is echoed in the intricate weaving, “twist by twist”, of its harvest bow of words.</p>
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<p>Its “golden loops” are a gateway to the past, and as we follow Heaney’s “homesick” memory of walking peaceably with his father, the beautifully crafted love-knot encircles and cradles an entire community and a way of life. The bow is a still a “frail device”. Like poetry, it is both transformative and under threat; but most importantly, it endures.</p>
<p>A decade after his death, Heaney’s voice, like the harvest bow, is “burnished by its passage, and still warm”.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fran Brearton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The great Irish poet left a legacy of astonishing poems that speak to new readers with their deep wisdom and quietly devastating imagery.
Fran Brearton, Professor of Modern Poetry, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220153
2023-12-21T10:30:14Z
2023-12-21T10:30:14Z
Who are the new greats of Irish music? Five musicians to watch out for
<p>The world lost three great Irish musicians in 2023: <a href="https://theconversation.com/shane-macgowan-a-timeless-voice-for-irelands-diaspora-in-england-197491">Shane MacGowan</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sinead-oconnor-a-guide-to-the-lesser-known-songs-that-reveal-the-key-to-her-brilliance-211219">Sinéad O’Connor</a> and Christy Dignam. While their music reflected their individual struggles and resilience, it also grappled with the evolving essence of Irish identity. Their work stands as a reminder of Ireland’s complex history.</p>
<p>In their absence, a new generation of Irish musicians is carrying forward their legacy, navigating the balance between tradition and innovation. They’re using music not just as entertainment but as a powerful tool for social commentary and cultural evolution. Here are just a few embodying that spirit.</p>
<h2>1. The Scratch</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Another Round by The Scratch.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Scratch, a four-piece acoustic ensemble hailing from Dublin, manage to be both trad and metal. In tracks like Another Round, they showcase their remarkable ability to fuse these divergent styles. </p>
<p>The song opens with rich vocal harmonies and rapid-fire lyrics, drawing listeners into a narrative that feels familiar – a snapshot of an evening unfolding at the local. </p>
<p>Then, in a striking moment, the music transitions to crunching electric guitar, delivering a powerful mid-song drop that captures the essence of the night’s escalating intensity.</p>
<h2>2. Lankum</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Go Dig My Grave by Lankum.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Lankum, an Irish folk ensemble, navigates the realms of traditional music with an exploration of harsher, darker textures. Their approach to traditional material is to emphasise the trauma embedded within the songs themselves. </p>
<p>In their rendition of Go Dig My Grave, Lankum immerse us in a song heavy with dread – a heartbroken young woman kills herself, leaving her father to find her body. Rather than softening the edges, Lankum purposefully stress the song’s horror and despair, employing an oppressive sonic palette that weighs heavily on the listener. </p>
<p>Their treatment of the music becomes an immersive experience, akin to encountering the textured layers of a harsh, emotional landscape – an aural Rothko painting in its intensity.</p>
<p>Unlike the poised and sympathetic renditions by artists like Joan Baez or Sinéad O’Connor, Lankum’s approach rejects restraint. Their unconventional, melodramatic execution demands attention, leaving little room for detached observation. </p>
<p>In doing so, they create a sonic realm that confronts and assails the listener, enveloping them in an unsettling world woven by their music. </p>
<h2>3. John Francis Flynn</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Mole in the Ground by John Francis Flynn.</span></figcaption>
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<p>John Francis Flynn is another folk artist determined to infuse traditional music with harsher, more potent sounds. His recent album, Look Over the Wall, See the Sky (2023), offers a mesmerising reimagining of the classic Mole in the Ground, originally performed by folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford. </p>
<p>Lunsford’s rendition embodies an elusive folk song quality – an interplay between simplicity and profound depth. His performance exudes gladness, wisdom, and magnanimity. It’s a stark contrast to Flynn’s interpretation with its practically subterranean vocals and underground essence. </p>
<p>Flynn’s version, much like the other artists mentioned, emerges from an anti-establishment position. Notably, he emphasises one of the song’s most enduring lines as he concludes: “The railroad man he’ll kill you when he can / And drink up your blood like wine.”</p>
<p>This line, famously referenced by Bob Dylan in Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (1966), vividly portrays a vampiric image of businessmen, leaving little ambiguity about its politics. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/13/peoples-idea-of-irishness-is-so-warped-john-francis-flynn-the-folk-singer-fighting-for-dublins-spirit">Flynn’s own words</a>: “It’s about taking down the system, so I wanted to make it punchy and aggressive.”</p>
<h2>4. The Mary Wallopers</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Frost Is All Over by The Mary Wallopers.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Folk punk outfit The Mary Wallopers carved out a devoted following during the isolation of the COVID lockdowns, during which they live-streamed performances from a converted barn in Dundalk. </p>
<p>Among their standout renditions is Frost Is All Over. Their take breathes new life into the song with captivating percussion elements. Beginning with acoustic guitars, banjo and accordion, it initially signals an upbeat revisitation of a standard – so far, so folk. </p>
<p>However, the infusion of bass drum and snare soon escalates the tempo, injecting fresh vigour into the track. There are other novel touches, like the call and response between vocalist Andrew Hendy and the rest of the group. </p>
<h2>5. Pauline Scanlon</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">As I Roved On by Pauline Scanlon featuring Loinnir McAliskey.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Traditional Irish singer Pauline Scanlon’s haunting rendition of As I Roved Out is steeped in plangent, dreamy sounds reminiscent of Daniel Lanois. Her performance, characterised by a steady, deliberate rhythm, unravels the dark story of a young woman’s encounter with an amorous soldier. </p>
<p>The tale is capped off with her mother’s unforgiving response – she beats her daughter for bringing the soldier home with her – and the soldier’s indifference to her imminent death. </p>
<p>The rendition’s eerie beauty lies in the siren-like harmonies and the airy wisps of synthesizer juxtaposed against the underlying theme of callousness. Despite her undeniable victimhood, there’s an aura of equanimity and serenity captured in the young woman’s refrain and the music’s steady, unperturbed pulse.</p>
<p>Contrary to a version like that of the Clancy Brothers, who cast it as a boisterous, roguish song that favours the soldier’s perspective, Scanlon reclaims the song as an anthem of defiance, asserting a young woman’s determination to chart her own path, risk be damned.</p>
<p>For Scanlon, interpreting this song held personal significance. She saw in it echoes of her mother’s perspective, but also those of her mother’s contemporaries. Through her rendition, Scanlon sought to bridge the song’s narrative with modern sensibilities, intertwining personal and collective experiences to offer a resonant portrayal of agency in the face of societal pressures. </p>
<p>As she <a href="https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2022/04/new-release-pauline-scanlon-the-unquiet/">explained to Folk Radio</a>: “I am intentionally redirecting these songs away from the traditional narrative, turning them to face the modern era, to reflect a new social outlook, and I am imagining the present as I sing them.”</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Hodgers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new generation of Irish musicians is using music not just as entertainment but as a powerful tool for social commentary.
Jonathan Hodgers, Teaching Fellow, Trinity College Dublin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217995
2023-12-15T13:02:46Z
2023-12-15T13:02:46Z
Entangled Islands exhibition explores the history of Irish people in the Caribbean – an expert review
<p>A new exhibition at Epic, Dublin’s Irish emigration museum, explores connections between Ireland and the Caribbean. <a href="https://epicchq.com/entangled-islands/">Entangled Islands</a> aims to tell “the stories of a wide range of Irish people who traversed and settled in the Caribbean”, while also outlining “our intersecting histories of colonisation and resistance”.</p>
<p>The exhibition was partly inspired by growing academic research into connections between Ireland and the Caribbean in the last 20 years. Such research, as the exhibition explains, “complicates understandings of the Irish diaspora as a historically marginalised people”. The <a href="https://epicchq.com/entangled-islands-bibliography/">extent</a> of this scholarship is clear across the exhibition, although the tone is accessible throughout.</p>
<p>One prominent theme is a reevaluation of Ireland’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. The topic has previously been tackled in books such as <a href="https://books.google.ie/books/about/Ireland_Slavery_and_Anti_Slavery_1612_18.html?id=mToWDAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">Ireland, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: 1812-1965</a> by Nini Rodgers (2007) and <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526150998/">Ireland, Slavery and the Caribbean</a> (2023), edited by Finola O’Kane and Ciaran O’Neill. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Entangled Islands.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exhibition focuses mainly on the stories of individual Irish people in the Caribbean, with some limited exploration of the wider context. While there are references to the positions of power many Irish people held under the colonial system, the extent of this fact – or its brutalities – do not occupy a large portion of the exhibition.</p>
<p>For example, an early panel explores Howe Peter Browne, the second marquess of Sligo, who became governor of Jamaica in 1834. This is a significant date given that the <a href="https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-time-period/georgians/1833-abolition-of-slavery-act-and-compensation-claims/#:%7E:text=The%201833%20Act%20outlawed%20British,the%20Services%20of%20such%20Slaves'.">Slavery Abolition Act of 1833</a> was coming into effect when he arrived. </p>
<p>The exhibition makes much of the fact that Browne would have to enforce the new laws of the act, which required the “formerly” enslaved over the age of six to work 40.5 hours unpaid per week for four to six years. It notes that, Browne, like other enslavers, received compensation for loss of “property”, while also mentioning that Browne supported abolition. </p>
<p>Images on the panel of enslaved people suffering punishment on a treadmill and Brown’s ancestral home, Westport House in Mayo, are suggestive of the interrelationship between the horrors of enslavement and the Irish upper classes. Though nothing in the accompanying text makes this explicit. </p>
<p>Browne is positioned in a post-emancipation framework and portrayed somewhat positively, far from the way he is <a href="https://www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781526151001/9781526151001.00026.xml">described by</a> Finola O’ Kane as a “less-than-mature” marquess, with “a mixed reputation as an improving landlord”.</p>
<h2>The Irish slave myth</h2>
<p>The exhibition is more explicit is in its discussion of the “Irish slave” myth. This refers to an online misinformation meme that <a href="https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:20525/">falsely claims</a> Irish people were enslaved in the Americas but have managed to succeed, nevertheless. </p>
<p>As one exhibition panel explains, the myth “persists in the face of contrary evidence”. The exhibition declares that: “White nationalists and racists, in particular, have seized on the myth in an attempt to undermine the unique suffering of enslaved Africans.” </p>
<p>The strength of this statement is notable, but perhaps because the meme remains most popular <a href="https://limerick1914.medium.com/all-of-my-work-on-the-irish-slaves-meme-2015-16-4965e445802a">in North American territories</a>, rather than in the UK and Ireland, a sense of distance allows for such unequivocal language.</p>
<p>There is a close attention to language across the exhibition, such as the consistent use of “enslaved”, in place of “slave(s)”. This is welcome and reflects reconsiderations, both in academia and beyond, of the extent to which the transatlantic slave trade was foundational to the making of modern Europe. </p>
<p>The layered meanings of “entangled” in the exhibition’s title are evident in the exploration of a number of connections from journalistic, to literary, as well as enslavement and colonialism. </p>
<p>At the same time, as the exhibition shows, there have been moments of solidarity between Ireland and the Caribbean, regions connected by their colonial pasts. Abolitionists such as Dubliner James Field Stanfield and Belfast man Thomas McCabe feature prominently, the latter ensuing an all-island perspective is included. </p>
<p>The visit in 1791 of Olaudah Equiano, a formerly enslaved man whose <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/34285/the-interesting-narrative-and-other-writings-by-olaudah-equiano-ed--vincent-carrett-intro-and-notes--vincent-carrett/9780142437162">memoir</a> would become a key text for the abolitionist movement in Britain, is also described.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Entangled Islands has interesting stories to tell about specific people from Ireland in the Caribbean. There’s journalist James O’Kelly and his time in Cuba. And Kay Donnellan and Eleanor Frances Cahill, teachers from Ireland who became involved in the country’s labour movement. There’s also a nod towards Che Guevara’s <a href="https://www.thejournal.ie/che-guevara-irish-roots-3754700-Dec2017/">Irish heritage</a>, via his grandmother.</p>
<p>Towards the end of the exhibition, there is a turn towards literature. Figures such as St Lucian Nobel laureate Derek Walcott and former poet laureate of Jamaica Lorna Goodison are showcased as poets who have drawn inspiration from Irish writers such as <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2022/07/05/james-joyce-in-the-caribbean/">James Joyce</a> and W.B. Yeats.</p>
<p>The exhibition ends with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gGmmuPyE8&ab_channel=EPICTheIrishEmigrationMuseum">video</a> of four young mixed heritage Caribbean-Irish people talking about links between the two regions. They discuss both the racism they experience in Ireland and the interesting points of contact they find here with the Caribbean, from language to music. It is both joyous and confronting in equal measures and is an important addition to the story.</p>
<p>On the whole, this is a necessary and worthwhile exhibition that has fascinating stories to tell about the Irish in the Caribbean, which are often not widely known. More pressure could have been placed on the portrayal of Irish enslavers, but nevertheless, visitors are likely to come away with a fresh perspective. Entangled Islands is a well-researched, interesting exhibition that ends by echoing the idea of Irish and Caribbean entanglement into the present day.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ellen Howley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One prominent theme is a reevaluation of Ireland’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Ellen Howley, Assistant Professor in the School of English, DCU, Dublin City University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197491
2023-11-30T12:04:43Z
2023-11-30T12:04:43Z
Shane MacGowan: a timeless voice for Ireland’s diaspora in England
<p>During a concert in Dublin in 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-folk-philosophy-of-bob-dylan-riffs-grifters-history-and-a-terrific-playlist-194996">Bob Dylan</a> paused between songs to pay tribute to another singer-songwriter who was in attendance that night. “I want to say hello to Shane MacGowan”, said Dylan, praising MacGowan as one of his “favourite artists”.</p>
<p>MacGowan, who has died aged 65, came to prominence in the 1980s as the singer and songwriter for The Pogues. In that role, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOu6PbfLO1g">MacGowan became</a>, as the BBC Four documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074tkh">The Great Hunger: the Life and Songs of Shane MacGowan</a> explained, “the first voice that arose from within the London-Irish to give defiant and poetic expression to a community which had never really felt able to proclaim itself”. </p>
<p>The Pogues gave visibility to the <a href="https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/Irish-Music-s/2005.htm">second-generation Irish in England</a>, a facet of migrant life that had previously gone uncharted in mainstream popular culture.</p>
<p>MacGowan was not only pioneering in his evocation of Ireland’s diaspora in England – he composed songs of exceptional quality, <a href="https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021">attracting enormous critical respect</a> and significant commercial success.</p>
<h2>Irish beginnings</h2>
<p>MacGowan was born December 25 1957 in Kent, England (where his parents were visiting family), but spent his early years on a farm in County Tipperary. There, the youngster observed regular traditional Irish music sessions, which had – as his late <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOu6PbfLO1g">mother Therese explained</a> – “a tremendous influence on him”.</p>
<p>During the early 1960s, MacGowan relocated to London where his father had found work, precipitating <a href="https://www.shanemacgowan.com/video/shane-macgowan-if-i-should-fall-from-grace/">what the singer called</a> a “horrific change of life”. During this time, he would, he said, “cry [himself] to sleep” at night while “thinking about Ireland”.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pQNNjvBoWQY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Shane MacGowan on his Irish identity.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He assuaged his homesickness by attending Irish social clubs and regularly visiting Ireland. </p>
<p>“Because there’s an Irish scene in London,” MacGowan <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Pogues.html?id=BV-ZKon9V9sC&redir_esc=y">later explained</a>, “you never forget the fact that you originally came from Ireland. There are lots of Irish pubs, so there was always Irish music in bars and on jukeboxes. Then every summer I would spend my school holidays back in Tipperary.”</p>
<p>This experience of being raised in a migrant Irish environment would animate much of MacGowan’s work with The Pogues.</p>
<h2>Becoming ‘my own ethnic’</h2>
<p>Despite securing a highly competed-for scholarship at Westminster (a prestigious private school), MacGowan was soon <a href="https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021">expelled</a> for possessing drugs.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Johnny Rotten on stage in military camouflage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503679/original/file-20230109-9407-9bkhzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnny Rotten, another singer at the heart of London’s punk scene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/budapest-hungary-aug-15-sex-pistols-92858812">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a spell in London’s Bethlem Royal Hospital for alcohol and drug abuse, he took on work as a porter and barman. MacGowan’s interests became increasingly focused, though, on London’s emergent punk scene, at the centre of which was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/23852/chapter-abstract/185136748?redirectedFrom=fulltext">another second-generation Irish singer</a>, John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), the vocalist and lyricist for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-it-really-meant-to-be-punk-in-britain-185729">Sex Pistols</a>.</p>
<p>“I probably wouldn’t have been that interested if Johnny Rotten hadn’t been so bloody obviously Irish and made a big noise about it, and made such anti-English records,” <a href="https://www.shanemacgowan.com/video/shane-macgowan-if-i-should-fall-from-grace/">Shane later observed</a>.</p>
<p>MacGowan formed his own punk band, The Nips, who achieved moderate success before fragmenting in the early 1980s. During that period, Shane began to observe a turn towards “roots” music (later, “world music”) in London. This prompted him to take a radical change of direction. As the singer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOu6PbfLO1g">later explained</a>: “I just thought … if people are being ‘ethnic’, I might as well be my own ‘ethnic’.”</p>
<p>With this in mind, MacGowan launched The Pogues in 1982, recruiting two other musicians of Irish descent, Cáit O’Riordan (bass) and Andrew Ranken (drums), alongside three non-Irish associates: Jem Finer (banjo), Spider Stacy (tin whistle) and James Fearnley (accordion). </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FZDADSgYnPI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Discussing perhaps his most famous song, Fairytale of New York.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The band forged a remarkable fusion of Irish folk and English punk, becoming <a href="https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/Irish-Rock-Music-p/9780953535354.htm">what critics called</a> “an unlikely meeting point between The Clancy Brothers and The Clash”.</p>
<p>In interviews, MacGowan was keen to stress that he was London-Irish (rather than Ireland-born). Such assertions of Irish ethnicity could be problematic in Eighties Britain, where anti-Irish prejudice had been intensified by the IRA’s bombing campaign. The Pogues were not initially well-received in Ireland, where their London-Irishness was viewed with a degree of <a href="https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/Second-Generation-Irish-Musicians-in-England-p/9781859184615.htm">wariness</a>.</p>
<p>The band released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, the best known of which is <a href="https://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/hidden-gems-the-pogues-if-i-should-fall-from-grace-with-god/">If I Should Fall from Grace with God</a> (1988). The latter arguably marked the high point of MacGowan’s career, with the album’s lead single, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/06/fairytale-new-york-pogues-christmas-anthem">Fairytale of New York</a> (featuring a celebrated duet with the late Kirsty MacColl), reaching number two in the UK chart.</p>
<h2>An enduring legacy</h2>
<p>Such success would, however, come with a price. As Shane’s sister, Siobhan, <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-crock-of-gold-a-few-rounds-with-shane-macgowan-2020-online">later explained</a>, the protracted worldwide tour that The Pogues undertook in 1988 “really changed him”. “He went away,” she recalled, “and he didn’t come back, not the Shane that I ever knew before”, citing his intensifying consumption of drink and drugs. </p>
<p>MacGowan’s performances <a href="https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021">became increasingly erratic</a>, and in 1991 he was asked to leave the band. The singer made two albums with a new group, The Popes, in the 1990s, before The Pogues reformed – as a live band – in 2001, performing a series of highly successful concert tours until 2014. </p>
<p>MacGowan’s songs would continue to resonate powerfully with audiences and critics, prompting Ireland’s president, Michael D. Higgins, to present the singer with a <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/president-higgins-presents-shane-macgowan-with-lifetime-achievement-award-1.3357158">Lifetime Achievement Award</a> in 2018. In that same year, Shane received an <a href="https://www.shanemacgowan.com/shane-macgowan-presented-with-ivor-novello-award-for-songwriting/">Ivor Novello</a> Inspiration Award in London.</p>
<p>If, as seems likely, Shane MacGowan’s songs are sung for centuries to come, then we’d do well to recall their origins in – and echoes of – Ireland’s often overlooked diaspora in England.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Sean Campbell received funding from the AHRC for his book, 'Irish Blood, English Heart': Second-Generation Irish Musicians in England (Cork University Press, 2011).
Dr. Sean Campbell is Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge. </span></em></p>
The Pogues singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan revolutionised music with his fusion of Irish folk and English punk.
Sean Campbell, Associate Professor of Media and Culture, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208260
2023-10-19T15:24:59Z
2023-10-19T15:24:59Z
New ‘healing’ prison in Ireland points to long history of progressive penal reform
<p>Ireland has formally opened <a href="https://www.irishprisons.ie/minister-justice-helen-mcentee-visits-new-limerick-prison-expansion-announces-publication-irish-prison-service-annu/">the new women’s wing</a> of the Limerick prison. </p>
<p>This expansion was desperately needed. The former wing was at <a href="https://www.iprt.ie/latest-news/iprt-voices-grave-concern-about-prison-overcrowding-as-bed-capacity-reaches-100-across-prison-estate/">164% capacity</a>, with women reportedly sleeping on mattresses on the floor of what were already inadequate conditions of a dilapidated 19th-century building. </p>
<p>The new build now offers space for 50 women, an increase in capacity of 78%. It also eschews the <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-and-asylums-prove-architecture-can-build-up-or-break-down-a-persons-mental-health-109989">dehumanising cliches</a> of the traditional prison environment. </p>
<p>Corridors follow gently bending routes into skylight-lit spaces. Rooms are painted in what has been described as a “<a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/limerick-womens-prison-an-architecture-of-hope">calming colour palette</a>” of lilac and pale blue. </p>
<p>The windows don’t have bars. The prisoners’ cells look like student accommodation. In place of a prison yard, there is a garden and a children’s play area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A colourful view of a prison recreation room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554379/original/file-20231017-17-e4f19r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An architectural rendering of the new Limerick female prison wing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department of Justice|Louise Brangan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like anyone in the care of the state, prisoners should expect clean and humane living conditions. <a href="https://www.irishprisons.ie/wp-content/uploads/documents_pdf/Press-Release-Limerick-Prison-B-Division.pdf">More than</a> good conditions, though, this design project has been hailed as an <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/limerick-womens-prison-an-architecture-of-hope">“architecture of hope”</a>, providing a healing space in which the prisoners might be “thrive and flourish”. </p>
<p>This is not Ireland’s first experiment in progressive incarceration. My research shows that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362480619843295">in the 1960s and 1970s</a>, the nation cleaved to the idea that the best kind of penal system is when there is the least amount of imprisonment.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPwvQ0K3tPU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Policies to avoid imprisonment</h2>
<p>Before the 1970s, prison policy in England and much of the western world was underpinned by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lessons-in-scandinavian-design-could-help-prisons-with-rehabilitation-106554">rehabilitative</a> ambition. The idea was that by employing the likes of criminologists, social workers and psychologists, prisons could transform people and ultimately reduce crime. </p>
<p>In Ireland, things were a little different. The prison system was managed by the Prison Division, a small group of generalist civil servants who were unconvinced by the new prison professionals and their individuated schemes. </p>
<p>The Division held that prisoners were not inherently criminal. Poverty in Ireland at the time was endemic. Officials assumed that prisoners’ crimes had socio-economic, not pathological, causes.</p>
<p>Contrary to other nations, the Division also worried that prison was, in fact, fundamentally damaging. In 1963, Minister for Justice Charles Haughey stated in an internal memo that “the institutionalisation, psychological deterioration and disruption to family and individual life, consequent on imprisonment”, must be avoided. </p>
<p>This was a widely held view. During <a href="https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1970-05-27/3/?highlight%5B0%5D=basically&highlight%5B1%5D=unsuitable&highlight%5B2%5D=encouraging&highlight%5B3%5D=individuals&highlight%5B4%5D=become&highlight%5B5%5D=adequate&highlight%5B6%5D=responsible&highlight%5B7%5D=members&highlight%5B8%5D=normal&highlight%5B9%5D=society">a debate on prisons in 1970</a>, TD (member of the Irish parliament) for Fine Gail John Bruton said that prison was “basically unsuitable” as a tool for encouraging people to become responsible members of society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An old manor house in rural Ireland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554337/original/file-20231017-23-m0c4vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shelton Abbey, in County Wicklow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Church,_Interior,_Arklow,_Co._Wicklow%22_is_in_Arklow,_but_definitely_exterior_(35740556981).jpg#/media/File:%22Church,_Interior,_Arklow,_Co._Wicklow%22_is_in_Arklow,_but_definitely_exterior_(35740556981).jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ireland’s humane penal reforms</h2>
<p>It was in this sceptical spirit that the Irish government would go on to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362480619843295">implement</a> significant reform. In 1973, the Republic of Ireland’s first open prison, Shelton Abbey, was established in a former country manor. A maximum of 90 prisoners spent their days tending to the gardens. </p>
<p>In 1975, the Training Unit, the nation’s first purpose-built prison, opened on the site of Mountjoy prison in Dublin. Modernist in style, it was lauded for its semi-open regime. Its 90 prisoners wore their own clothes and came and went during the day for work and training purposes. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most radical of these changes was the permissive and liberal use of temporary release. Established in Ireland in 1960, this allowed an increasing number of prisoners to return home for days, weeks and sometimes permanently, serving the end of their sentence at home. </p>
<p>None of this was undertaken with the central ambition of reducing crime. That kind of rehabilitation was beyond the prison, they believed. The Division hoped that by being released more frequently and by having access to more engaging activities and less austere spaces, it might help prisoners develop as people, but at least it would reduce the pains of imprisonment. As an internal 1981 Prison Division report <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362480619843295">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[The aim is] to equip the offender with educational, technical and social skills which will help him to turn away from a life of crime, if he so wishes. However, even if the offender on release does not turn away from a life of crime, those services can be regarded as having achieved some success if they bring about an improvement in the offender’s awareness of his responsibilities to himself, his family and the community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Success, they concluded, was impossible to measure. Best to be lenient, first and foremost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white archival photograph of people playing sport indoors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554513/original/file-20231018-17-32t82p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The recreation hall at the Training Unit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department of Justice|Louise Brangan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The damage prison causes</h2>
<p>The temporary release system still operates today, though in a much more restricted form. As Ireland changed, so too did public and political attitudes. </p>
<p>By the 1990s, it was felt that prisons in Ireland should do a little more confining and a little less releasing. In 1995, 21% of prisoners served their sentence on temporary release, that figure has now dropped to <a href="https://www.irishprisons.ie/wp-content/uploads/documents_pdf/SEPTEMBER-2023.pdf">9%</a>. </p>
<p>In the decades since these innovative regimes were instituted, a formidable body of research has amassed, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00043/full">proving</a> that the Prison Division’s scepticism of imprisonment’s benefits was well founded. </p>
<p>Being deprived of liberty and cut off from society puts a person at greater risk of poor mental health, homelessness and poverty after imprisonment. It also contributes, as research <a href="https://archive2021.parliament.scot/S4_JusticeCommittee/Inquiries/Dr_Lesley_Graham.pdf">in Scotland</a> has found, to a greater risk of dying prematurely.</p>
<p>Prison officials in the 1960s and 1970s saw incarceration as inescapably repressive – a site of harm for individuals, their communities and the wider society. Their bold new policies (open facilities; the temporary release scheme) sought to reduce the use and impact of the prison. The Irish Prison Division thought the prison was the problem, not the prisoners. </p>
<p>Limerick’s new women’s unit embodies the opposite idea: that prison can fix damaged prisoners and help reduce crime, all while expanding the size of the prison estate. </p>
<p>The Prison Division was right. Humane penal policy has to be about much more than buildings, design and physical spaces. Using incarceration sparingly – cautiously, leniently – is better for individuals and society at large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In the course of her research, Louise Brangan has received funding from the ESRC, Fulbright Commission, British Academy and Leverhulme.</span></em></p>
In the mid-20th century, civil servants in Ireland recognised the harms incarceration wreaks not just on individuals but their families and society at large.
Louise Brangan, Chancellor's Fellow | Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211574
2023-08-31T14:57:11Z
2023-08-31T14:57:11Z
Rooftop renewables risk making the rich richer, as latecomers will struggle to access the grid
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545784/original/file-20230831-27-jj5zgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C7%2C5161%2C3422&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wozzie / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people are now becoming “energy citizens” by installing rooftop solar panels and other small-scale renewable energy projects in their properties. </p>
<p>In theory, this is a “win-win”. Added renewable energy brings down the cost of energy, and by replacing fossil fuels, cuts planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. But there is concern that as more people install solar panels and other renewable projects, local electricity grids may become congested. </p>
<p>We wanted to understand this problem and propose a solution, and our latest research has just been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121641">published</a>. Though we focused on Ireland, where we live and work, something similar is happening across much of the world. </p>
<p>We first surveyed the country’s entire electricity infrastructure and discovered that if everyone wanted rooftop solar, then the grid could only serve 5% of the 1.6 million electricity customers studied. </p>
<p>That’s based on each household wanting to install 6 kilowatts of renewables – rooftop solar on one side of a typical house, for instance, or a single small wind turbine – which is the maximum limit supported by the <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b1fbe-micro-generation/">microgeneration support scheme</a> in Ireland. In other words, if everyone installed solar panels, then 95% of households would not be able to connect them to the national grid.</p>
<p>This appears to mirror the situation at present in electricity grids like that of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00887-6">California</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en15041593">Spain</a> and <a href="https://taz.de/Zu-langsamer-Ausbau-der-Stromnetze/!5902431/">Germany</a>, where early-comers are blocking access for latecomers. While these countries are further ahead in their rollout of rooftop solar, portions of the electricity grid now have no availability for new installations.</p>
<p>This is unfair: often, more well-off households are the first to install solar PV, and benefit from subsidies. It also limits how useful microgeneration can be to the overall goal of decarbonising society.</p>
<h2>A game of musical chairs</h2>
<p>The situation could be compared to a game of musical chairs. </p>
<p>The first problem is the number of chairs: the electricity grid was not designed for every house to produce lots of renewable energy. As the sun shines, for example, every customer with a solar panel must instantly use the electricity or spill it to the grid. </p>
<p>This is fine if only a few customers are spilling, but at a national scale all that spilled energy can exceed the physical capacity of the cables, causing equipment-damaging overvoltage or service interruptions from protection tripping. To prevent this the grid operator must limit the amount of renewable energy connected. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Houses with solar panels on roof" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545790/original/file-20230831-21-2kwhpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If every house looked like this the national grid could not cope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">esbobeldijk / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are some ways to address this problem technically – to make more chairs available. These include investing in new cables, or installing home battery banks and timed electric vehicle chargers so that energy use can be better coordinated. But these ideas all come with large financial costs. </p>
<p>Electricity grids in wealthy countries – the Irish grid being a good example – have been under construction for over a century and re-purposing them will be no small feat. Doing this may be even more difficult in emerging economies due to additional struggles to cover the costs.</p>
<p>The second problem is the music, or who gets to sit first. Current policy allows a “first-come first-served” approach to installing renewables, which inevitably gives priority to high-income portions of society to find an empty chair to sit in, and to benefit financially. </p>
<h2>Justice implications</h2>
<p>As the electricity sector is transformed by renewable energy, there are new justice implications worth exploring. Imagine building a house, or moving to an area in the future, to find out that all grid availability has already been taken and it is not possible for you to connect any new solar panels. The direct benefits of owning a clean energy installation are not for you. </p>
<p>Our research suggests that it is possible to adjust this policy to make grid availability a shared resource. First, instead of blanket limits – like the subsidised 6 kilowatts in Ireland – we’ll need a detailed analysis of the grid to work out <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2021.3124999">how much renewable generation per household is fair</a>, or the maximum each can have without affecting others. </p>
<p>This calculation is necessary because that “fair share” varies for customers, as there are technical constraints derived from the user’s location in the grid (how near are they to a substation, how many people does that substation serve, how is it then connected to the wider grid, and so on). </p>
<p>The second way to better share the grid is to acknowledge that some households have the money to install more than their fair share, and instead help everyone else to work together. For instance less interested or capable households could pool their shares in new solar panels or wind turbines in exchange for cheaper electricity derived from those very installations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated maps of Ireland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545780/original/file-20230831-4384-5i149y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The authors simulated how much rooftop solar an average household in Ireland would have in 30 years with current policy (left) and if grid access was considered a shared resource (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192301005X?via%3Dihub#fig6">Cuenca et al</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Factor in equity</h2>
<p>We should recognise some progress. Irish and European institutions are trying to achieve decarbonisation goals, and renewable energy installations are indeed accelerating. The transition to low-carbon energy is now inevitable – the question is not if, but how, the transition is conducted. </p>
<p>But renewable energy shouldn’t exacerbate existing inequalities. Policies for domestic wind and solar should factor in concerns about equity, meaning we could allow all electricity customers to benefit financially from clean energy, and not just from having cleaner air to breathe. </p>
<p>Our new research opens a discussion for regulators and government institutions. This is not about music or chairs, but about the fundamental question of fairness and ownership in a fast-evolving energy sector in Ireland and beyond.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Jose Cuenca Silva received funding from the Government of Ireland through the "CENTS" research project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Hayes receives funding Science Foundation Ireland via MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Daly receives funding to support research from MaREI, the SFI Centre for Climate, Energy and the Marine, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, and the Environmental Protection Agency.</span></em></p>
Wealthier people are getting their solar panels connected first, leaving a more congested grid for everyone else.
Juan José Cuenca Silva, Researcher in Electrical Engineering, University College Cork
Barry Hayes, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Power Systems Engineering, University College Cork
Hannah Daly, Professor in Sustainable Energy, University College Cork
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210540
2023-07-28T12:22:18Z
2023-07-28T12:22:18Z
Sinead O'Connor was once seen as a sacrilegious rebel, but her music and life were deeply infused with spiritual seeking
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539848/original/file-20230727-29-d7q6fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1020%2C677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Irish singer Sinead O'Connor performs at Paradiso in Amsterdam in March 1988.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/irish-singer-sinead-oconnor-performs-at-paradiso-amsterdam-news-photo/997813120?adppopup=true">Paul Bergen/Redferns via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When news broke July 26, 2023, that the gifted Irish singer <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66318626">Sinead O’Connor had died</a>, stories of her most famous performance circulated amid the grief and shock.</p>
<p>Thirty-one years ago, after a haunting rendition of Bob Marley’s song “War,” O’Connor ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on live television. “Fight the real enemy,” she said – a reference to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">clerical sex abuse</a>. For months afterward, she was banned, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sinead-o-connor-booed-pope-bob-dylan-concert-1176338/">booed and mocked</a>, dismissed as a crazy rebel beyond the pale.</p>
<p>Commemorations following her death, however, cast the protest in a very different light. Her “Saturday Night Live” performance is now seen as “invigorating,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope.html">the New York Times’ pop critic wrote</a>, and “a call to arms for the dispossessed.”</p>
<p>Attitudes toward Catholicism, sex and power are far different today than in 1992, whether in New York or O’Connor’s native Dublin. In many people’s eyes, the moral credibility of the Catholic Church around the world <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/245858/catholics-faith-clergy-shaken.aspx">has crumbled</a>, and trust in faith institutions of any sort is <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx">at an all-time low</a>. Sexual abuse, once discussed only in whispers, is now beginning to be talked about openly. </p>
<p>I join the chorus of voices today who say O’Connor was decades ahead of her time. But leaving it just at that, we miss something profound about the complexity and depth of her religious imagination. Sinead O’Connor was arguably one of the most spiritually sensitive artists of our time. </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/academics/departments/theology/faculty/brenna-moore/">a scholar of Catholicism in the modern era</a> and have long been interested in those figures – the poets, artists, seekers – who wander <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo90478851.html">the margins of their religious tradition</a>. These men and women are dissatisfied with the mainstream centers of religious power but nonetheless compelled by something indelibly religious that feeds the wellsprings of their artistic imagination.</p>
<p>Throughout her life, O’Connor defied religious labels, exploring multiple faiths. The exquisite freedom in her music cannot be disentangled from <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/09/16/sinead-oconnor-rememberings-memoir-moore-241369">that something transcendent</a> that she was always after.</p>
<h2>‘Rescuing God from religion’</h2>
<p>Religion is often thought about as discrete traditions: institutions that someone is either inside or outside. But on the ground, it is rarely that simple.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church had a strong hold on Irish society as O’Connor was growing up – a “theocracy,” she called it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/10/sinead-oconnor-pope-visit">in interviews</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/126006/sinead-oconnor">her memoir, “Rememberings</a>” – and for many years she <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oconnor/singer-sinead-oconnor-demands-pope-steps-down-idUSTRE5BA39Y20091211">called for more accountability</a> for the clerical abuse crisis. But she was also open in her love of other aspects of the faith, albeit often in unorthodox ways. She had a tattoo of Jesus on her chest and continued to critique the church while appearing on television with a priest’s collar.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a purple dress with a shaved head and large, colorful tattoo stands embracing a blonde woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539864/original/file-20230727-27-jtkhdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sinead O'Connor, with her tattoo of Jesus, embraces singer Deborah Harry at the 2011 amfAR Inspiration Gala in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/singers-sinead-oconnor-and-deborah-harry-attend-the-the-news-photo/130660855?adppopup=true">Jeff Vespa/Getty Images for amfAR</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ten years after her SNL performance, O'Connor took courses at a seminary in Dublin with a Catholic Dominican priest, Rev. Wilfred Harrington. Together, they read the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the Psalms: sacred scriptures in which God’s voice comes through in darker, moodier, more human forms. </p>
<p>Inspired by her teacher, she made the gorgeous album “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xncY5WP12BQ">Theology</a>,” dedicated to him. The album is a mix of some of her own songs inspired by the Hebrew Bible – like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/wat,h?v=Kf24-rgyOeI">If You Had a Vineyard</a>,” inspired by the Book of Isaiah; and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7s5BKphw8">Watcher of Men</a>,” which draws from the biblical story of Job – and other tracks that essentially are sung versions of her favorite Psalms. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://wfuv.org/content/sinead-oconnor-words-and-music-2007">a 2007 interview</a> with Fordham University’s WFUV radio station, O'Connor said that she was hoping the album could show God to people when religion itself had blocked their access to God. It was a kind of “rescuing God from religion,” to “lift God out of religion.” Rather than preaching or writing, “music is the little way that I do that,” she said, adding, “I say that as someone who has a lot of love for religion.”</p>
<h2>Reading the prophets</h2>
<p>In doing so, she stood in the long line of the prophetic tradition itself. </p>
<p>The great Jewish thinker <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abraham-joshua-heschel-a-prophets-prophet/">Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s</a> book “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-prophets-abraham-j-heschel?variant=40970012721186">The Prophets</a>” begins with this sentence: “This book is about some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived.” Over and over, the Bible shows the prophets – the prophets who inspired “Theology” – mounting bracing assaults on hypocrisies and insincerities in their own religious communities, and not politely or calmly.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A handful of people hold red, white and black protest signs in front of a building, with a large photo of a woman ripping up a photograph in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539863/original/file-20230727-21-4u2iz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo of Sinead O'Connor ripping the photograph of Pope John Paul II stands in front of a protest in Krakow, Poland, in 2023, accusing church hierarchy of covering up sexual abuse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/banners-are-seen-during-a-protest-next-to-the-bishops-news-photo/1248867957?adppopup=true">Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To many horrified Catholics, O’Connor’s SNL appearance and her many other criticisms of the church were blasphemous – or, at best, just throwing stones from outside the church for attention. Other fans, however, saw it as prophetic condemnation. It was not just a critique of child abuse but of church officials’ professed compassion for children – sanctimonious pieties <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/26/catholic-church-ireland-child-abuse">as they covered up the abuse</a>.</p>
<p>In calling this out and so much more, O’Connor was often seen as disturbing: not just the photo-of-the-pope incident, but her androgyny, her shaved head, her openness around her own struggles with mental illness. But for many admirers, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLy1A4En4U">the documentary “Nothing Compares</a>” makes clear, all this showed that she was free, and like the prophets of old, unashamed and unafraid to provoke.</p>
<h2>Rasta to Islam</h2>
<p>At the same time, O’Connor’s religious imagination was so much more than a complex relationship with Catholicism. Religion around O’Connor was eclectic and intense. </p>
<p>She was deeply influenced by <a href="https://theconversation.com/reggaes-sacred-roots-and-call-to-protest-injustice-99069">Rastafarian traditions</a> of Jamaica, <a href="https://wfuv.org/content/sinead-oconnor-words-and-music-2007">which she described</a> as “an anti-religious but massively pro-God spiritual movement.” She considered Sam Cooke’s early album with the Soul Stirrers the best gospel album ever made. She counted among her spiritual heroes Muhammad Ali – and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45987127">converted to Islam in 2018</a>, changing her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a checked robe and headdress sings passionately in front of purple lights." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539862/original/file-20230727-21-olv2cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">O'Connor performs during a concert at the Admiralspalast in Berlin in December 2019, after her conversion to Islam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/irish-singer-sinead-oconnor-aka-shuhada-sadaqat-performs-news-photo/1187273491?adppopup=true">Frank Hoensch/Redferns via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet O’Connor’s vision was not fragmented, as if she were constantly chasing after bits and pieces. The miracle of Sinead O’Connor is that it all coheres, somehow, in the words of an artist who refuses to lie, to hide or not say what she thinks. </p>
<p>When asked about spirituality, O’Connor once said that she preferred to sing about it, not talk about it – as she does in so many songs, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkP-0rnr_Gw">her luminous singing of the antiphon</a>, a Marian hymn sung at Easter services, to her Rasta-inspired album, “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5945-throw-down-your-arms/">Throw Down Your Arms</a>.”</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haYbyQIEgQk">Something Beautiful</a>,” a track from the “Theology” album, O’Connor speaks both to God and the listener: “I wanna make/ Something beautiful/ For you and from you/ To show you/ I adore you.”</p>
<p>Indeed she did. To be moved by her art is to sense a transcendence, a peek into radiance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenna Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A professor of modern Catholicism looks back at the ways the iconic Irish singer steeped herself in religion, even as she criticized its institutions.
Brenna Moore, Professor of Theology, Fordham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210489
2023-07-27T15:56:31Z
2023-07-27T15:56:31Z
Sinéad O'Connor: a troubled soul with immense talent and unbowed spirit
<p>Few artists have straddled the boundaries between acclaim, controversy and public affection as effectively as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/26/sinead-oconnor-obituary">Sinéad O’Connor</a> who died yesterday at the age of 56.</p>
<p>Her status as a household name belied a comparatively brief commercial peak in the early 1990s, thanks to her mesmerising interpretation of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. But she was never in any danger of being relegated to being a one-hit wonder.</p>
<p>O’Connor’s life and career were characterised by irregularity and a sense of being at odds with her surroundings. Her childhood was fraught. After her parents separated when she was young, O’Connor lived mostly with her mother, who she claimed was abusive, and involved her in shoplifting and fraudulent charity collecting.</p>
<p>Truancy and crime led to a spell in the Catholic church-run Grianán Training Centre, a harsh rehabilitation centre associated with the infamous <a href="http://jfmresearch.com/home/preserving-magdalene-history/about-the-magdalene-laundries/">Magdalene Laundries</a>. Although traumatic, the centre provided her with an entry into music when a teacher asked her to sing at a wedding, which led to encounters with musicians who encouraged her to write lyrics and pursue the guitar.</p>
<p>Adversity infused her music with a punk spirit, an oppositional attitude that was writ large throughout the rest of her career. By the time her mother died in a car crash when O’Connor was 18 years old, the singer was well on her way. She had dropped out of school and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute – with typically spiky attitude – a name derived from a mythical Haitian bogeyman, and also the dictator Papa Doc Duvalier’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tontons-Macoutes">feared secret police</a>.</p>
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<h2>A distinctive template as a singer-songwriter</h2>
<p>Having captured the attention of former U2 label boss Fachtna O'Ceallaigh, and collaborated with The Edge on a song for the film Captive, her solo career began in grand style with <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-lion-and-the-cobra-mw0000194018">The Lion and the Cobra</a> in 1987. A gold record in the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands – featuring the Top 40 single <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h08pCvyKfbs">Mandinka</a> – it marked out her image and distinctive voice, clear and pure, but never demure.</p>
<p>Her trademark cropped hair and forthright bearing set her apart from prevailing female singer-songwriters. Shunning both overtly sexualised imagery and quirky hippie-chick vibes, O’Connor’s aesthetic was blunt and raw, although the clarity of her voice gave it commercial traction.</p>
<p>This reached a pinnacle on her next album, 1990’s <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-do-not-want-what-i-havent-got-mw0000654778">I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got</a> – a multi-platinum worldwide number one that featured her best-known recording, Nothing Compares 2 U which she made completely her own. Propelled by a stark video in unflinching close-up, tears running down her face, it made her an international star. But O’Connor’s predilection for musical exploration, political confrontation and emotional honesty meant that her mainstream career quickly self-combusted.</p>
<p>Despite the success of her early recordings she took a counter-intuitive turn on her next album, 1992’s <a href="https://ew.com/article/1992/09/25/am-i-not-your-girl/">Am I Not Your Girl?</a>, which featured lush versions of jazz standards. While her voice was more than up to the task of interpreting the classics she had grown up with, the departure from her previous work saw a critical and commercial step down from the trailblazing success of her previous album. More significantly, she used her promotional activity in America to showcase her status as a protest singer rather than a pop star.</p>
<p>Given the centrality of her personal, and musical, voice to her career, it’s perhaps apt that two of her most notable live performances are both a cappella, and confrontational. An <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LcmJErI8IQ">appearance on TV show Saturday Night Live</a> in October 1992 saw her drop the planned performances of standards from the album and replace them with a version of Bob Marley’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHEPoMNP0I">War</a>. She wanted to re-tool it as a protest against child abuse in the Catholic church, and the cover up that followed. The change of song was agreed by the show’s producers.</p>
<p>What they hadn’t planned on was for O’Connor to tear up a picture of the Pope at the denouement of the performance. The subsequent furore was swift and intense. O’Connor was vilified in the press, and the NBC network received over 4,000 complaints. Two weeks later, at a star-studded <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeJifOXAnA%22">tribute to Bob Dylan</a>, she was booed by the crowd and stopped the band to shout another rendition of War before leaving the stage in tears, comforted by Kris Kristofferson.</p>
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<h2>Unbowed and iconic</h2>
<p>Even if her career never quite acquired equilibrium, O’Connor the artist remained unbowed and exploratory. Taking lessons in Italian <a href="https://www.operasense.com/what-is-bel-canto/">bel canto singing</a>, her subsequent seven albums tacked across genres – reggae, hip-hop, rock, soul and folk – placing her voice at the centre of original material and distinctive interpretations of an eclectic range of artists from Curtis Mayfield to Kurt Cobain.</p>
<p>Her later releases were stronger on critical acclaim than commercial clout, and her well-publicised <a href="https://www.today.com/health/sinead-oconnor-mental-health-bipolar-disorder-rcna96488">mental health difficulties</a> led to hiatuses in her music. Ever the controversialist, she continued to weigh in on points of principle, such as her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/03/sinead-o-connor-open-letter-miley-cyrus">critique of Miley Cyrus</a> over the sexualised video for Wrecking Ball, and the subsequent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24395755">public spat</a>.</p>
<p>Despite these gaps, and the personal tragedies like her son’s suicide in 2022, O’Connor’s fierce adherence to her principles of self-expression saw her win considerable public affection. She was, of course, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44209971">vindicated</a> over her accusations of abuse in the Catholic church. But her uneven approach to public life – <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40308401.html">announcements of retirement followed by retractions</a>, a spell as a “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/328709.stm">priest</a>” followed by her <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music/sinead-o-connor-i-had-been-a-muslim-all-my-life-and-didn-t-realise-it-i-am-home-1.907708">conversion to Islam</a> (she went by the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat from 2019) – did little to dim her appeal in the long term.</p>
<p>Ultimately despite her difficulties, or even because of them, she exemplified what it was to be an icon. Her visual distinctiveness, determination and refusal to meet the mainstream half-way mean that her instantly recognisable voice cut through the shifts and uncertainty of her personal life and public debate. In the end, nothing quite compares to her.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. </span></em></p>
Spirited, defiant and always at the mercy of her mental health issues, the Irish singer will be forever remembered for her pure, clear voice and willingness to speak out on injustice.
Adam Behr, Senior Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208721
2023-07-17T12:26:03Z
2023-07-17T12:26:03Z
Wildlife wonders of Britain and Ireland before the industrial revolution – my research reveals all the biodiversity we’ve lost
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535634/original/file-20230704-26-m7f9is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C11%2C1570%2C879&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The extinction of the wolf in Britain was widely celebrated as an achievement towards the creation of a more civilised world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/">Biodiversity Heritage Library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Travel back with me a few hundred years to before the industrial revolution, and the wildlife of Britain and Ireland looks very different indeed. Take orcas: while there are now less than ten left in <a href="https://hwdt.org/west-coast-community-catalogue">Britain’s only permanent (and non-breeding) resident population</a>, around 250 years ago the English cleric and naturalist John Wallis gave this extraordinary account of a mass stranding of orcas on the north Northumberland coast:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sixty-three of them came on shore at Shorestone, 29th July 1734, about noon – 60 of which were between 14 and 19 feet long, and the other three about eight feet. They were all alive when they came on shore and made a hideous noise, but they were soon killed by the country people, who removed them one by one with six oxen and two horses, and made about ten pounds by their blubber. The same kind of noise was heard in the sea the night before by the shepherds in the fields, when it is supposed they were sensible of [the orcas’] distress in shoal-water.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If this record is reliable, then more orcas were stranded on this beach south of the Farne Islands on one day in 1734 than are probably ever present in British and Irish waters today. In his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Yo4_AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">natural history of Northumberland</a>, Wallis describes the orca as a “great enemy to the whale” and waging fierce battles with common thresher sharks, which use their long tails as weapons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of an orca near the shore" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535604/original/file-20230704-26-9y63n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1843 illustration of a grampus, then the common name for orca.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whales_(Plate_XX)_(8618218985).jpg">Robert Hamilton via Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other careful naturalists from this period observed orcas around the coasts of Cornwall, Norfolk and Suffolk. I have spent the last five years tracking down more than 10,000 records of wildlife recorded between 1529 and 1772 by naturalists, travellers, historians and antiquarians throughout Britain and Ireland, in order to reevaluate the prevalence and habits of more than 150 species for my new book, <a href="https://pelagicpublishing.com/products/the-atlas-of-early-modern-wildlife?variant=41915269087403">The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife</a>.</p>
<p>In the early modern period, wolves, beavers and probably some <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lynx-may-have-survived-in-scotland-centuries-later-than-previously-thought-new-study-suggests-167250">lynxes</a> still survived in regions of Scotland and Ireland. By this point, wolves in particular seem to have become re-imagined as monsters, looming around every corner in the imaginations of writers such as <a href="https://digital.nls.uk/scottish-history-society-publications/browse/archive/125651991#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=544&xywh=-321%2C6%2C2392%2C2898">Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The violence and numbers of most rapacious wolves … prowling about wooded and pathless tracts causing great loss of beasts and sometimes of men, are such that, driven from almost all the rest of the island, they seem to have fixed their lairs and their homes [in Strathnaver]. Assuredly, they are nowhere so plentiful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Elsewhere in Scotland, the now globally extinct great auk could still be found on islands in the Outer Hebrides. Looking a bit like a penguin but most closely related to the razorbill, the great auk’s vulnerability is highlighted by writer <a href="https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usebooks/martin-stkilda/chapter02.html">Martin Martin</a> while mapping St Kilda in 1697:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The stateliest as well as the largest of all the fowls here … stands stately, its whole body erected, its wings short. It flieth not at all, and lays its egg upon the bare rock which, if taken away, it lays no more for that year.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of a great auk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535605/original/file-20230704-21-4l7slx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a great auk drawn on St Kilda (1776).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_zoology_(1776)_(14802996353).jpg">Thomas Pennant via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While white-tailed eagles, bustards and cranes were also all much more common than they are today, some other now-ubiquitous species were much less common before the industrial revolution. Rabbits were still mainly a coastal species except in lowland England, and roe deer were found wild only in the north of Scotland and Eryri (Snowdonia) in north-west Wales. There were no grey squirrels, and brown rats were only introduced at the very end of the period.</p>
<p>On the other hand, red squirrels and ship rats were still widespread, and pine martens and “Scottish” wildcats were also found in England and Wales. Fishers caught burbot and sturgeon in both rivers and at sea, where they also pulled in plentiful amounts of tuna and swordfish, as well as now-scarce fishes such as the angelshark, halibut and common skate. Threatened molluscs like the freshwater pearl mussel and oyster were also far more widespread.</p>
<p>However, despite the abundance and diversity of wildlife at this time, the authors of my sources were not what I would call conservationists. In many ways, they had more in common with modern game hunters and anglers, in that they often fished and shot, and they valued wildlife as a resource and for recreation, rather than recording it in order to help preserve it. </p>
<h2>Britain’s early naturalists</h2>
<p>From the early 16th century to the late 18th, the prevailing belief was that God had furnished Britain and Ireland with wildlife to serve human needs. Animals were valued as food, medicine and for the “services” they could provide, including pest control and lawn mowing.</p>
<p>Scholars today sometimes describe our current era as the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/anthropocene/">Anthropocene</a> – the period in Earth’s history when humans dominate the planet’s natural systems. While the question of <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-still-dont-understand-the-anthropocene-and-theyre-going-about-it-the-wrong-way-70017">when, exactly, this period started</a> is really for geologists and climate scientists, the naturalists writing 250-500 years ago do already show evidence of “Anthropocene-thinking”.</p>
<p>Most of the sources I have read demonstrate an unequivocal belief in humans’ rightful domination of nature. These authors can be called “naturalists”, in that they were writing natural histories, but their interest in wildlife was very utilitarian. Many describe refining their methods to produce higher yields in farming and fishing, while others are fascinated by the opportunities presented by discovering new natural resources.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Naturalists travelling outside Europe in this period commonly <a href="https://natsca.org/sites/default/files/publications/JoNSC-Vol6-DasandLowe2018.pdf">used slave trading routes and vessels</a> to sail, <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/sir-hans-sloane">raised money for their collections</a> via the slave trade, and wrote descriptions of foreign lands partially in the hope <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TFHpAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA51&vq=deepak%20kumar&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false">they could be exploited for profit</a> as colonies and plantations. In the accounts of these naturalists, the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ingd/hd_ingd.htm">obsession with finding gold</a> displayed in the earlier journals of Christopher Columbus had blossomed into a general mania for cataloguing the natural resources of the Earth.</p>
<p>Predators such as wolves that interfered with human happiness were ruthlessly hunted. Authors such as Robert Sibbald, in his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1-vwDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+wild+plants+of+scotland+and+the+animals+of+scotland&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=wolves&f=false">natural history of Scotland</a> (1684), are aware and indeed pleased that several species of wolf have gone extinct:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There must be a divine kindness directed towards our homeland, because most of our animals have a use for human life. We also lack those wild and savage ones of other regions. Wolves were common once upon a time, and even bears are spoken of among the Scottish, but time extinguished the genera and they are extirpated from the island.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing wolf sightings in Britain and Ireland, 1529-1772" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535613/original/file-20230704-17-gc5fli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Records of wolf in Britain and Ireland between 1529 and 1772.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lee Raye</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The wolf was of no use for food and medicine and did no service for humans, so its extinction could be celebrated as an achievement towards the creation of a more civilised world. Around 30 natural history sources written between the 16th and 18th centuries remark on the absence of the wolf from England, Wales and much of Scotland. Of these, the 17th-century text by Sibbald, a physician based in Edinburgh, is notable for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00033799600200111">using a network of correspondents</a> based across Scotland and beyond. He invited responses to the following <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/B05868.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext">questionnaire</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I. What the Nature of the County or place is? And what are the chief products thereof? </p>
<p>II. What Plants, Animals, Mettals, Substances cast up by the Sea, are peculiar to the place, and how Ordered?</p>
<p>III. What Forrests, Woods, Parks? What Springs, Rivers, Loughs? With their various properties, whether Medicinal? With what Fish replenished, whether rapid or flow?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sibbald was one of a handful of authors to use the so-called Baconian method of natural history inquiry, inspired by the “father of empiricism” <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Bacon-Viscount-Saint-Alban">Francis Bacon</a>. Bacon used specific research questions to focus his observations and experiments, and this method was further developed by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Boyle">Robert Boyle</a> into a natural history survey which could be given to travellers. Sibbald circulated his questionnaire to educated people across Scotland, then compiled the data in a manner which I and others have compared to modern crowd-sourced citizen science.</p>
<p>Much like Sibbald’s natural history, the writing of <a href="https://www.dib.ie/biography/pococke-richard-a7398">Richard Pococke</a>, bishop of Ossory in southern Ireland in the mid-18th century, was informed by people he met on his travels. He writes in a style thick with detailed descriptions and local curiosities, so that readers can imagine travelling with him and stopping to study the landscapes, buildings and ruins along the way.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of a lynx" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535639/original/file-20230704-20097-7242ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a lynx circa 1550.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/">Biodiversity Heritage Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Pococke’s 1760 Tour of Scotland, he describes being told about a wild species of cat – which seems, incredibly, to be a lynx – still living in the old county of Kirkcudbrightshire in the south-west of Scotland. Much of Pococke’s description of this cat is tied up with its persecution, apparently including an extra cost that the fox-hunter charges for killing lynxes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They have also a wild cat three times as big as the common cat. They are of a yellow-red colour, their breasts and sides white. They take fowls and lambs, and brede two at a time … It is said they will attack a man who would attempt to take their young ones, but (men) often shoot them and take the young. The country pays about £20 a year to a person who is obliged to come and destroy the foxes when they send to him.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Strikingly, unlike <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/anh.2017.0452">earlier possible accounts of the Scottish lynx,</a>, there is no celebration of the animal’s fur in this passage. Pococke’s informants simply seem to have thought of the animal as an annoyance which needed to be hunted out of existence – which soon afterwards, it was. Based on Pococke’s description, I think the loss of the lynx would have been celebrated by locals as much as the loss of the wolf.</p>
<h2>Early concerns about species decline</h2>
<p>The early modern environment was hardly a pristine wilderness. Almost every part of Britain and Ireland was regularly visited and, to differing degrees, exploited by human inhabitants.</p>
<p>This period also had its own climate crisis. The “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-original-climate-crisis-how-the-little-ice-age-devastated-early-modern-europe-178187">little ice age</a>” was a period of very cold weather that affected the North Atlantic region, in particular between 1550 and 1700. The growing season was typically three weeks shorter, there were severe famines in some decades, and there are accounts of sea ice off the coast of southern England.</p>
<p>The change was almost certainly not caused by humans, and was not nearly as severe a phenomenon as modern global heating is likely to become over the next century – but it nevertheless had a noticeable impact on the countries’ wildlife.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a frozen river Thames with many people playing in the foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535616/original/file-20230704-27-1lnlig.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Frozen Thames (1677), painted during the little ice age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Frozen_Thames_1677.jpg">Abraham Hondius via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One important witness of its effects was Hugh Leigh, a minister based on Bressay in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland">Shetland Isles</a> and correspondent for Sibbald’s Scotia Illustrata at the end of the 17th century. Clergymen often contributed to scientific research in this period because they were literate, had university degrees, and had time to pursue such interests as writing about wildlife.</p>
<p>Leigh, who wrote an especially detailed account of Bressay, Shetland’s fifth-largest island, would probably have been shocked to hear us praise the 17th century as a time of great biodiversity in Britain. His writing shows how concerned he was, in particular, about the <a href="https://archive.org/details/publicationsofsc5331scot/page/252/mode/2up?view=theater&q=%22podlines%22">decline of fish stocks</a> in the waters around his home:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In old time the sea about this Coast was well stored with all common sort of fishes, as Mackerels, Herrings, Lings, Cods, Haddocks, Whiting, Sheaths, but especially with Podlines – young Sheaths which in fair weather would come so near to the shore that men and children, from the Rocks with Fishing-rods, could catch them in abundance. But all kinds of Fishing is greatly decayed here, notwithstanding that greater pains is taken by the Fishers now than ever before, who with small Norway Yoolls, two or three men in each of them, will adventure to the far sea and oft times endure hard weather.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leigh is writing near the height of the little ice age, which I think explains his description of “greatly decayed” fish stocks. Cod in particular need temperatures of 3–7°C to breed, and we know that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hZuZDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=fagan%20little%20ice%20age&pg=PT103#v=onepage&q&f=false">the cod fisheries also failed off Iceland</a>, Norway and the Faroe Islands between the 1680s and 1700s.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map recording presence of cod around Britain and Ireland, 1529-1772" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535629/original/file-20230704-13229-p21zne.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Records of cod around Britain and Ireland between 1529 and 1772.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lee Raye</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The decline of cold-sensitive species would likely have had a complicated impact on more cold-hardy species – many marine fishes have an exact isotherm preference, so would have moved to deeper or shallower water, or north or south, in response to changing water temperatures. The end result seems to have been significantly reduced fisheries around Shetland for some time, although Leigh would never learn the explanation for the changes he was observing.</p>
<p>Other writers did, however, propose a range of explanations for the changes in fish stocks. For example, Hector Boece, a 16th-century historian with a flair for the dramatic, describes the loss of the herring fishery near Inverness as being due to <a href="https://philological.cal.bham.ac.uk/boece/fronteng.html#17">“divine wrath”</a> against the town.</p>
<p>Later observers came up with more scientific explanations. In the 18th century, Dublin authors Walter Harris, a pensioned historian, and Charles Smith, a prolific author of natural histories, write of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jPg9AAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=charles%20smith%20county%20down&pg=PA247#v=onepage&q&f=false">five possible explanations</a> for the loss of herring fisheries around County Down. These include burning too much kelp or polluting the ocean with “garbage of fish” and other “offensive things”; marine mammals such as seals or whales eating all of the herring; and fishing vessels interfering with the fish immediately after spawning, or catching juveniles before they are ready to be caught.</p>
<p>Some of these explanations feel startlingly modern, as do some of the mitigations these two authors suggest in response – including introducing a minimum mesh size of one inch, and avoiding catching fish that have just spawned. Both measures would not be seem out of place in a modern fisheries management plan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Trail Nets with narrow meshes are great Engines for the Destruction not only of the profitable Herring (which is allowable) but of the Cobbs and young Fry, which are of little Value. To which may be added the common Practice in most Places of taking up the Cobbs in Sieves and using them as Food, when Hundreds of them are scarce equal in Value to one full grown Herring. These Practices therefore should be reformed as much as possible, and the Nets, wherein the Fish are drawn, should have their Meshes an Inch square, that in taking the larger Fish the Fry may escape.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Early illustration of a capercaillie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535619/original/file-20230704-13229-3l9tq3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a capercaillie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picture_Natural_History_-_No_157_-_The_Capercaillie_or_Cock_of_the_Woods.png">Mary E. C. Boutell via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The capercaillie is another example of a species whose decline was correctly recognised by early modern writers. Today, this large turkey-like bird – famous for the males’ elaborate courtship rituals – is found <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/17/capercaillie-bird-tentative-comeback-scotland">only rarely in the north of Scotland</a>, but 250–500 years ago it was recorded in the west of Ireland as well as a swathe of Scotland north of the central belt.</p>
<p>At the start of his 16th-century history of Scotland, John Lesley, then the bishop of Ross who made his career as a senior advisor to Mary Queen of Scots, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QdwTedUNgyUC&vq=rosse&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false">describes the capercaillie</a> as a delicious bird with “a gentle taste, maist acceptable” that could be found in Ross-shire and Lochaber – but only among woods of native Scots Pine.</p>
<p>Charles Smith, the prolific Dublin-based author who had theorised about the decline of herring on the coast of County Down, also <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=4z9IAAAAMAAJ&q=grouse#v=onepage&q=urogallus&f=false">recorded the capercaillie in County Cork</a> in the south of Ireland, but noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This bird is not found in England and now rarely in Ireland, since our woods have been destroyed. The flesh is highly esteemed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite being protected by law in Scotland from 1621 and in Ireland 90 years later, the capercaillie went extinct in both countries in the 18th century – due, according to these accounts, to the combined pressures of deforestation and hunting. It was successfully reintroduced to Scotland a century later, and the modern population is descended from these reintroduced animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A turkey-like bird." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537756/original/file-20230717-241443-e17pa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Capercailles were successfully reintroduced in Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/capercaille-271647758">Shutterstock/MarkMedcalf</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Excitement for the ‘book of nature’</h2>
<p>Nowadays, the popularity of bird watching as a hobby means these are the best-recorded species of animal in Britain and Ireland. In contrast, the best-recorded wild animals 250-500 years ago were mainly fish – from common freshwater species such as salmon, eel, trout and pike to the sea-dwelling herring, cod and oyster.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book frontispiece and title page" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535608/original/file-20230704-24271-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Willughby and Ray’s De Historia Piscium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Willughby,_Francis;_De_Historia_Piscuim._Wellcome_M0012484.jpg">Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the greatest scientists of the age were passionate about fish and the hobby of angling. Francis Willughby and John Ray devoted much of their lives to studying nature, and their <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/531965">De Historia Piscium</a> (1686) includes more than 170 illustrations, drawn by Willughby and perhaps others, of the fish they describe with meticulous accuracy. Commercially, <a href="https://royalsociety.org/blog/2013/06/the-horrible-history-of-fishes/">the book was a disaster</a>, but the copies that remain today are a tribute to the increasing interest in ichthyology (the study of fish) during the 17th century.</p>
<p>Willughby and Ray’s canonical, illustrated handbooks – also on <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/129443">birds</a> and <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91492#page/7/mode/1up">quadrupeds and snakes</a> – would later impress the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus for their advanced taxonomy and close physical descriptions. </p>
<p>Other books were even more ambitious. Another of the most famous naturalists of the period, Martin Lister, included more than 1,000 illustrations in his <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/253538#page/72/mode/1up">Historiae Conchyliorum</a> – essentially, volumes of scientific illustrations of molluscs, all shown in taxonomic order. The cost to hire an illustrator for this would have been prohibitive so Lister made it a family project, with his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mCfrtAEACAAJ&dq=martin+lister%27s+daughters&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y">two teenage daughters, Susanna and Anna</a>, completing the illustrations over a number of years. Lister closely supervised their work, sometimes demanding corrections if their sketches were not accurate enough.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of a sea snail shell" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535610/original/file-20230704-30-mniw5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Conus marmoreus</em> (marbled cone) from Historiae Conchyliorum by Martin Lister, c.1685-1692.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Conus_marmoreus_from_Historiae_Conchyliorum_by_Martin_Lister%2C_engraved_by_Anne_Lister.jpg">Illustration by Anna Lister, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Naturalists in this early-modern period prided themselves in not just repeating the observations of earlier writers, but consulting local informants and studying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Nature">“the book of nature”</a> for themselves. At times, the authors’ excitement for their field observations seems to jump off the page.</p>
<p>In 1713, Francis Nevill, a member of the Ulster gentry, wrote a letter published in the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1713.0029">Philosophical Transactions</a> of the Royal Society of London. Nevill describes Lough Neagh – the largest lake on the island of Ireland – with mounting enthusiasm for its trees (“some of them have lain there some hundreds of years”), the healing quality of its water (“I look upon it to be one of the pleasantest bathing places I ever saw”), and its fish:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It does not abound with many sorts of Fish, but those there are are very good, such as Salmon, Trout, Pike, Bream, Roach, Eels and Pollans, with which last it does abound.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As well as hinting at a growing appreciation of nature “for its own sake”, rather than its utility for humans, records like this suggest some revisions are needed to the accepted narratives of species expansion in Britain and Ireland.</p>
<p>For example, the pike is normally considered to be an invasive species in Ireland, naturalised relatively recently. Yet the enthusiastic naturalists of early-modern Ireland record it widely – there are 15 records of it occurring on the island in the 17th century alone. This suggests it had been introduced, or perhaps even colonised, much earlier than previously suspected.</p>
<p>The plentiful “pollan” that Nevill describes is also noteworthy. At first, I thought his reference referred to the strange fish now known as the Irish pollan, which is a relic of the ice age most commonly found in Siberia, Alaska and Canada. Across western Europe, it lives exclusively in five loughs in Ireland. </p>
<p>However, Nevill goes on to describe his pollan as migrating to the sea, which makes that identification very improbable. Closer reading of this passage and others suggests that the name pollan at this time in fact referred to the saltwater <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/shad">shad</a>. For such an important species, proper identification of historical records is vital.</p>
<p>Excitement about local creatures was not only the purview of enthusiastic academics like Nevill. Travel writers often incorporated passages of nature writing too – none more famous than Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, who published his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=b2MIlbEm6FYC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=A%20tour%20through%20the%20whole%20island%20of%20Great%20Britain&pg=PT600#v=onepage&q&f=false">Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain</a> between 1724 and 1726.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Page from A Tour Through the Island of Great Britain, by Daniel Defoe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535642/original/file-20230704-28004-v3pdoo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From A Tour Through the Island of Great Britain, by Daniel Defoe (1778)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_tour_through_the_island_of_Great_Britain_Fleuron_T070856-1.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Almost 300 years later, it remains a much-admired source for historians studying this period – and Defoe’s descriptions are certainly more exciting (and succinct) than Pococke’s subsequent accounts. When crossing into the north-west Highlands of Scotland, for example, Defoe pauses to exclaim with wonder on the wildlife, including what he seems to have taken to be the last of the great eagles of Britain:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The mountains are so full of deer, harts, roebucks etc. Here are also a great number of eagles which breed in the woods, and which prey upon the young fawns when they first fall. Some of these eagles are of a mighty large kind, such as are not to be seen again in those parts of the world. Here are also the best hawks of all the kinds for sport which are in the kingdom, and which the nobility and gentry of Scotland make great use of – for not this part of Scotland only, but all the rest of the country abounds with wild-fowl.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sea eagles were being recorded much more widely than they are today around Britain and Ireland – including around East Anglia and Cornwall, in the uplands of Eryri, and throughout an inland swathe from Peebles in south Scotland down into England as far south as Derbyshire. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A White-tailed Sea Eagle in flight" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537754/original/file-20230717-200541-huiepr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White-tailed Sea Eagle in flight on the lsle of Skye, Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/whitetailed-sea-eagle-haliaeetus-albicilla-flight-124526707">Shutterstock/MarkCaunt</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But by Defoe’s time, their numbers were declining rapidly – and by the end of the 18th century, sea eagles were essentially extinct across England and Wales. He and other authors wrote wistful accounts about the loss of the species, but like the capercaillie before it, people were powerless to prevent the extinction of these “mighty large” species. The sea eagle, though, has been the subject of several reintroduction projects over the last few decades, and with luck may yet recover much of its former range.</p>
<h2>Early signs of ecological protest</h2>
<p>Defoe was far from the only literary author interested in the environment at this time. John Taylor, also known as the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/4209/chapter/146028548">Water Poet</a>, published entertaining poetic accounts of his trips along the rivers of England – most famously his trip to the mouth of the Thames <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_RRfAAAAcAAJ&lpg=RA3-PA73&">in a boat made of brown paper</a></p>
<p>Within mainstream literature, plays written in London often engaged with <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o3W47yAw2fQC&lpg=PR1&ots=8c6PL8d-i7&dq=environmental%20writing%20sixteenth%20century%20drama&lr&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q&f=false">environmental issues</a> including food, water and timber shortages; air, water and noise pollution; the growing population level; and the decline of game animals.</p>
<p>Among all the accounts I have studied, while it is rare for naturalists to question humans’ right to dominion over nature, the most radical, ecologically sustainable philosophies come from poets of this time. They often wrote poems to trees and animals, and would sometimes even <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KgCjDwAAQBAJ&">assign nature its own voice.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Early illustration of a burbot fish." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535641/original/file-20230704-23-s5yi4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A burbot’s perspective is adopted in the poem The Powte’s Complaint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/">Illustration from De Historia Piscium (1686) by Francis Willughby and John Ray via Biodiversity Heritage Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/angling-for-the-powte-a-jacobean-environmental-protest-poem">The Powte’s Complaint</a> is a protest ballad probably written in 1619 to bewail the drainage of the Fens around Ely and Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. Attributed in one manuscript to a “Peny” of Wisbech, it is written from the perspective of a burbot, a freshwater species of cod commonly found in the Fens at this time. (This fish is now nationally extinct, but may be <a href="https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/news/stories/burbot-are-coming-back-its-official/">soon be reintroduced</a>.)</p>
<p>The ballad summons the “brethren of the water” – probably meaning local people as well as fish and other animals – to fight against the drainage scheme, which sought to create new pasture land:</p>
<p><em>Come, Brethren of the water, and let us all assemble,</em></p>
<p><em>To treat upon this matter, which makes us quake and tremble;</em></p>
<p><em>For we shall rue it if ’t be true that Fenns be undertaken,</em></p>
<p><em>And where we feed in Fen and Reed, they’ll feed both Beef and Bacon.</em></p>
<p>According to <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/74252543.pdf">research</a> by Todd Borlik and Clare Egan, the subject of complaint here was a <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/697753">plan to cut a canal</a> through an area of common land south of Haddenham. This scheme would remove the ability of local people to catch fish, and also to transport their produce and fuel on the water. Protests against the scheme apparently culminated in a demonstration of some 2,000 people who lit bonfires, banged on drums and fired guns all night during a meeting of the Commission of Sewers in 1619.</p>
<p>Within the poem, the alliance of the “brethren of the water” seems to recognise the interdependence of humans and wildlife on each other, and on the environment of the Fens. A comparable example (I would be interested to hear of others from this period) is the Welsh poem <a href="https://historyandnature.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/guest-blog-post-vote-for-bobbe/">Coed Marchan</a> (Marchan Wood), written around 1580 by Robin Clidro, a wandering poet from the Vale of Clwyd in Denbighshire, known for his humorous rhymes.</p>
<p>Clidro’s poem tells the story of a group of red squirrels who go to London to present a petition against the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/flk.1986.25.1.47">felling of Marchan Wood for charcoal</a>. As with The Powte’s Complaint, the use of the squirrel as narrator is a conceit, and the poem is really a protest against deforestation on behalf of human interests. But again, the author re-imagines the world from the perspective of animals:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Odious and hard is the law, and painful to little squirrels. They go the whole way to London, with their cry and their matron before them. Then on her oath she said, “All Rhuthyn’s woods are ravaged; my house and barn were taken one dark night, and my store of nuts.” The squirrels all are calling for the trees; they fear the dog.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both poems suggest the existence of empathy for the wildlife being affected by human activity. Indeed, as the era of great industrialisation grows closer, some fascinating accounts emerge of new relations between humans and wildlife. In his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JlFfAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA241&ots=kWtJIxtaN5&dq=%22drowned%20coal-pit-open-works%22&pg=PA241#v=onepage&q=%22drowned%20coal-pit-open-works%22&f=false">Natural History of Stafford-shire</a> (1686), for example, Robert Plot describes being told of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Very unusual observations concerning scaled, as well as smooth fish … such as their breeding and living in Coal-works. There is an indisputable instance in the drowned Coal-pit-open-works S.W. of Wednesbury, into which Pike, Carp, Tench, Perch, etc. being put for breed, they not only lived but grew and thrived to as large a magnitude as perhaps they would have done any where else, and were to the palate as grateful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Certainly, the naturalists, travel writers and poets of the 16th to 18th centuries all helped to record a wealth of wildlife throughout Britain and Ireland that is now hard to imagine – even as many also looked forward to its destruction in the quest for more stable, less hungry lives for the growing human population.</p>
<p>Our modern biodiversity crisis could be seen as the culmination of these early accounts, sped up by the arrival of the industrial revolution and the advent of farming on an industrial scale. Yet, in their glimpses of concern and excitement for the natural world, these early-modern accounts also reach across the intervening centuries to show us clear signs of the conservation movement that would emerge in parallel.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-melting-arctic-is-a-crime-scene-the-microbes-i-study-have-long-warned-us-of-this-catastrophe-but-they-are-also-driving-it-207785?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The melting Arctic is a crime scene. The microbes I study have long warned us of this catastrophe – but they are also driving it
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/prehistoric-communities-off-the-coast-of-britain-embraced-rising-seas-what-this-means-for-todays-island-nations-147879?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Prehistoric communities off the coast of Britain embraced rising seas – what this means for today’s island nations
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-gdp-changing-how-we-measure-progress-is-key-to-tackling-a-world-in-crisis-three-leading-experts-186488?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Beyond GDP: changing how we measure progress is key to tackling a world in crisis – three leading experts
</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Raye received small research grants from the Society for the History of Natural History to carry out some of the archive work which contributed to this article. Lee is the author of The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife (Pelagic Publishing).</span></em></p>
I have spent five years tracking down more than 10,000 accounts of wildlife by naturalists, travellers, historians and even poets, all written between 1529 and 1772
Lee Raye, Associate Lecturer in Arts and Humanities, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207695
2023-07-06T13:20:25Z
2023-07-06T13:20:25Z
Why earthquakes happen all the time in Britain but not in Ireland
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535373/original/file-20230703-197839-tgybq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C1%2C1126%2C908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Britain experiences hundreds of earthquakes each year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Raffaele Bonadio</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The village of Tean in Staffordshire, England, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/staffordshire-hit-by-3-3-magnitude-earthquake">hit by a 3.3-magnitude earthquake</a> on June 28 2023. The tremors caused windows and doors to rattle in the surrounding area. </p>
<p>Earthquakes of this nature are not uncommon in Britain (the island including England, Scotland and Wales). In fact, hundreds of earthquakes shake Britain every single year. </p>
<p>The majority of these earthquakes are small in magnitude and do not result in any damage. However, there are occasional earthquakes in Britain that have the potential to be destructive. Scientists estimate that the <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/earth-hazards/earthquakes/where-do-earthquakes-occur/">largest possible earthquake</a> in Britain is around a magnitude 6.5 – surpassing the intensity of the <a href="http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/research/events/newZealandFeb2011.html">magnitude 6.3 earthquake</a> that hit Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011 and killed 185 people. </p>
<p>The largest recorded earthquake in Britain so far took place in 1931 near Dogger Bank, 97km off the east coast of England. This earthquake measured <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Dogger_Bank_earthquake">6.1 on the Richter scale</a> and caused damage to buildings along the east coast.</p>
<p>Most earthquakes in Britain are concentrated within a north-to-south band on the west side of the island. Neighbouring Ireland, however, is almost completely free from seismic activity – a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years.</p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/235/1/431/7157104">Research</a> by my colleagues and I has provided a potential explanation for Ireland’s minimal seismic activity. We found that the lithosphere – Earth’s rigid outer layer that makes up its tectonic plates – is thicker and cooler beneath Ireland than it is under Britain. This makes the tectonic plate under Ireland much less likely to deform – a process that can trigger earthquakes.</p>
<h2>Ireland’s missing earthquakes</h2>
<p>Even before earthquakes were recorded by seismographs as they are today, reports of earthquakes were documented in various towns and monasteries across Britain and Ireland. In the mid-19th century, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Mallet">Robert Mallet</a>, an Irish scientist credited with coining the term “seismology”, created earthquake maps based on these reports. He observed that Britain had intermediate seismicity (a term for earthquake activity), while Ireland had low seismicity.</p>
<p>In 1884, Irish seismologist Joseph O’Reilly published the first <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30079053?casa_token=84NU_tDm4dkAAAAA%3AJIEckn73nEm6xP9t25rCa2wtEPlMosx4DxeFs7p_uvTRfI46vtyxx7ejvyp3ey6_CEPqgn-mNrvGIx1BeoNzrVVUAdVYd-1NOvRFKftC6L1kZdBKVQIyKQ">seismicity map of Britain and Ireland</a>, emphasising that Great Britain was “by far more subject to earthquake action than Ireland”.</p>
<p>Understanding the reasons behind this uneven distribution remains important today, especially in terms of how it affects Britain’s growing population. Between 2011 and 2021, the UK population <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/mid2021">increased by 6%</a>, to a total of 67 million people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="O'Reilly's seismicity map of Britain and Ireland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535349/original/file-20230703-213178-cfskyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">O’Reilly’s seismicity map of Britain and Ireland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30079053">O'Reilly (1884)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intraplate earthquakes</h2>
<p>Most earthquakes happen at plate boundaries where tectonic plates converge, diverge or slide past each other. Over 80% of the world’s largest quakes occur around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean – an area known as the <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/earth-hazards/earthquakes/where-do-earthquakes-occur/">Pacific “Ring of Fire”</a>. </p>
<p>Earthquakes that occur in the interior of the plates are much less common and typically smaller in magnitude. But there are a few notable exceptions. Between 1811 and 1812, the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the central US experienced a <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.earth.24.1.339">sequence of powerful earthquakes</a>, ranging from magnitude 7 to 8.</p>
<p>Britain and Ireland are geologically very similar. They were formed in the same continental collision around 400 million years ago and are composed of parts of the same continents. The two islands are also equally far from plate boundaries and the tectonic stress (the pressure or tension exerted by other plates or underlying mantle) is similar across them. </p>
<p>Why then is the distribution of earthquakes in Britain and Ireland so uneven?</p>
<h2>Through thick and thin</h2>
<p>Seismic tomography, a technique that uses seismic waves from remote earthquakes to create 3D images of Earth’s interior, has provided valuable insights. Research that I co-authored in 2021 <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/226/3/2158/6247624">discovered previously unknown variations</a> in the structure of the tectonic plate that both Britain and Ireland sit on.</p>
<p>Tectonic plates are cold and rigid compared to the hot, slowly creeping mantle beneath them. Thicker plates are colder, mechanically stronger and less likely to deform. Conversely, thinner plates are warmer, weaker and more susceptible to deformation. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/235/1/431/7157104">more recent research</a>, we found that that the plate thickness below Britain and Ireland ranges from about 75km to as much as 120km. Ireland has a relatively thick lithosphere (around 95-115km beneath most of the island) and very few earthquakes as a result. South-eastern England and eastern Scotland have a similarly thick lithosphere. </p>
<p>By contrast, western Britain has a thinner lithosphere (around 75–85km) and experiences regular earthquakes. Most Irish earthquakes are in the north of the island, the one place where its lithosphere is thinner, warmer and weaker.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two maps showing the location of earthquakes in Britain and Ireland on the left, and variations in lithospheric thickness on the right." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535359/original/file-20230703-262997-k9xj9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left: Occurrence of earthquakes in Ireland and Great Britain. Right: Differences in lithosphere thickness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Raffaele Bonadio</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This discovery solves a longstanding puzzle. Moderate variations in plate thickness, occurring far from plate boundaries, can influence patterns of seismic activity within those regions. </p>
<p>This breakthrough opens up new avenues of research for seismologists. In Britain and Ireland, scientists can now focus on closing the remaining gaps in the coverage of seismic stations (which monitor ground movement at specific locations) and constructing a model of the lithosphere to work out why earthquakes are concentrated where they are. </p>
<p>Earthquake catalogues in other world regions often do not go as far back into the past as in Britain and Ireland. Seismic hazards in these areas can also be much more uncertain. Modelling the thickness and strength of tectonic plates gives scientists the tools to study the puzzling distribution of earthquakes and improve their forecasting ability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sergei Lebedev does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Variations in the thickness of tectonic plates may explain why Britain experiences many more earthquakes than neighbouring Ireland.
Sergei Lebedev, Professor of Geophysics, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207625
2023-06-15T12:52:01Z
2023-06-15T12:52:01Z
Inflation: why prices look likely to stay high in the UK and Ireland, and what that means for mortgages
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532031/original/file-20230614-23-ee7899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C44%2C5874%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Counting the cost of rising prices.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-label-on-pasta-package-2136267077">Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The European Central Bank (ECB) has raised its three key interest rates by 0.25% to their highest levels in more than 20 years. The ECB’s “main refinancing rate” which dictates the cost of borrowing across much of Europe, including for people with tracker mortgages in Ireland, <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2023/html/ecb.mp230615%7Ed34cddb4c6.en.html#:%7E:text=of%20July%202023.-,Key%20ECB%20interest%20rates,-The%20Governing%20Council">will rise from 3.75% to 4%</a> in June 2023. The governor of the Central Bank of Ireland has already said <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/ecbs-makhlouf-says-rates-will-not-fall-quickly-peak-2023-06-07/">another increase next month</a> is “probable”. </p>
<p>When making decisions about interest rate changes, central bank officials keep a close eye on price inflation figures because they use rate changes to slow the flow of money into the economy. This is supposed to control rising prices by curbing demand for goods and services. Budgets are tighter so people buy less, or so the theory goes. </p>
<p>ECB president Christine Lagarde <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2023/html/ecb.sp230605%7E0aadd43ce7.en.html">warned in early June</a> that “price pressures remain strong … underlying inflationary pressures remain high … and there is no clear evidence that underlying inflation has peaked”. And UK chancellor <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65891838">Jeremy Hunt recently said</a> there is “no alternative” to using rate hikes to control the UK’s “number one challenge” right now: inflation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.itv.com/watch/news/former-bank-of-england-governor-says-interest-rates-will-rise-for-the-foreseeable-future/50l70mx">Economic experts</a>, as well as <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/interest-rates-markets-expect-hike-uk-core-inflation-remains-high-094506530.html">financial market participants</a>, are also betting that the UK will continue to raise interest rates this year to try to beat back inflation. Major mortgage lenders have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jun/12/uk-mortgage-turmoil-continues-as-santander-pulls-deals-for-new-borrowers">pulling their deals with the lowest rates</a> in anticipation of these base rate hikes, which will raise the cost of borrowing even further. </p>
<p>As well as increases in mortgage repayments, rapidly rising inflation has exacerbated a cost of living crisis in the UK that has seen people struggle to heat their homes over the past year. Food prices have also shot up relative to other countries in Europe, adding to these financial concerns.</p>
<p>Even more worryingly, a recent trend in the inflation figures for the UK and Ireland indicates these high prices may have become embedded in both economies. This means that, rather than quickly falling back to “normal” levels, recent high price levels might become permanent.</p>
<h2>Inflation pressures</h2>
<p>As in many other countries, inflation rose substantially in Ireland during 2021 and 2022 and has remained high so far in 2023. Having fallen to 0% during the COVID pandemic, Ireland’s <a href="https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/cpi/consumerpriceindexdecember2021/">main rate of consumer price inflation</a> (CPI) – the headline rate – began to rise in mid-2021, reaching 5.5% by the end of 2021, followed by <a href="https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpi/consumerpriceindexoctober2022/">a peak of 9.2%</a> in October 2022. </p>
<p>Inflation has decreased somewhat since then, falling to <a href="https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpi/consumerpriceindexmay2023/">6.6% in the year to May 2023</a> in Ireland. But while this headline inflation rate has fallen back somewhat, consumer prices are still rising well above the ECB’s <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/mopo/html/index.en.html">2% inflation target</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to this headline rate, economists and central bankers often look at what’s called the “core” inflation rate. This is a measure of price inflation that excludes items that tend to see the most price volatility each month. There is no shared definition among countries of which items should be excluded, but it’s usually energy and food, and sometimes tobacco and alcohol.</p>
<p>By stripping out things that are more prone to rapid price changes, the core inflation figure shows the underlying price rises that are expected to persist in the medium or long term. Since the headline rate includes the volatile items, it is a better measure of shorter-term economic changes – for example, when energy prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, then <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/the-only-way-is-down/">started to fall again</a> last winter and into 2023. </p>
<h2>Core versus headline rates of inflation</h2>
<p>When inflation is low, stable and close to the central bank’s 2% target, this core rate doesn’t tend to get much attention. But since inflation began to rise significantly during 2021, interest in core inflation has grown because the figure strips out the noise of fast-changing costs such as energy. This measure therefore indicates if prices rises have become embedded in the economy – that is, if they are here to stay. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpi/consumerpriceindexmay2023/">figures published by Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO)</a> showed the country’s headline rate of inflation has fallen from a peak of 9.2% in October 2022 to 6.6% in May 2023. At the same time, CPI excluding energy and unprocessed food – a proxy for core inflation – rose from 5% in the year to December 2022 to 6.8% in the year to May 2023. </p>
<p>This puts Ireland’s core rate above its headline rate for the first time in more than two years. This has happened because a sharp fall in energy prices (14.6% for petrol and 22.9% for diesel) dragged down the headline rate of inflation – even though this was tempered by a sharp spike in food price inflation, from 2% to 10% over the course of 2022. But these items are not included in calculations for the core rate of inflation, which explains why Ireland’s headline rate has fallen below its core rate. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A coloured map of the UK and Ireland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532032/original/file-20230614-20396-zff5s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ulf Wittrock/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>UK inflation</h2>
<p>This shift has not happened in the UK yet, but it could soon. The headline rate of CPI for Britain reached a peak above 11% in October 2022, and has since declined to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/april2023">8.7% in the year to April 2023</a>. </p>
<p>Falling electricity and gas prices, as well as decreases in liquid fuels such as petrol, contributed to this headline rate slowdown. But the UK’s core inflation has not fallen because it does not include energy – and in fact has increased somewhat during 2023, reaching 6.8% in the year to April. The UK has experienced even higher inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices than Ireland, seeing a staggering 19% annual rise in early 2023.</p>
<p>The UK’s headline rate of inflation remains about 1.5%-2% above the core rate – but it is moving in the same direction as Ireland, so could yet be overtaken by the core rate. This would alert the Bank of England that high prices are in danger of becoming embedded in the economy, and that it needs to take more action to bring them down.</p>
<p>Since central banks use inflation figures to set their interest rates, this means people in both the UK and Ireland could see things like mortgage payments continue to increase, further fuelling the cost of living crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen McNena does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Different rates of inflation indicate high prices have become ‘embedded’ in these economies.
Stephen McNena, Economics lecturer, University of Galway
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206440
2023-06-07T21:11:07Z
2023-06-07T21:11:07Z
Canada’s lagging productivity affects us all — and will take years to remedy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530450/original/file-20230606-14983-62vvdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4608%2C2835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada has a productivity problem and its economy is falling behind other developed countries as a result. What's going on?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Volkswagen executives and federal, provincial and local government officials <a href="https://london.ctvnews.ca/this-is-the-place-to-build-the-future-st-thomas-ont-volkswagen-plant-to-create-3-000-jobs-1.6365074">recently celebrated their partnership</a> in the next Canadian giga-factory in St. Thomas, Ont., to produce automotive batteries. The announcement promises up to 3,000 new jobs and to revitalize Canada’s automotive sector.</p>
<p>It’s good news for Canada. We need more global firms willing to invest in the country. But the $13-billion government investment doesn’t add up.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-canada-and-ontario-pay-too-much-money-for-volkswagens-battery-plant-202406">Did Canada and Ontario pay too much money for Volkswagen’s battery plant?</a>
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<p>Matching and even beating competitive bids is common enough, especially in the automotive industry, but the amount involved could likely pay for not only all necessary capital expenditures to establish the plant and all its equipment, but also any related operating expenses for several years. </p>
<p>So why the massive subsidies? </p>
<p>They’re necessary when a country has little else to bring to the table.</p>
<h2>Productivity lagging</h2>
<p>Economic productivity <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/productivity.asp">is a measure of the rate at which the output of goods and services are produced per unit of input</a> (for example, labour, capital and raw materials). </p>
<p>While Canada ranks among the top countries to live in, our productivity doesn’t even hit the top 10 compared to other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). That productivity grade is a proxy for how well we compete — which is poorly — where productivity is a measure of GDP per capita. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/74623e5b-en/1/3/2/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/74623e5b-en&_csp_=726cfd36827aced56f33312dd7c53477&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book">Canada is currently ranked 18th</a>, its GDP per hour worked at 42.5 per cent of No. 1-ranked Ireland. </p>
<p>Compared to the United States, <a href="https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm">Canadian productivity has diminished by nine per cent between 2000 and 2022, falling to roughly 72 per cent of that of the U.S</a>.</p>
<p>The reasons for Canada’s diminished productivity? While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and labour shortages have had an impact, this issue pre-dates the pandemic. <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV">In 2019, Canada ranked 18th as well</a>.</p>
<p>More relevant is the <a href="https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/sme-research-statistics/en/key-small-business-statistics/key-small-business-statistics-2021">greater number of small business in Canada as a percentage of overall employment</a>. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-our-productivity-weakness-isnt-an-achilles-heel-its-a-malignancy/">OECD data suggest</a> large companies invest more in productivity-improving technology and training. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man's hands are seen pouring a glass of beer from a tap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530447/original/file-20230606-23-gwxxll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Main Street Brewing employee pours a pint of beer in the bar at the brewery in Vancouver, B.C. Small businesses employ most Canadians.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But even then, many of Canada’s largest organizations are comfortably part of stable oligopolies (banking and telecommunications companies, for example), with less industry pressure to be more competitive. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/training/support-skilled-trades-apprentices/provinces-territories.html">Canada’s trades and apprenticeship programs</a>, where many of the people who implement productivity-enhancing measures would come from, are also less developed, especially in comparison to European countries.</p>
<h2>Affects growth, costs</h2>
<p>Productivity rankings are admittedly abstract. You could read all of this and say: “So what? Most people who want to work can get jobs, and companies like Volkswagen are coming anyway! Why is this a problem?”</p>
<p>First, organizations struggling to find capable people, alongside staffing shortages, can deter or delay growth and opportunities to scale up. Customers who can’t get what they want while businesses struggle with capacity may go elsewhere, and labour shortages lead to higher wages and higher prices for goods and services.</p>
<p>Next, foreign investment. Volkswagen will use much of its government investment towards automation and productivity-enhancing technology. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men, two holding batteries, smile for the cameras. A row of Canadian flags is behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530448/original/file-20230606-17-kvmdwm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CEO of Volkswagen Group Oliver Blume looks on as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hold up EV battery cells in Ottawa in April 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But the deal also sets a dangerous precedent. Other firms may look at Canada’s productivity record, and more specifically at the lack of other large-scale applications of technology, and avoid investing here without significant subsidization. </p>
<p>A similar project announced in 2022 with Stellantis NV and its partner LG Energy Solutions received $1 billion in subsidies. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-do-the-feds-or-the-province-even-know-how-much-stellantis-is-really/">They are now indicating the support isn’t enough and are demanding much more</a>.</p>
<p>Recent government budgets tabled in Canada highlight the need for a focus on productivity, and other countries are not standing still. U.S. President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery/#:%7E:text=And%20two%20years%20ago%2C%20our,story%20of%20progress%20and%20resilience.">State of the Union address</a> earlier this year emphasized productivity, while his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/inflation-reduction-act-guidebook/">Inflation Reduction Act</a> promised $500 billion in related new spending.</p>
<h2>Evidence abounds</h2>
<p>Canada’s productivity struggles are seen in many areas: Our health-care system is stretched to the limit. Public transit is a couple of generations behind other developed markets. All this despite <a href="https://fundlibrary.com/Articles/Detail/canadas-tax-rates-among-highest-in-the-world/376">Canada being among the most heavily taxed countries in the world.</a></p>
<p>At the intersection of government and the private sector is our dismal performance on large-scale infrastructure projects, such as pipelines, transportation and energy. Canada’s ability to move resources to market, enable workers to commute efficiently and execute large-scale projects takes twice as long and costs twice as much <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canada-argentina-economic-output/">when compared to similar projects in Europe and other markets</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1647974501651558402"}"></div></p>
<p>In his book <em><a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780887307294">Beyond Reengineering</a></em>, noted American business thinker Michael Hammer said past success and growth were the result of demographics. While this might be an exaggeration, it isn’t much of one. </p>
<p>Australia, a resource-driven economy much like Canada’s, has improved its productivity over the last 20 years and is now performing five per cent better than Canada.</p>
<p>Businesses surely have a role to play in upping productivity, but government must lead the way. One area to start: funding and tax incentives for investments in technology. Right now the process is cumbersome and funding amounts lag behind the U.S. </p>
<h2>Talent deficit</h2>
<p>Additionally, companies lack talent with the knowledge and skills to apply this “free money.” Government needs to streamline the application process and speed up the transfer of funds.</p>
<p>It must also invest in technical trades education; speed up licensing and visa processing for foreign workers; incentivize training and research and development; and drastically expand infrastructure and health-care investment. The core objective should be not only to enable organizations to operate at full capacity but to improve the talents of that capacity.</p>
<p>Canada needs to improve the way we work. Improving our productivity ranking will take years, but by taking steps in education, in the private sector and in government, we can hopefully attract the type of project Volkswagen is committing to — and without massive subsidies. </p>
<p>Increasing productivity and improving the way we work is the only sustainable, long-term strategy to increase national wealth. At least then if we choose to write a cheque, we can afford it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Cross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Canada needs to improve the way we work. Improving our productivity ranking will take years, but by taking steps in education, in the private sector and in government, we can achieve national wealth.
Barry Cross, Assistant Business Professor, Queen's University, Ontario
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202901
2023-06-02T09:35:49Z
2023-06-02T09:35:49Z
The worries parents from ethnic minority backgrounds have about their children’s experiences at school
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528001/original/file-20230524-17-2qxg9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kindergarten-students-sitting-on-floor-660213634">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children and young people should be able to study in schools that recognise and respect their <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265866">diverse backgrounds</a>. But <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373718">teachers sometimes struggle</a> to handle this diversity in the classroom. </p>
<p>Findings from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00071005.2015.1049974">research conducted in Ireland</a> have shown that teachers may not receive adequate training in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071005.2017.1417973">intercultural education</a>.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2023.2175269">research</a> investigated how parents from minority ethnic (non-white) backgrounds who had immigrated to Ireland felt about their children’s school education. </p>
<p>I carried out five group discussions with 20 parents from minority-ethnic backgrounds in Ireland in early 2020. I wanted to understand the parents’ experiences with schooling in Ireland and other countries, their opinions on teaching and learning in Irish schools, their relationships with teachers and schools, and their advice for creating culturally inclusive learning environments.</p>
<h2>Uncertainty and unfamiliarity</h2>
<p>I found that some parents may feel fear and uncertainty when their children attend school, as they may not be familiar with the customs and practices of the education system of the country they have moved to. They had worries about the way their childrens’ race affected their school experiences: one parent said they thought teachers were unfairly singling their children out because of their colour. </p>
<p>The parents also had concerns about the cultural knowledge of the staff at their children’s schools, and how this might affect their education. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Teachers […] need to learn how to deal with kids of different backgrounds. […] I suppose they need to further learn all the different cultures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The parents suggested that schools needed to take specific action to learn about the cultures and backgrounds of the children they taught: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any school with people from diverse cultures should try to organise meetings where they invite parents, particularly those from migrant backgrounds, to discuss with the parents, the difficulties they as teachers are having with their work. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/003804070507800303">Research has found</a> that parental engagement with school promotes good behaviour by children. But how an immigrant parent interacts with their child’s school <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131911.2017.1423278">may be affected</a> by factors such as a language barrier and lack of familiarity with the school system. </p>
<h2>Teaching about cultures</h2>
<p>The parents also emphasised the importance of school and teachers to convey understanding of other cultures to pupils. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just the other day […] my daughter was playing on the yard with other children, but because they don’t understand her hair, she got her natural hair, they told her she needs to go to a hairdresser, they think something is wrong with her hair. They don’t understand. You can’t blame them because, in school, that’s what they learn. And it should be incorporated into the curriculum that we are different. Our hair is different. The teacher has to understand that.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and daughter getting ready for school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528005/original/file-20230524-27-nsv9oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents thought that children should learn about cultural differences in the classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-preparing-her-little-girl-return-2031142907">Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>They spoke about the potential benefits of increasing diversity among teachers and other school staff. This can create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for minority ethnic students, providing them with role models who they can relate to and who understand their cultural backgrounds.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Who is teaching them is white, who is taking them on break is white, who is giving them canteen food is white […] So we should ensure that these young guys [from minority ethnic backgrounds] who are attending universities should choose the teaching profession as a priority […] For me, the solution is to diversify the teaching profession and have representations from different culture. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071005.2017.1417973">Inclusive education</a>, which puts childrens’ diverse needs at the heart of the curriculum rather than in particular, separate classes or programmes, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2012.742143">is not always implemented</a>. School leaders and teachers may lack the competency to put inclusive education into practice. </p>
<p>It is essential that schools <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Preparing-for-Culturally-Responsive-Teaching-Gay/b7e6794377812407749375506dfa3671b4080421">take an approach</a> that considers how a student’s culture affects their learning. This is known as culturally responsive pedagogy. It is a teaching approach that aims to create classrooms where all students feel included and valued by teachers who incorporate their cultural backgrounds and experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seun Bunmi Adebayo receives funding from Irish Research Council. </span></em></p>
Parents were concerned that their children’s race would affect their school experiences.
Seun Bunmi Adebayo, PhD Researcher, Research Supervisor and Teaching Fellow, University of Galway
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204898
2023-05-04T12:13:22Z
2023-05-04T12:13:22Z
The coronation of King Charles III: 5 Essential reads on the big royal bash – and what it all means
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524195/original/file-20230503-19-lkmnde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5559%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A yarn of pomp and pageantry</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-charles-iii-coronation-knitted-decoration-on-a-post-news-photo/1487129510?adppopup=true">Planet One Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Kingdom is about to embark on an orgy of flag-waving pomp and pageantry in celebration of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594">King Charles III’s coronation</a>.</p>
<p>Charles is already the ruling monarch, having ascended to the throne following the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61585886">death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II</a> in 2022. So this is more of a chance for him and everyone else to dress up and have a bit of an old-fashioned royal <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knees-up">knees-up</a>.</p>
<p>Despite events taking place in a relatively small island off the coast of mainland Europe, the footage of King Charles being anointed with oil and accepting the regalia of state will be broadcast across the world. Here is The Conversation’s guide on what to expect.</p>
<h2>1. 3 days of celebration</h2>
<p>Not content with dedicating just one day to the coronation, the Brits are putting on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iii-coronation-what-to-expect-this-coronation-weekend-202183">three-day extravaganza</a> starting May 6, 2023. As <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/pauline-maclaran">Pauline Maclaran</a> from the Royal Holloway University of London explained, that Saturday will be dedicated to the actual formal proceedings. Sunday will give way to street parties across the U.K. The final installment takes place on Monday, a day when the British public will be excused from work but encouraged to spend the day volunteering.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A postcard of King Charles III." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A souvenir of the big occasion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-charles-iii-coronation-postcards-on-sale-in-a-souvenir-news-photo/1252040968?adppopup=true">Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>But it won’t just be Brits marking the occasion, especially at the central event on Saturday. As Maclaran noted: “In testimony to the monarchy’s ‘soft power,’ foreign dignitaries and world leaders will be among the 2,000 anticipated guests taking their places in the abbey alongside members of the royal family. …” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iii-coronation-what-to-expect-this-coronation-weekend-202183">King Charles III coronation: what to expect this coronation weekend</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<h2>2. A notable no-show</h2>
<p>There will be one notable absence among the overseas well-wishers at the coronation: President Joe Biden.</p>
<p>The U.S. leader’s decision not to attend has resulted in some U.K. newspapers’ raising a stink over a “royal snub.” Not so, wrote <a href="https://www.bu.edu/history/profile/arianne-chernock/">Arianne Chernock</a>, a royal watcher at Boston University. In fact, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-coronation-no-show-is-no-snub-more-telling-is-whom-he-sends-to-king-charles-big-day-202934">no U.S. president has ever attended</a> a British monarch’s coronation. </p>
<p>But, Chernock notes, what is perhaps of more importance is whom the U.S. leader sends in his stead. Delving through the experiences of Biden’s predecessors, she noted: “If history is a guide, who is sent across the Atlantic will telegraph particular American ideas and aspirations. The delegation will also reflect the president’s own personal agenda.”</p>
<p>In the past, that has meant signaling America’s disgust at the rise of European fascism and recognizing the changing role of women in society.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-coronation-no-show-is-no-snub-more-telling-is-whom-he-sends-to-king-charles-big-day-202934">Biden's coronation no-show is no snub – more telling is whom he sends to King Charles' big day</a>
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<hr>
<h2>3. But look who is going</h2>
<p>Some have put Biden’s decision not to attend down to a purported animosity “Irish Joe” feels toward the British. That far-fetched theory seems even more so when you look at who is attending. </p>
<p>Michelle O'Neill, president of Sinn Féin – a political party that has as a central aim the end of British rule in Northern Ireland – noted in her response to the invite that while she is an Irish republican, she recognizes “there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/peter-mcloughlin">Peter John McLoughlin</a> at Queen’s University Belfast <a href="https://theconversation.com/sinn-fein-at-the-coronation-how-to-understand-michelle-oneills-decision-to-attend-king-charless-big-day-204695">pointed out</a>, in framing language in an all-Ireland context, O'Neill was signaling her refusal to accept Ireland’s partition. But her presence nonetheless points at a meaningful commitment to the Northern Ireland peace process. </p>
<p>“Charles’ invitation to Sinn Féin to attend his coronation is in keeping with this process of reconciliation and the normalization of relations between Britain and Ireland. Sinn Féin’s acceptance of the invitation is part of the same effort, but also has a more political intent,” McLoughlin wrote.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sinn-fein-at-the-coronation-how-to-understand-michelle-oneills-decision-to-attend-king-charless-big-day-204695">Sinn Féin at the coronation: how to understand Michelle O'Neill's decision to attend King Charles's big day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Charles’ transatlantic cousins</h2>
<p>Most Americans did not got an invite for the coronation. But that shouldn’t stop residents of Buckingham, Virginia, or Westminster, Colorado, from joining in the fun alongside the folk of their place namesakes in the U.K. Indeed, there might be one or two people there who can legitimately lay claim to having a bit of royal blood themselves.</p>
<p><a href="https://le.ac.uk/people/turi-king">Turi King</a>, professor of genetics and public engagement at the University of Leicester in the U.K., did the number crunching and found that for those who claim any British ancestry, “the chances that not one of your 13-times great grandparents was directly descended from Edward III are tiny.” It’s all down to math, you see. </p>
<p>“It’s fair to ask what it really means to say that someone is a direct descendant of royalty,” King pondered. “My experience is that it means something different to each person. As a geneticist I would find it fascinating to know how I’m related to royalty, but I’d be equally interested to know about the lives of my other many ancestors. To me the most thought-provoking aspect is that we’re all related to one another.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/raise-a-glass-to-your-cousin-king-charles-iii-204137">Raise a glass to your cousin, King Charles III</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. What next for Charles?</h2>
<p>So what comes after the coronation party? For Charles it may be a right-royal hangover – one hundreds of years in the making.</p>
<p><a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/3326871">Tobias Harper</a> of Arizona State University noted that <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-faces-challenges-at-home-abroad-and-even-in-defining-what-it-means-to-be-king-190339">Charles faces major challenges</a>. Many countries, including those that are part of the Commonwealth, are reevaluating their colonial past – and that leads to uncomfortable questions about the role of the British monarchy and what role, if any, the current king should have.</p>
<p>Meanwhile at home, he has inherited a United Kingdom that looks decidedly un-united amid the fallout of Brexit and growing fissures between the four nations it represents. And then there is Charles’ own perceived faults – his meddling in politics, which stand in contrast to his mother’s political neutrality.</p>
<p>“If being king in 2022 sounds tricky, it’s because it is,” wrote Harper. “Charles will struggle to serve all his constituencies well. There are many ways he can fail. It’s not even clear what ‘success’ means for a British monarch in the 21st century. Is it influence? Harmony? Reflecting society? Setting a good example? Survival?”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-faces-challenges-at-home-abroad-and-even-in-defining-what-it-means-to-be-king-190339">Charles III faces challenges at home, abroad – and even in defining what it means to be king</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The pageantry of the coronation will be broadcast around the world. Here’s what to expect over the three days of celebrations.
Matt Williams, Senior International Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204507
2023-05-02T11:20:35Z
2023-05-02T11:20:35Z
DNA study sheds light on Scotland’s Picts, and resolves some myths about them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523315/original/file-20230427-20-enm6fg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C21%2C4716%2C3137&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pictish stones feature distinctive symbols.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Cathy MacIver</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The people known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picts">the Picts</a> have puzzled archaeologists and historians for centuries. They lived in Scotland during the early medieval period, from around AD300 to AD900, but many aspects of their society remain mysterious.</p>
<p>The Picts’ unique cultural characteristics, such as large stones decorated with distinct symbols, and lack of written records, have led to numerous theories about their origins, way of life, and culture. </p>
<p>This is commonly referred to in archaeology as the “Pictish problem”, a term popularised by the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Problem_of_the_Picts_Edited_by_F_T_W.html?id=EWZEtwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">title of a 1955 edited book</a> by the archaeologist Frederick Threlfall Wainwright.</p>
<p>Our genetic study of human remains from this period challenges several myths about the Picts. These include a proposed origin in eastern Europe, as well as a longstanding idea that the inheritance of wealth passed down the female side of the family.</p>
<p>We attempted to shed light on the Picts’ origins and legacy by sequencing whole genomes – the full complement of DNA in human cells – from skeletons excavated at two cemeteries. </p>
<h2>Stone monuments</h2>
<p>These cemeteries, at Balintore in Easter Ross and Lundin Links in Fife, date to between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. The results of our research have been <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010360">published in PLOS Genetics</a>.</p>
<p>The Balintore burials are not well understood, but Lundin Links is characterised by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00766097.2017.1296031">exceptional stone monuments</a>. The burials take the form of round or rectangular cairns – where numerous stones are piled up as markers – and long cists. Cists are stone-built “boxes” that hold the remains of the dead. </p>
<p>The cemetery probably housed people of a high-status, but this is still hypothetical due to the limited knowledge of these burials and society more generally during this period. Human remains in general from the Pictish era are relatively scarce and often poorly preserved.</p>
<p>There is no known settlement associated with Lundin Links. This is a common issue in Pictish archaeology, as the extent of their settlements is still largely unknown. Recently, however, excavations led by Professor Gordon Noble at the University of Aberdeen have <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Picts/J1iZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">discovered several new Pictish sites</a>, frequently hillforts, around Scotland.</p>
<h2>Origin myths</h2>
<p>In our study, we looked at how genetically similar the Pictish genomes were to other ancient genomes from Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and mainland Europe dating to the Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods. Our findings support a prevailing view that the Picts descended from Iron Age groups in Britain and Ireland. </p>
<p>This contrasts with older, often elaborate, myths of exotic origins, such as the one recounted in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People#:%7E:text=The%20Ecclesiastical%20History%20of%20the,Roman%20Rite%20and%20Celtic%20Christianity.">Ecclesiastical History of the English People</a>, written by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Bede-the-Venerable">Anglo-Saxon scholar Bede</a> in AD731. This claimed that the Picts migrated from Scythia (a historical region around the northern coast of the Black Sea) to northern Britain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="DNA double helix" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523394/original/file-20230428-16-hmppm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The researchers used a method that involves looking at long stretches of DNA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blue-helix-human-dna-structure-1669326868">Billion Photos / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other theories include an origin in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace">Thrace</a> (a historical region in south-east Europe) and islands to the north of Britain.</p>
<p>We sequenced two genomes to medium or high coverage, meaning that we determined the order of the “letters” in the DNA code multiple times while piecing together the highly fragmented genetic sequence. This allowed us to “zoom in” on the genetic diversity – or variation – in the ancient and modern people from our study, gaining greater analytical resolution.</p>
<p>We were able to look at fine-scale differences among ancient and modern groups across Britain and Ireland. We applied a method that investigates something called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_by_descent">identity-by-descent (IBD)</a>. This involves looking at relatively long stretches of DNA (“chunks” of chromosomes) that are shared by different individuals. </p>
<p>IBD is an indicator of relatedness via shared genetic ancestors. While we all share ancestors, sometimes we share more recent genetic ancestors with some individuals than with others. In this scenario, we would also share more IBD segments of DNA. </p>
<h2>Female inheritance</h2>
<p>The Pictish genomes share more long DNA chunks with present-day people from western Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We interpreted this as a sign of genetic continuity from the Pictish period to the present-day. </p>
<p>But present-day populations in Britain and Ireland also share relatively high amounts of IBD segments with Anglo-Saxon genomes from southern regions, suggesting mixture between populations in a south-to-north direction.</p>
<p>This fascinating insight provides a glimpse into the demographic processes that have shaped genetic diversity and population structure in present-day populations. However, there were also small but significant differences in the genetic similarity between Pictish genomes and other ancient groups, such as Iron Age genomes we compared them with. </p>
<p>This suggests that “Pictish genetic ancestry” was not static or homogenous. Instead, the genetic variation among ancient people reflects dynamic and complex communities.</p>
<p>Lastly, we managed to address an intriguing question. Bede stated that when the Picts stopped off in Ireland before settling in Britain, they were allowed to marry local women on the condition that Pictish succession passed down the female line. </p>
<p>This led to the notion that the Picts followed a tradition of “matrilineal succession”, where the sister’s son inherits the wealth instead of sons on the male line – a system often associated with women marrying locally. Scholars now believe this idea was probably fabricated to boost Pictish identity and validate specific rulers.</p>
<p>We sequenced complete genomes of mitochondria – structures in cells, often described as biological “batteries” – in seven samples from Lundin Links. They all carried unique mutations, meaning that none of the individuals were closely related on the maternal line. </p>
<p>This is more consistent with female exogamy, where women marry outside their social group. This is just one population sample from one location, though, so more research is required to test whether this holds elsewhere.</p>
<p>The study fills gaps in our understanding of the genetic landscape of Britain and Ireland during the early medieval period. It provides a baseline for future studies to investigate the complex genetic ancestry of present-day populations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linus Girdland Link was supported by the school of geoscience, University of Aberdeen. Kate Britton was supported by the Leverhulme Trust during production of this manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adeline Morez was supported by ECR strategic support of early career researchers in the faculty of science at LJMU, awarded to Linus Girdland-Flink.</span></em></p>
The genetic study challenges previous theories about the origins and culture of the Picts.
Linus Girdland Flink, Visiting lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, lecturer in biomolecular archaeology, University of Aberdeen
Adeline Morez, Post-doctorate researcher, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, visiting lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.