'Corkonian exceptionalism': identity, authenticity and the emotional politics of place in a small city's popular music scene

Drawing from ethnographic research on Cork city’s popular music scene, this article explores meanings of ‘authenticity’ as constructed through geographical, social and ideological referents. It unpacks local music producers’ position-takings within the local field of cultural production, and locates their narrative claims to authenticity with respect to the city’s strong sense of cultural identity. Their authenticating discourses are revealed as complex, often produced through building imagined communities of ‘us’ (in Cork) versus ‘them’ (in Dublin). The analysis indicates local actors’ deep sense of emotional attachment to place and to others within the music-making community, which impacts on their self-conception as creative labourers, sustains DIY, collaborative practices, and promotes a solidaristic ethos within the local music scene.

Migration: A Heideggerian analysis

The phenomenon of migration has been widely researched by the social sciences. Theories regarding the migrant have been developed in terms of the oppressive social context that is often encountered, proposing different alternatives to understand and overcome such oppression. Through the current project, an alternative view is presented that first, questions the accuracy of the social theories of migration and second, proposes an alternative understanding of this experience. Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology of Being offers a contextualized view of existence that nonetheless includes elements of our experience that are shared due to a common mode of being. I use Heidegger’s philosophy in order to broaden the understanding of the migrant’s experience analyzing those elements that he identifies as shared (for instance: human sociability, a desire for a home, the uncanny, etc.) and comparing them with common issues raised by migrants (identity, homesickness, belonging, etc.). In this way, I intend to present a more complete picture of the experience of migration that considers both empirical evidence of individual migrants and an existential analysis that incorporates the defining elements of our world and our existence as crucial means to understand any experience, including that of migration.

An exploration through interview and drawings of the experiences of patients diagnosed with oral cancer across their cancer trajectory

Background: The treatment of oral cancer is complex and lengthy. Curative treatment implies a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The main goal of treatment is to guarantee long-term tumour free survival with as little functional and cosmetic damage. Despite progress in developing these strategies, cancers of the oral cavity continue to have high mortality rates that have not improved dramatically over the past ten years. Aim: The aim of this study was to uniquely explore the dynamic changes in the physical, psychological, social and existential experiences of newly diagnosed patients with oral cancer at two points across their cancer illness trajectory i.e. at the time of diagnosis and at the end of treatment. Methodology: A qualitative prospective longitudinal design was employed. Non-probability purposive sampling allowed the recruitment of 10 participants. The principal data collection method used was a digital audio taped semi-structured interview along with drawings produced by the participants. Analysis: Data was analysed using latent content analyses. Summary: Three ‘dynamic’ themes, physical, psychosocial and existential experiences were revealed that interact and influence each other in a complex and compound whole. These experiences are present at different degrees and throughout the entire trajectory of care. Patients have a number of specific concerns and challenges that cannot be compartmentalised into unitary or discrete aspects of their daily lives. Conclusion & Implications: An understanding of the patient’s experience of their illness at all stages of the disease trajectory, is essential to inform service providers’ decision making if the delivery of care is to be client centred. Dynamic and fluctuating changes in the patient’s personal experience of the cancer journey require dynamic, energetic and timely input from health care professionals.

The ‘Celtic’ dimension of pre-first World War religious discourse in Britain: Wellesley Tudor Pole and the Glastonbury phenomenon

This article will explore the contribution made to the construction of discourse around religion outside of mainstream Christianity, at the turn of the twentieth century in Britain, by a Celticist movement as represented by Wellesley Tudor Pole (d.1968) and his connection to the Glastonbury phenomenon. I will detail the interconnectedness of individuals and movements occupying this discursive space and their interest in efforts to verify the authenticity of an artefact which Tudor Pole claimed was once in the possession of Jesus. Engagement with Tudor Pole’s quest to prove the provenance of the artefact, and his contention that a pre-Christian culture had existed in Ireland which had extended itself to Glastonbury and Iona creating the foundation for an authentic Western mystical tradition, is presented as one facet of a broader, contemporary discourse on alternative ideas and philosophies. In conclusion, I will juxtapose Tudor Pole’s fascination with Celtic origins and the approach of leading figures in the ‘Celtic Revival’ in Ireland, suggesting intersections and alterity in the construction of their worldview. The paper forms part of a chapter in a thesis under-preparation which examines the construction of discourse on religion outside of mainstream Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century, and in particular the role played by visiting religious reformers from Asia. The aim is to recover the (mostly forgotten) history of these engagements.