“A Labour Leader in a Frothy Scoundrel”: Farce and Social Justice in the Popular Dramaturgy of George Shiels

In the financially precarious period which followed the partition of Ireland (1922) the Northern Irish playwright George Shiels kept The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, open for business with a series of ‘box-office’ successes. Literary Dublin was not so appreciative of his work as the Abbey audiences dubbing his popular dramaturgy mere ‘kitchen comedy’. However, recent analysts of Irish theatre are beginning to recognise that Shiels used popular theatre methods to illuminate and interrogate instances of social injustice both north and south of the Irish border. In doing so, such commentators have set up a hierarchy between the playwright’s early ‘inferior’ comedies and his later ‘superior’ works of Irish Realism. This article rejects this binary by suggesting that in this early work Shiels’s intent is equally socially critical and that in the plays Paul Twyning, Professor Tim and The Retrievers he is actively engaging with the farcical tradition in order to expose the marginalisation of the landless classes in Ireland in the post-colonial jurisdictions.

The justice-workplace health relationship:The mediating role of emotions

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediational effects of positive and negative emotions in the relationship between organisational justice and health. Design/methodology/approach - This cross-sectional research obtained data from 206 workers employed within the financial/banking, manufacturing, and retail industries in Barbados. Findings - Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that positive and negative emotions completely mediated the effects of relational justice (but not procedural justice) on overall health. Research limitations/implications - Research was cross-sectional, and relied on self-report measures. The findings suggest that employers must properly evaluate their health and safety policies and practices in the organisation to ensure that aspects of the psychosocial work environment are being properly implemented, managed, and monitored, to ensure that individuals' health and well-being are not at risk. Originality/value - The paper represents a first attempt to investigate the roles of positive and negative emotions in the justice-health relationship in a different cultural context such as the Caribbean. Justice has been rarely researched as a psychosocial work stressor. The study described in the paper focused on multiple health outcomes. Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.

A systematic review of quantitative studies reporting selected patient experienced outcomes, with a specific focus on gender differences in people with colorectal cancer

Men with colorectal cancer have a higher mortality rate than their female counterparts. Despite this, there is a limited understanding of the impact gender has on the experience of colorectal cancer.

Gender mainstreaming and the Common Agricultural Policy

While there are many case studies looking at gender mainstreaming in national contexts, this article offers a pan-European perspective to examine how a stated commitment to gender equality at this meta-level works in practice. The European Union’s (EU) stated commitment to gender mainstreaming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is critically reviewed. The article reviews theoretical literature on gender mainstreaming, considers the position of women in agriculture across Europe, and examines efforts by the EU to gender mainstream the CAP. It argues that at best, gender mainstreaming focuses on the symptoms of gender inequality in agriculture rather than the causes. Because of this, gender mainstreaming cannot be transformative in this context. Little thought has been given to the practical difficulties of actually gender mainstreaming a policy such as the CAP. The EU’s priority for the CAP focuses on the mainstream business goal of a viable agricultural industry and does not pay any heed to gender inequalities in agriculture. In short, the stated commitment to gender mainstreaming is empty rhetoric