Anatomising Irish Rebellion: the Cromwellian Delinquency Commissions, the Books of Discrimination and the 1641 Depositions

The recent digitisation of the 1641 depositions has opened up that large and controversial collection of manuscripts to renewed study. The significance of a substantial section of that archive generated in 1653-4 by the work of the Cromwellian delinquency commissions has hitherto been poorly understood. This article sheds new light on the workings of the commissions and on the ways in which the 'delinquency depositions' that they collected helped to shape the implementation of the Cromwellian and Restoration land settlements in Ireland. It also compares the Irish delinquency proceedings to the approach adopted by the Long Parliament in its dealings with royalists in England in the 1640s. In analysing the actual content of the depositions, the article focuses particular attention on County Wexford. The surviving delinquency depositions enable in-depth exploration of many facets of the 1641 rebellion and its aftermath in that region.

Ex Vivo Smooth Muscle Pharmacological Effects of a Novel Bradykinin-Related Peptide, and Its Analogue, from Chinese Large Odorous Frog, Odorrana livida Skin Secretions

Bradykinin-related peptides (BRPs) are one of the most extensively studied frog secretions-derived peptide families identified from many amphibian species. The diverse primary structures of BRPs have been proven essential for providing valuable information in understanding basic mechanisms associated with drug modification. Here, we isolated, identified and characterized a dodeca-BRP (RAP-L1, T6-BK), with primary structure RAPLPPGFTPFR, from the skin secretions of Chinese large odorous frogs, Odorrana livida. This novel peptide exhibited a dose-dependent contractile property on rat bladder and rat ileum, and increased the contraction frequency on rat uterus ex vivo smooth muscle preparations; it also showed vasorelaxant activity on rat tail artery smooth muscle. In addition, the analogue RAP-L1, T6, L8-BK completely abolished these effects on selected rat smooth muscle tissues, whilst it showed inhibition effect on bradykinin-induced rat tail artery relaxation. By using canonical antagonist for bradykinin B1 or B2 type receptors, we found that RAP-L1, T6-BK -induced relaxation of the arterial smooth muscle was very likely to be modulated by B2 receptors. The analogue RAP-L1, T6, L8-BK further enhanced the bradykinin inhibitory activity only under the condition of co-administration with HOE140 on rat tail artery, suggesting a synergistic inhibition mechanism by which targeting B2 type receptors.