No Sense of an Ending: Researching the Experience of Imprisonment and Release upon Republican Ex-Prisoners

This article describes an interview-based study of the effects of long-term imprisonment upon 18 Republican ex-prisoners and their families. The interviews followed a biographical, narrative format, drawing from experience of psychiatric assessment of released long-term prisoners. Interpretation of the material was influenced by the sociological literature on imprisonment effects and war trauma. The ex-prisoners had spent an average of 11 years in custody. They described complex experiences of loss, psychological change and social integration, particularly in the area of employment. A decade after release some still had vivid difficulties in coming to terms with the losses of the past and finding purpose for the future. There were parallels between the experiences of this goup and those of war veterans returning home. There is insufficient recognition of these phenomena in previous research on the psychological effects of imprisonment.

Exile or emigrant? Female ex-prisoners who left Ireland 1850-1921

In the popular mind, the concept of 'emigration' usually refers to people voluntarily leaving one country to go to another in search of a new and better life. It presupposes some degree of choice, although it is accepted that for many emigrants, such as those who left Ireland during the nineteenth century, there were few incentives to stay at home. Current scholarship on voluntary and forced movements of people demonstrates that the distinction between the categories of 'voluntary emigrant' and 'forced exile' is often blurred. Orm Overland's study of refugee communities in the United States highlights the fact that, although the differences between the 'emigrant' and the 'exile' may be clear in extreme cases, this is not always true, as there may be 'pressing political or economic reasons behind a decision to emigrate'. Migration scholars Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen also question the adequacy of conceptual models of migration based on what Lindsay Proudfoot and Dianne Hall refer to as the 'straightforward binarism between free and unfree emigration'. The questions raised by these scholars are very relevant to the study of Irish people who left their country during the second half of the nineteenth century immediately after they had been discharged from prison or from Dundrum. Their stories are discussed here against a background of substantial scholarship on emigration from Ireland and on the criminal justice system within Ireland. According to David Fitzpatrick, at least eight million men, women and children emigrated from Ireland between 1801 and 1921. This large-scale movement of people was generally characterised by the voluntary emigration of individuals who funded their own passages. However, it also included schemes of assisted emigration, funded variously by governments, landlords, the poor law authorities, earlier emigrants, and philanthropists. In addition, it included people who were transported from Ireland by means of the criminal justice system a practice that had originated in the seventeenth century. What is less well known is that after the end of transportation from Ireland to eastern Australia in 1853, to Bermuda in 1863 and to Western Australia in 1868, Irish convicts continued to be channelled towards emigration by being offered early release if they agreed to leave Ireland. These people, and especially the women among them, are the subject of this article.

Ex vivo diagnosis of lung cancer using a Raman miniprobe.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. The conventional method of confirming the diagnosis is bronchoscopy, inspecting the airways of the patient with a fiber optic endoscope. A number of studies have shown that Raman spectroscopy can diagnose lung cancer in vitro. In this study, Raman spectra were obtained from ex vivo normal and malignant lung tissue using a minifiber optic Raman probe suitable for insertion into the working channel of a bronchoscope. Shifted subtracted Raman spectroscopy was used to reduce the fluorescence from the lung tissue. Using principal component analysis with a leave-one-out analysis, the tissues were classified accurately. This novel technique has the potential to obtain Raman spectra from tumors from patients with lung cancer in vivo.

Inhibition of cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism enhances ex vivo susceptibility of Fasciola hepatica to triclabendazole

A study has been carried out to investigate whether the action of triclabendazole (TCBZ) against Fasciola hepatica is altered by inhibition of drug metabolism. The cytochrome P450 (CYP P450) system was inhibited using piperonyl butoxide (PB). The Oberon TCBZ-resistant and Cullompton TCBZ-susceptible isolates were used for these experiments. The CYP P450 system was inhibited by a 2 h pre-incubation in PB (100 mu M). Flukes were then incubated for a further 22 h in NCTC medium containing either PB; PB + nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) (1 nM); PB + NADPH + TCBZ (15 mu g/ml); or PB + NADPH + TCBZ.SO (15 mu g/ml). Morphological changes resulting from drug treatment and following metabolic inhibition were assessed using scanning electron microscopy. After treatment with either TCBZ or TCBZ.SO alone, there was greater disruption to the TCBZ-susceptible than the resistant isolate. However, co-incubation with PB and TCBZ/TCBZ.SO lead to more severe surface changes to the TCBZ-resistant Oberon isolate than with each drug on its own. With the TCBZ-susceptible Cullompton isolate, there was limited potentiation of drug action, and only with TCBZ.SO. The results support the concept of altered drug metabolism in TCBZ-resistant flukes and this process may play a role in the development of drug resistance.

Establishing ex ante public construction supply chain guidelines in the public procurement of Schools' estate

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the formative development of construction supply chain guidelines or proposals in a UK region’s schools’ estates procurement process to more effectively address a forthcoming increase in investment.

Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is interpretive. Using an action research approach, repeated semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders are conducted.

Findings – The current construction supply chain in schools’ estate procurement has many difficulties, not least given the highly fragmented and disconnected nature of the projects. Synergies are being missed and there is little or no continuous improvement. Drawing on these findings, the research iteratively develops a range of proposals and guidelines to address this situation.

Research limitations/implications – This research adds weight to the current focus on pressing for change in the construction industry. It presents potentially valuable insights into the benefits of partnering arrangements and how these might usefully be incorporated into schools’ estate supply chain.

Practical implications – A set of guidelines is developed to guide the public procurement of schools’ estate in a UK region. These guidelines are set within the context of the Modernising and Rethinking Construction agenda.

Originality/value – The action research approach enabled the researchers to gain a unique insight into how public procurement and contractor personnel interact and to establish effective practical guidelines.

Re-imagining DDR Ex-combatants, leadership and moral agency in conflict transformation

Drawing upon criminological studies in the field of prisoner rehabilitation, this essay explores the relevance of the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) framework to the process of conflict transformation in Northern Ireland. In a similar fashion to the critique of 'passivity' offered by, for example, the 'strengths based' or 'good lives' approach to prisoner resettlement and reintegration more generally, the authors contend that the Northern Ireland peace process offers conspicuous examples of former prisoners and combatants as agents and indeed leaders in the process of conflict transformation. They draw out three broad styles of leadership which have emerged amongst ex-combatants over the course of the Northern Ireland transition from conflict-political, military and communal. They suggest that cumulatively such leadership speaks to the potential of ex-prisoners and ex-combatants as moral agents in conflict transformation around which peacemaking can be constructed rather than as obstacles which must be 'managed' out of existence.