Prehistoric birds from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea: Extinctions on a large Melanesian island

At least 50 species of birds are represented in 241 bird bones from five late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites on New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea). The bones include only two of seabirds and none of migrant shorebirds or introduced species. Of the 50 species, at least 12 (petrel, hawk, megapode, quail, four rails, cockatoo, two owls, and crow) are not part of the current avifauna and have not been recorded previously from New Ireland. Larger samples of bones undoubtedly would indicate more extirpated species and refine the chronology of extinction. Humans have lived on New Ireland for ca. 35,000 years, whereas most of the identified bones are 15,000 to 6,000 years old. It is suspected that most or all of New Ireland’s avian extinction was anthropogenic, but this suspicion remains undetermined. Our data show that significant prehistoric losses of birds, which are well documented on Pacific islands more remote than New Ireland, occurred also on large, high, mostly forested islands close to New Guinea.

Electoral Systems and Ethnic Conciliation: A Structured, Focused Analysis of Vote-Pooling in Northern Ireland Elections 1998-2011

This research project examines the role of electoral system rules in affecting the extent of conciliatory behavior and cross-ethnic coalition making in Northern Ireland. It focuses on the role of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system in shaping party and voter incentives in a post-conflict divided society. The research uses a structured, focused comparison of the four electoral cycles since the Belfast Agreement of 1998. This enables a systematic examination of each electoral cycle using a common set of criteria focused on conciliation and cross-ethnic coalition making. Whilst preference voting is assumed to benefit moderate candidates, in Northern Ireland centrist and multi-ethnic parties outside of the dominant ethnic communities have received little electoral success. In Northern Ireland the primary effect of STV has not been to encourage inter-communal voting but to facilitate intra-community and intra-party moderation. STV has encouraged the moderation of the historically extreme political parties in each of the ethnic bloc. Patterns across electoral cycles suggest that party elites from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein have moderated their policy positions due to the electoral system rules. Therefore they have pursued lower-preference votes from within their ethnic bloc but in doing so have marginalized parties of a multi-ethnic or non-ethnic orientation.

Multimodal analysis of a sample of political posters in Ireland during and after the Celtic Tiger

The aim of this research paper is to analyse the key political posters made for the campaigns of Irish political party Fianna Fáil framed in the Celtic Tiger (1997-2008) and post-Celtic Tiger years (2009-2012). I will then focus on the four posters of the candidate in the elections that took place in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2011 with the intention of observing first how the leader is represented, and later on pinpointing the similarities and possible differences between each. This is important in order to observe the main linguistic and visual strategies used to persuade the audience to vote that party and to highlight the power of the politician. Critical discourse analysis tools will be helpful to identify the main discursive strategies employed to persuade the Irish population to vote in a certain direction. Van Leeuwen’s (2008) social actor theory will facilitate the understanding of how participants are represented in the corpus under analysis. Finally, the main tools of Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar (2006) will be applied for the analysis of the images. The study reveals that politicians are represented in a consistently positive way, with status and formal appearance so that people are persuaded to vote for the party they represent because they trust them as political leaders. The study, thus, points out that the poster is a powerful tool used in election campaigns to highlight the power of political parties.

Cork, Ireland, 1771 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A survey of the city and suburbs of Cork, By J. Rocque, 1759. It was printed for Robert, Sayer, No. 53 in Fleet Street in 1771. Scale 1:2,400.The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish Grid (Transverse Mercator 1965 (TM-65)) coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, ground cover, parks, gardens, docks, and more. Relief shown by shading.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

County Armàgh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, 1760 (Image 1 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A topographical map of the county of Armagh to which is anex'd the plans of Newry and Armagh, by John Rocque = Carte topographique de la Province d'Armagh où se trouve les plans des villes d'Armagh et de Newry, par Jean Rocque. It was published by J. Rocque in 1760. Scale [ca. 1:41,000]. This layer is image 1 of 4 total images of the four sheet source map, representing the southeast portion of the map. Covers County Armàgh, Northern Ireland. Map in English and French. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish Grid (Transverse Mercator 1965 (TM-65)) coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, selected names of landowners, ground cover, and more. Relief shown by hachures and pictorially. Includes 2 insets: "A Plan of the Town of Newry" -- "A Plan of the City of Armagh".This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

County Armàgh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, 1760 (Image 2 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A topographical map of the county of Armagh to which is anex'd the plans of Newry and Armagh, by John Rocque = Carte topographique de la Province d'Armagh où se trouve les plans des villes d'Armagh et de Newry, par Jean Rocque. It was published by J. Rocque in 1760. Scale [ca. 1:41,000]. This layer is image 2 of 4 total images of the four sheet source map, representing the northeast portion of the map. Covers County Armàgh, Northern Ireland. Map in English and French. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish Grid (Transverse Mercator 1965 (TM-65)) coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, selected names of landowners, ground cover, and more. Relief shown by hachures and pictorially. Includes 2 insets: "A Plan of the Town of Newry" -- "A Plan of the City of Armagh".This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

County Armàgh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, 1760 (Image 3 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A topographical map of the county of Armagh to which is anex'd the plans of Newry and Armagh, by John Rocque = Carte topographique de la Province d'Armagh où se trouve les plans des villes d'Armagh et de Newry, par Jean Rocque. It was published by J. Rocque in 1760. Scale [ca. 1:41,000]. This layer is image 3 of 4 total images of the four sheet source map, representing the southwest portion of the map. Covers County Armàgh, Northern Ireland. Map in English and French. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish Grid (Transverse Mercator 1965 (TM-65)) coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, selected names of landowners, ground cover, and more. Relief shown by hachures and pictorially. Includes 2 insets: "A Plan of the Town of Newry" -- "A Plan of the City of Armagh".This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

County Armàgh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, 1760 (Image 4 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A topographical map of the county of Armagh to which is anex'd the plans of Newry and Armagh, by John Rocque = Carte topographique de la Province d'Armagh où se trouve les plans des villes d'Armagh et de Newry, par Jean Rocque. It was published by J. Rocque in 1760. Scale [ca. 1:41,000]. This layer is image 4 of 4 total images of the four sheet source map, representing the northwest portion of the map. Covers County Armàgh, Northern Ireland. Map in English and French. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish Grid (Transverse Mercator 1965 (TM-65)) coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, selected names of landowners, ground cover, and more. Relief shown by hachures and pictorially. Includes 2 insets: "A Plan of the Town of Newry" -- "A Plan of the City of Armagh".This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

Dublin, Ireland, ca. 1782 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Plan of the city of Dublin : taken from an actual survey from the Universal Scots Almanack. It was printed by John Robertson ca. 1782. Scale [ca 1:1,200]. Covers a portion Dublin, Ireland. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Irish National Grid coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, built-up areas and selected buildings, ground cover, and more. Includes index. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.