A proposal for the better supplying of churches in our foreign plantations, and for converting the savage Americans to Christianity, by a college to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda.

http://www.archive.org/details/proposalforbette00berkrich

Reading Between the Lines: The Potential of Popular Young Adult Fiction in Adolescent Spiritual Formation

Popular culture is a powerful, shaping force in the lives of teenagers between the ages of fourteen through eighteen in the United States today. This dissertation argues the importance of popular fiction for adolescent spiritual formation and it investigates that importance by exploring the significance of narrative for theology and moral formation. The dissertation employs mythic and archetypal criticism as a tool for informing the selection and critique of narratives for use in adolescent spiritual development and it also incorporates insights gained from developmental psychology to lay the groundwork for the development of a curriculum that uses young adult fiction in a program of spiritual formation for teenagers in a local church setting. The dissertation defends the power of narrative in Christian theology and concludes that narrative shapes the imagination in ways that alter perception and are important for the faith life of teenagers in particular. I go on to argue that not all narratives are created equal. In using literary myth criticism in concert with theology, I use the two disciplines’ different aims and methods to fully flesh out the potential of theologies intrinsic to works meant for a largely secular audience. The dissertation compares various works of young adult fiction (M.T. Anderson’s Feed and Terry Pratchett’s Nation in dialogue with a theology of creation; Marcus Zusak’s I am the Messenger and Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl in dialogue with salvation and saviors; and the four novels of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga in dialogue with a theology of hope (eschatology). The dissertation explores how each theme surfaces (even if only implicitly) from both literary and theological standpoints. The dissertation concludes with a sample four-week lesson plan that demonstrates one way the theological and literary critique can be formed into a practical curriculum for use in an adolescent spiritual development setting. Ultimately, this dissertation provides a framework for how practitioners of young adult formation can select, analyze, and develop materials for their teenagers using new works of popular young adult fiction. The dissertation comes to the conclusion that popular fiction contains a wealth of material that can challenge and shape young readers’ own emerging theology.

An analysis of political efficacy socialisation among threshold voters in the Republic of Ireland

The spread of democracy in the latter part of the twenty first century has been accompanied by an increasing focus on its perceived performance in established western democracies. Recent literature has expressed concern about a critical outlook among younger cohorts which threatens their political support and engagement. Political efficacy, referring to the feeling of political effectiveness, is considered to be a key indicator of the performance of democratic politics; as it refers to the empowerment of citizens, and relates to their willingness to engage in political matters. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the socialisation of political efficacy among those on the threshold of political adulthood; i.e., 'threshold voters'. The long-term significance of attitudes developed by time of entry to adulthood for political engagement during adulthood has been emphasised in recent literature. By capturing the effect of non-political and political learning among threshold voters, the study advances existing research frames which focus on childhood and early adolescent socialisation. The theoretical and methodological framework applied herein recognises the distinction between internal and external political efficacy, which has not been consistently operationalized in existing research on efficacy socialisation. This research involves a case study of 'threshold voters' in the Republic of Ireland, and employs a quantitative methodology. A study on Irish threshold voters is timely as the parliament and government have recently proposed a lowering of the voting age and an expansion of formal political education to this age group. A project-specific survey instrument was developed and administered to a systematic stratified sample of 1,042 post-primary students in the Cork area. Interpretation of the results of statistical analysis leads to findings on the divergent influence of family, school, associational, and political agents/environments on threshold voter internal and external political efficacy.

Vulnerability or resilience? Psycho-social factors associated with deliberate self-harm among adolescents

Background: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is common among adolescents in Ireland and internationally. Psychological factors, negative life events and lifestyle factors have been found to be associated with self-harm in this group. However, large scale population-based studies of adolescent selfharm and its correlates have been lacking, and internationally a standardised methodology was needed to facilitate comparative studies. The focus on vulnerability which has been prevalent in this field has meant that research has failed to examine resilient adaptation among at-risk adolescents. Method: Data were obtained from a cross-sectional school-based study conducted in Ireland and in each of the six other centres which participated in the Child and Adolescent Self-harm in Europe (CASE) study. In Ireland, 3,881 adolescents in 39 schools in completing the anonymous questionnaire, while across all 7 centres, over 30,000 young people participated. Data were gathered on health and lifestyle, self-harm thoughts and behaviour, a wide range of life events, psychological characteristics (anxiety and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, impulsivity and coping style), and support available to young people. Results: This thesis reports the findings of the Irish CASE centre as well as one international study. The factors associated with DSH among Irish adolescents differed by gender, but among both genders drug use and knowing a friend who had engaged in self-harm were associated with DSH. Among Irish boys, strong associations were found between bullying and poor mental health and DSH. Among boys who had been bullied, psychological and school factors were associated with DSH, while family support was protective. Links between stressful life events, psychological characteristics and DSH within the international CASE sample were examined. Increased history of self-harm thoughts and acts was associated with greater depression, anxiety and impulsivity, lower self esteem and an increased prevalence of ten different negative life events, supporting the hypothesis of a “dose-response” relationship between these risk factors and the self-harm process. Associations between coping style, mental health factors (depressive symptoms, anxiety and self-esteem) and self-harm were examined among Irish adolescents. Emotion-oriented coping was strongly associated with poorer mental health and self-harm thoughts and acts. A mediating effect of emotion-oriented coping on associations between mental health factors and DSH was found for both genders and between problem-oriented coping and mental health factors for girls. Similar mediating effects of coping style were found when risk of self-harm thoughts was examined. Resilient adaptation among adolescents exposed to suicidal behaviour of others was examined. Self-harm thoughts were common in these adolescents. Among those exposed to suicidal behaviour of others, vulnerability factors were drug use and higher levels of anxiety among boys, while for girls drug use, bullying and abuse were vulnerability factors, while resilience was associated with higher self-esteem and use of problem-oriented coping. Conclusion: These findings can aid in the identification of young people at risk of self-harm in the school setting and highlight the importance of mental health, peer-related and lifestyle factors in the development of DSH. High-risk groups of young people such as bullying victims and those exposed to suicidal behaviour of others have distinctive profiles of risk factors which differ from those of their peers. Findings relating to the importance of positive coping skills can inform positive mental health programmes, many of which aim to enhance life skills and build resilience among young people. Knowledge of the factors associated with positive adaptation among at-risk adolescents can inform prevention efforts among this group.

The Queen's College, Cork: its origins and early history, 1803-1858

This work examines the origins and early history of the Queen's College, Cork. Designedly there is as much stress on the origins as on the early history, for it is the contention of the work that the College was something more than a legislative mushroom. It was very much in the tradition of the civic universities which added an exciting new dimension to academic life in these islands in the nineteenth century. The first chapter surveys university practice and thinking at the opening of the century, relying exclusively on published sources. The second chapter is devoted specifically to the state of learning in Cork during the period, and makes extensive use of hitherto unpublished manuscript material in relation to the Royal Cork Institution. The third chapter deals with the highly significant evidence on education embodied in the Report of the Select Committee on Irish Education of 1838. This material has not previously been published. In chapter four an extended study is made of relevant letters in the manuscript correspondence of Sir Robert Peel - even the most recent authoritative biography has ignored this material. The remaining three chapters are devoted more specifically to the College, both in the formulation or policy and in its practical working. In chapter six there is an extended survey of early College life based exclusively on hitherto unpublished manuscript material in the College Archives. All of these sources, together with incidental published material, are set out at the end of each chapter.

A post-structuralist analysis of Irish youth crime prevention policy with specific emphasis on the Garda youth diversion projects

Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDPs) have since their beginnings in the early 1990s gained an increasingly important role and now constitute a central feature of Irish youth justice provision. Managed by the Irish Youth Justice Service and implemented by the Gardai and a variety of youth work organisations as well as independent community organisations, GYDPs are located at the crossroads of welfarist and corporatist approaches to youth justice, combining diversionary and preventative aspects in their work. To date, these projects have been subjected to very little systematic analysis and they have thus largely escaped critical scrutiny. To address this gap, this thesis locates the analysis of GYDP policy and practice within a post-structuralist theoretical framework and deploys discourse analysis primarily based on the work of Michel Foucault. It makes visible the official youth crime prevention and GYDP policy discourses and identifies how official discourses relating to youth crime prevention, young people and their offending behaviour, are drawn upon, negotiated, rejected or re-contextualised by project workers and JLOs. It also lays bare how project workers and JLOs draw upon a variety of other discourses, resulting in multi-layered, complex and sometimes contradictory constructions of young people, their offending behaviour and corresponding interventions. At a time when the projects are undergoing significant changes in terms of their repositioning to operate as the support infrastructure underpinning the statutory Garda Youth Diversion Programme, the thesis traces the discursive shifts and the implications for practice that are occurring as the projects move away from a youth work orientation towards a youth justice orientation. A key contribution of this thesis is the insight it provides into how young people and their families are being constituted in individualising and sometimes pathologising ways in GYDP discourses and practices. It reveals the part played by the GYDP intervention in favouring individual and narrow familial causes of offending behaviour while broader societal contexts are sidelined. By explicating the very assumptions upon which contemporary youth crime prevention policy, as well as GYDP policy and practice are based, this thesis offers a counterpoint to the prevailing evidence-based agenda of much research in the field of Irish youth justice theory and youth studies more generally. Rather, it encourages the reader to take a step back and examine some of the most fundamental and unquestioned assumptions about the construction of young people, their offending behaviour and ways of addressing this, in contemporary Irish youth crime prevention policy and practice.

Practice Links [Issue 52, April 2013]

Practice Links is a free e-publication for practitioners working in Irish social services, voluntary and nongovernmental sectors. Practice Links was created to enable practitioners to keep up-to-date with new publications, electronic resources and conference opportunities. Issue 52 contains reviews on publications covering Irish adoption stories, hospital to home discharge planning, cyber technology for social workers and meeting the service needs of young care-leavers.

Characterisation of the non-muscle α-actinins

Actinins are cytoskeleton proteins that cross-link actin filaments. Evolution of the actinin family resulted in the formation of Ca++-insensitive muscle isoforms (actinin-2 and- 3) and Ca++-sensitive non-muscle isoforms (actinin-1 and -4) with regard to their actin-binding function. Despite high sequence similarity, unique properties have been ascribed to actinin-4 compared with actinin-1. Actinin-4 is the predominant isoform reported to be associated with the cancer phenotype. Actinin-4, but not actinin-1, is essential for normal glomerular function in the kidney and and is able to translocate to the nucleus to regulate transcription. To understand the molecular basis for such isoform-specific functions I have comprehensively compared these proteins in terms of localisation, migration, alternative splicing, actin-binding properties, heterodimer formation and molecular interactions for the first time. This work characterises a number of commercially available actinin antibodies and in doing so, identifies actinin-1, -2 and -4 isoform-specific antibodies that enabled studies of actinin expression and localisation. This work identifies the actinin rod domain as the predominant domain that influences actinin localisation however localisation is likely to be effected by the entire actinin protein. si-RNA- mediated knockdown of actinin-1 and -4 did not affect migration in a number of cell lines highlighting that migration may only require a fraction of total non-muscle actinin levels. This work finds that the Ca++-insensitive variant of actinin-4 is expressed only in the nervous system and thus cannot be regarded as a smooth muscle isoform, as is the case for the Ca++-insensitive variant of actinin-1. This work also identifies a previously unreported exon 19a+19b expressing variant of actinin-4 in human skeletal muscle. This work finds that alternative splice variants of actinin-1 and -4 are co-expressed in a number of tissues, in particular the brain. In contrast to healthy brain, glioblastoma cells express Ca++-sensitive variants of both actinin-1 and -4. Actin-binding properties of actinin-1 and -4 are similar and are unlikely to explain isoform-specific functions. Surprisingly, this work reveals that actinin-1/-4 heterodimers, rather than homodimers, are the most abundant form of actinin in many cancer cell lines. Taken together this data suggests that actinin-1 and -4 cannot be viewed as distinct entities from each other but rather as proteins that can exist in both homodimeric and heterodimeric forms. Finally, this work employs yeast two-hybrid and proteomic approaches to identify actinin-interacting proteins. In doing so, this work identifies a number of putative actinin-4 specific interacting partners that may help to explain some of the unique functions attributed the actinin-4. The observation of alternative splice variants of actinin-1 and -4 combined with the observed potential of these proteins to form homodimers and heterodimers suggests that homodimers and heterodimers with novel actin-binding properties and interaction networks may exist. The ability to behave in this manner may have functional implications. This may be of importance considering that these proteins are central to such processes as cell migration and adhesion. This significantly alters our view of the non-muscle actinins.

Investigation of the function of the LNX family of E3 ubiquitin ligases in the nervous system

The Lnx1 (Ligand of Numb protein X 1) and Lnx2 genes belong to a family of PDZ domain-containing RING finger domain E3 ubiquitin ligases. mRNA expression for both genes have been reported in early murine central nervous system. However, there have been limited reports with regards to the expression patterns for both the proteins in vivo. Hence, we have attempted to characterize the significance of these proteins in the context of morphology and physiology of the central nervous system. Through our studies, we have attempted to examine closely the expression of these two genes in the murine central nervous system. We have also looked at novel interacting ligands for both proteins. Interacting partners have been examined with particular relevance to possible roles of their interactions with LNX1 and LNX2 in the functioning of the nervous system. Moreover, we have performed loss-of-function studies by way of creation and characterization of knockout mice.

Development and characterization of novel transgenic techniques for the study of neuronal circuitry

Modern neuroscience relies heavily on sophisticated tools that allow us to visualize and manipulate cells with precise spatial and temporal control. Transgenic mouse models, for example, can be used to manipulate cellular activity in order to draw conclusions about the molecular events responsible for the development, maintenance and refinement of healthy and/or diseased neuronal circuits. Although it is fairly well established that circuits respond to activity-dependent competition between neurons, we have yet to understand either the mechanisms underlying these events or the higher-order plasticity that synchronizes entire circuits. In this thesis we aimed to develop and characterize transgenic mouse models that can be used to directly address these outstanding biological questions in different ways. We present SLICK-H, a Cre-expressing mouse line that can achieve drug-inducible, widespread, neuron-specific manipulations in vivo. This model is a clear improvement over existing models because of its particularly strong, widespread, and even distribution pattern that can be tightly controlled in the absence of drug induction. We also present SLICK-V::Ptox, a mouse line that, through expression of the tetanus toxin light chain, allows long-term inhibition of neurotransmission in a small subset (<1%) of fluorescently labeled pyramidal cells. This model, which can be used to study how a silenced cell performs in a wildtype environment, greatly facilitates the in vivo study of activity-dependent competition in the mammalian brain. As an initial application we used this model to show that tetanus toxin-expressing CA1 neurons experience a 15% - 19% decrease in apical dendritic spine density. Finally, we also describe the attempt to create additional Cre-driven mouse lines that would allow conditional alteration of neuronal activity either by hyperpolarization or inhibition of neurotransmission. Overall, the models characterized in this thesis expand upon the wealth of tools available that aim to dissect neuronal circuitry by genetically manipulating neurons in vivo.

An exploration of the positive and negative relationships associated with the development of asthma and atopic disorders in primary school children in Cork

Childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema are complex heterogenic chronic inflammatory allergic disorders which constitute a major burden to children, their families. The prevalence of childhood allergic disorders is increasing worldwide and merely rudimentary understanding exists regarding causality, or the influence of the environment on disease expression. Phase Three of the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) reported that Irish adolescents had the 4th highest eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis prevalence and 3rd highest asthma prevalence in the world. There are no ISAAC data pertaining to young Irish children. In 2002, Sturley reported a high prevalence of current asthma in Cork primary school children aged 6-9 years. This thesis comprises of three cross-sectional studies which examined the prevalence of and associations with childhood allergy and a quasi-retrospective cohort study which observed the natural history of allergy from 6-9 until 11-13 years. Although not part of ISAAC, data was attained by parentally completed ISAAC-based questionnaires, using the ISAAC protocol. The prevalence, natural history and risk factors of childhood allergy in Ireland, as described in this thesis, echo those in worldwide allergy research. The variations of prevalence in different populations worldwide and the recurring themes of associations between childhood allergy and microbial exposures, from farming environments and/or gastrointestinal infections, as shown in this thesis, strengthen the mounting evidence that microbial exposure on GALT may hold the key to the mechanisms of allergy development. In this regard, probiotics may be an area of particular interest in allergy modification. Although their effects in relation to allergy, have been investigated now for several years, our knowledge of their diversity, complex functions and interactions with gut microflora, remain rudimentary. Birth cohort studies which include genomic and microbiomic research are recommended in order to examine the underlying mechanisms and the natural course of allergic diseases.

Clinical autonomy and nurse/physician collaboration in emergency nurses

Aim: To investigate clinical autonomy and Nurse/Physician collaboration among emergency nurses and the relationship between these concepts, personal characteristics and organisational influences. Background: Nurses have been identified as having a significant role in addressing the challenges of providing modern healthcare. Emergency nurses have reported competence in a wide range of emergency care skills. However, there is evidence that Emergency Department (ED) nurses may have lower levels of clinical autonomy than other areas of practice. Levels of clinical autonomy appear to be influenced by levels of collaboration with physicians and the organisations in which nurses work Methods: A descriptive correlational study using a survey design with a purposive convenience sample of 141 ED staff nurses (response 70.9%) from 3 EDs in Ireland. Data were collected using the Dempster Practice Behaviours Scale (DPBS) the Nurse/Physician Collaboration Scale (NPCS) and the newly developed Organisational Influences on Nursing Scale. Demographic information was also sought from participants. Results: Participants were largely female (87%), relatively young (mean age 35.57, SD=7.83) and educated to degree level (48%) or higher (31%) with 40% posessing specialist emergency nursing qualifications. Participants reported moderate levels of clinical autonomy and Nurse/Physician collaboration. No relationships were found between sample characteristics and clinical autonomy and Nurse/Physician collaboration among emergency nurses. Relationships were found between levels of clinical autonomy and Nurse/Physician collaboration (r=-0.395, n=100, p<0.001), and organisational influence on nursing (r=0.455, p<0.001) and also between Nurse/Physician collaboration and organisational influence on nursing (r=-0.413, p<0.001). Discussion: Clinical autonomy of nurses has been linked with quality outcomes in healthcare. The quest for quality in modern healthcare in a challenging environment should acknowledge that strategies need to focus beyond education and skills provision and include essential elements such as Nurse/Physician collaboration and the organisational influence on nursing to ensure the greater involvement of nurses in patient care.

Exploring the Zionist evolution of Robert Briscoe: History and memory

Robert Briscoe was the Dublin born son of Lithuanian and German-Jewish immigrants. As a young man he joined Sinn Féin and was an important figure in the War of Independence due to a role as one of the IRA’s main gun-procuring agents. He took the anti-Treaty side during an internecine Civil War, mainly due to the influence of Eamon de Valera and retained a filial devotion towards him for the rest of his life. In 1926 he was a founding member of Fianna Fáil, de Valera’s breakaway republican party, which would dominate twentieth-century Irish politics. He was first elected as a Fianna Fáil T.D. (Teachta Dála, Deputy to the Dáil) in 1927, and successfully defended his seat eleven times becoming the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1956, an honour that was repeated in 1961. On this basis alone, it can be argued that Briscoe was a significant presence in an embryonic Irish political culture; however, when his role in the 1930s Jewish immigration endeavor is acknowledged, it is clear that he played a unique part in one of the most contentious political and social discourses of the pre-war years. This was reinforced when Briscoe embraced Zionism in a belated realisation that the survival of his European co-religionists could only be guaranteed if an independent Jewish state existed. This information is to a certain degree public knowledge; however, the full extent of his involvement as an immigration advocate for potential Jewish refugees, and the seniority he achieved in the New Zionist Organisation (Revisionists) has not been fully recognised. This is partly explicable because researchers have based their assessment of Briscoe on an incomplete political archive in the National Library of Ireland (NLI). The vast majority of documentation pertaining to his involvement in the immigration endeavor has not been available to scholars and remains the private property of Robert Briscoe’s son, Ben Briscoe. The lack of immigration files in the NLI was reinforced by the fact that information about Briscoe’s Revisionist engagement was donated to the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv and can only be accessed physically by visiting Israel. Therefore, even though these twin endeavors have been commented on by a number of academics, their assessments have tended to be based on an incomplete archive, which was supplemented by Briscoe’s autobiographical memoir published in 1958. This study will attempt to fill in the missing gaps in Briscoe’s complex political narrative by incorporating the rarely used private papers of Robert Briscoe, and the difficult to access Briscoe files in Tel Aviv. This undertaking was only possible when Mr.Ben Briscoe graciously granted me full and unrestricted access to his father’s papers, and after a month-long research trip to the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv. Access to this rarely used documentation facilitated a holistic examination of Briscoe’s complex and multifaceted political reality. It revealed the full extent of Briscoe’s political and social evolution as the Nazi instigated Jewish emigration crisis reached catastrophic proportions. He was by turn Fianna Fáil nationalist, Jewish immigration advocate and senior Revisionist actor on a global stage. The study will examine the contrasting political and social forces that initiated each stage of Briscoe’s Zionist awakening, and in the process will fill a major gap in Irish-Jewish historiography by revealing the full extent of his Revisionist engagement.

Scientism and instrumentalism After the Bomb: Dr Strangelove, End Zone, Crash and The Wire

This thesis argues that through the prism of America’s Cold War, scientism has emerged as the metanarrative of the postnuclear age. The advent of the bomb brought about a new primacy for mechanical and hyperrational thinking in the corridors of power not just in terms of managing the bomb itself but diffusing this ideology throughout the culture in social sciences, economics and other such institutional systems. The human need to mitigate or ameliorate against the chaos of the universe lies at the heart of not just religious faith but in the desire for perfect control. Thus there has been a transference of power from religious faith to the apparent material power of science and technology and the terra firma these supposedly objective means supply. The Cold War, however was a highly ideologically charged opposition between the two superpowers, and the scientific methodology that sprang forth to manage the Cold War and the bomb, in the United States, was not an objective scientific system divorced from the paranoia and dogma but a system that assumed a radically fundamentalist idea of capitalism. This is apparent in the widespread diffusion of game theory throughout Western postindustrial institutions. The inquiry of the thesis thus examines the texts that engage and criticise American Cold War methodology, beginning with the nuclear moment, so to speak, and Dr Strangelove’s incisive satire of moral abdication to machine processes. Moving on chronologically, the thesis examines the diffusion of particular kinds of masculinity and sexuality in postnuclear culture in Crash and End Zone and finishing up its analysis with the ethnographic portrayal of a modern American city in The Wire. More than anything else, the thesis wishes to reveal to what extent this technocratic consciousness puts pressure on language and on binding narratives.

Place, teenagers and urban identities: Growing up in the revanchist city

The recreational lives of teenagers in Ireland has been the subject of much debate in recent years. The subject has received much attention from academics, particularly in the UK and the US. In Ireland there is a dearth of research on, and a poor understanding of teenagers recreational lives. Additionally much of the research from the UK and the US to date has been focused on teenagers’ use of the street for recreation, arguing that teenagers are increasingly pushed out of public space. The research frequently emphasises teenagers’ resistance against adult hegemony. This thesis explores the recreational geographies of teenagers living in two socially and economically distinct neighbourhoods in Cork. It seeks to fill in gaps in knowledge of teenagers recreational lives in Ireland and contribute to geographical wisdom on teenagers’ geographies. Using a mixed method approach and a variety of thinking tools this research shows that teenagers living in Cork are growing up in a revanchist society. The thesis demonstrates how teenagers’ recreational practices are currently being configured in Irish society, unfolding strategies of dominance and affection which construct and regulate the recreational lives of teenagers. The effects of revanchism on teenagers’ experiences of outdoor space for recreation are also pursued. Furthermore the socio-spatial contingencies of teenagers’ recreational lives and revanchism are probed throughout the thesis, but in greater depth in the final chapters. The work also addresses an under-researched aspect of young people’s recreational - relationships with pets. Lastly, the subject of teenagers’ right to urban space is critically analysed.