National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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Co-Creating Change: Seedbed Interventions as Catalysts for Equitable Urban Planning—The Case of Umeå
No full textThe ongoing urbanisation and densification at the intersection with increasing environmental and health crises demand a holistic, equitable, and inclusive approach to urban planning, which has also been highlighted in the EU Green Deal’s inclusive approach to sustainable urban planning aligned with the UN SDGs’ “Leave No One Behind.” This article introduces the seedbed intervention as a novel, community-driven, co-creative approach to Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that addresses gaps in equitable and inclusive urban planning frameworks. On the case of Umeå (Sweden), the article introduces the seedbed intervention approach and demonstrates how the approach facilitates the development of locally appropriate and sustainable NbS. The results show that the seedbed intervention approach improved the alignment between local needs and NbS design, connected diverse user groups, and catalysed curiosity, interest, and participation among citizens with the help of applying art-based methods. By demonstrating the practical application of a seedbed intervention, this research contributes to the development of scalable frameworks for more equitable and inclusive urban planning
Edward Baker Littlehales: The evolution of military governance and the demise of the military under-secretary 1801-1819.
No full textEdward Baker Littlehales arrived in Ireland in 1798, beginning a career which would not see
him depart until 1819. His tenure would see him witness and act in a variety of significant
historical events in Ireland, including the 1798 rebellion, the passing of the Act of Union,
Emmet's rebellion, as well as the recurrent threat of invasion from France. From 1801 to
1819 he worked in Dublin Castle as military under-secretary, one ofthe more senior members
of the administration. Despite this he remains an understudied figure in Irish history.
Drawing from primary sources, including Littlehales' personal papers, military and
governmental records, and contemporary correspondence, this study reconstructs Littlehales'
career trajectory as under-secretary and his contributions to military governance and
administration between 1801 and his retirement in 1819. The research situates Littlehales
within the broader context oflrish military and administrative history, highlighting the
centrality of his role in shaping military policy in post-union Ireland. Littlehales' length of
service offers a unique prism through which to view the attempts to implement and normalise
the Act of Union.
In conclusion, Edward Baker Littlehales emerges from this research as a key architect
of post-union administration in Ireland. This dissertation not only recovers the significance of
his contributions but also provides a framework for analysing the evolution of administrative
practices in the context of broader historical developments. Importantly, the critical role of
personality in these administrative practices is given due consideration
The Directive on the European Disability Card and European Parking Card: Promoting Disability Rights and Making the EU “More than a Market”?
No full textThe recent adoption of the Directive on the European Disability Card and the European Parking Card has been heralded as a significant step forward in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities to move freely and enjoy a range of services across the European Union (EU) on an equal basis with others. Yet, this Directive only concerns disability benefits and special conditions in access to services outside the perimeter of social security and social assistance, which raises questions as to whether the envisaged cards truly address the main hurdles encountered by disabled persons in moving across the EU. This article, further having outlined the trajectory that led to the enactment of the Directive, critically discusses its key tenets, and interrogates its strengths and limits in advancing disability rights. On the basis of this analysis, but zooming out of the discrete disability perspective, this article concludes with some reflections on what this Directive tells us about the EU’s longstanding commitment, recently reiterated in the Letta Report, to be “much more than a market”
A Community Needs Analysis with Traveller and Roma Students on Their Experiences of Higher Education
No full textInvestigating MSC Immunomodulation in the Obese Microenvironment
No full textThe proportion of people living with obesity is constantly on the rise, which makes it an important factor to consider in any clinical setting. The obese microenvironment introduces a range of pro-inflammatory factors and other molecules that can affect immune cells and treatments. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a valuable asset for the treatment of inflammatory conditions due to their immunomodulatory and their tissue regenerative abilities. MSCs are able to communicate with surrounding immune cells and respond to signals from the microenvironment. However, this makes MSCs vulnerable to perturbations in that microenvironment. This thesis investigates how certain prominent factors from the obese microenvironment, the free fatty acids oleate and palmitate and the adipokine leptin, affect MSC phenotype and function. Differences between T cell suppression and macrophage suppression by palmitate exposed MSCs were discovered, and the underlying mechanism for how palmitate affects macrophage suppression by MSCs was further elucidated. In addition to the direct effects of these factors on MSCs, we were also interested in the concept of innate immune training of macrophages by factors elevated in the obese microenvironment, and how MSCs might be able to interfere with this training. Innate immune training can lead to a hyperinflammatory activation of macrophages, which, while protective in many cases of infectious disease, has the potential to result in a more severe outcome of chronic autoimmune disease. MSCs, which are powerful suppressors of macrophage inflammation, have already been shown to suppress house dust mite-mediated training in our lab. Building on this research, a training protocol was established and pathways through which MSCs may be inhibiting training were investigated. Overall, this research revealed avenues to be explored in MSC-macrophage interactions, highlighting the potential for the use of MSCs in patients with inflammatory conditions who are living with obesity, and identifying pathways through which innate immune training could be controlled
What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary
No full textTulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, “concept” has different meanings in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As such, many fundamental constructs used to delineate semantic theories remain underspecified and/or opaque. Weak construct specificity is among the leading causes of the replication crisis now facing psychology and related fields. Term ambiguity hinders cross-disciplinary communication, falsifiability, and incremental theory-building. Numerous cognitive subdisciplines (e.g., vision, affective neuroscience) have recently addressed these limitations via the development of consensus-based guidelines and definitions. The project to follow represents our effort to produce a multidisciplinary semantic glossary consisting of succinct definitions, background, principled dissenting views, ratings of agreement, and subjective confidence for 17 target constructs (e.g., abstractness, abstraction, concreteness, concept, embodied cognition, event semantics, lexical-semantic, modality, representation, semantic control, semantic feature, simulation, semantic distance, semantic dimension) . We discuss potential benefits and pitfalls (e.g., implicit bias, prescriptiveness) of these efforts to specify a common nomenclature that other researchers might index in specifying their own theoretical perspectives (e.g., They said X, but I mean Y)
Gender equity and care for transformative climate justice
No full textAs global climate change is destabilising lives and worsening inequities
and disparities in Ireland and around the world (Deubelli & Mechler,
2021; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022), climate
justice is emerging as an urgent global policy priority (Kashwan, 2021;
Newell et al., 2021; Robinson, 2018). Climate justice, an approach to
climate action that goes beyond the technological emphasis on
decarbonisation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, focuses
attention on the intersectionality of the social, economic, and
institutional changes that link technological change with societal
transformation by centring social justice and economic equity
(Stephens, 2022; Sultana, 2022). Transformative climate justice
recognises that the climate crisis is a horrible symptom of extractive
and exploitative systems (Sultana, 2025). A transformative climate
justice approach calls for systemic and structural changes
acknowledging that the climate crisis is not a scientific problem that can be fixed with technological solutions (Newell et al., 2021).
Transformative climate justice also links climate vulnerabilities with
the societal risks and geopolitical dangers associated with increased
social instability, migration and growing inequities (Harlan et al., 2015;
Stephens, 2020).
Transformative climate justice embraces a feminist and decolonial
approach to redressing the legacy of economic injustices, gender
inequities, extractive labour practices, housing insecurity and systems
of exploitation that are worsening climate vulnerabilities (Kuhl et al.,
2024; Sultana, 2025). Climate justice prioritises trans formative
economic investments, social policies and innovative practices that are
based on human dignity, equity and care. Climate justice is intentional
and explicit on the necessity to disrupt the status quo financial and
political systems that continue to marginalise people and communities
by concentrating wealth and power among those individuals and
organisations that are already privileged (Newell et al., 2021;
Schapper, 2018; Sultana, 2022; Whitaker, 2021). The rapidly growing
global climate justice movement, based on feminist principles, has
been, and continues to be, led by women (Robinson, 2018).
Patriarchal systems have reinforced and perpetuated the
assumption that investing in technological innovation will enable
humanity to control the climate, while minimising the potential of
investing in social innovation, social justice and social change.
Transformative change requires a collective moving away from these
dominant patriarchal discourses toward a feminist and intersectional
perspective that integrates care and gender equality.
This paper reviews why a feminist climate justice approach focused
on gender equity and care is essential for the transformative societal
changes that are urgently needed for a more healthy, just and stable
future for all. The paper first describes why and how feminist climate
justice is a necessary response to climate isolationism. Then, it
describes why the integration of care and gender equity into climate
policy is fundamental and how care is a feminist concern. Next,
examples of intersections of care and climate within the Irish context
are provided, followed by a concluding discussion on moving toward
transformative climate justice
Report: The ERC DANCING Final Conference
No full textThis report gives an account of the DANCING Final Conference, which was held on 19 and 20 June 2025. The conference presented the main findings and results of the European Research Council-funded project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’, led by Professor Delia Ferri (Professor of Law at the School of Law and Criminology of Maynooth University). The DANCING Final Conference aimed to reflect on the key achievements of the project, but also to explore future directions for research, policy, and practice related to European Union (EU) disability law and the right to cultural participation of persons with disabilities.
The conference brought together academics, policymakers, persons with disabilities, artists, and other stakeholders. Over two days, participants engaged in thematic panels and roundtables. The DANCING project, running from 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2025, pursued three main objectives: to identify barriers and facilitators to cultural participation by persons with disabilities (experiential), to explore how EU law can promote disability rights and cultural diversity (normative), and to offer a new theorisation of cultural diversity in EU law (theoretical). All three objectives were discussed throughout the conference. The first day focused on the research findings and academic contributions of the project, while the second day turned to policy implications and ‘Tools for Change’, including the launch of a Policy Brief – comprising recommendations for European Union and national policymakers and a Toolkit for cultural stakeholders.
Notably, the conference was opened by a video message from Professor Adam Bodnar, Minister of Justice of Poland, on behalf of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (1 Jan 2025 – 30 Jun 2025). Two keynote speeches – respectively from Professor Bruno De Witte (Emeritus Professor at Maastricht University and Member of the Advisory Board of the DANCING Project) and Ms Inmaculada Placencia Porrero (Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Senior Disability Expert at the European Commission) – marked the two days. A keynote dialogue led by Professor Mark Priestley (Emeritus Professor at Leeds University and Member of the Advisory Board of the DANCING Project) concluded the second day of the conference. The DANCING Final Conference also included two side events that marked the artistic collaborations deployed during the course of the project. The first was the unveiling of the artwork ‘Odisseo-Ulysses’ created by artist Tiziano Pantano. The second was the premiere of the documentary ‘Steps to Change: Following the DANCING Project 2020 – 2025’ produced by Feenish Production Ltd. and directed by James Kelly.
Besides discussing the conference content and its most significant moments, the report outlines key organisational aspects with a focus on how accessibility was planned and delivered throughout the event, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and DANCING’s own accessibility strategy. Strategic planning was vital to ensure venues were accessible to wheelchair users, but also suitable for people with a range of disabilities. Accessibility measures further included provision of Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpretation throughout, alternative formats (Braille, large print, digital soft copy) of the programme and relevant documentation of the conference, as well as the embedding of accessibility features in the documentary and the artwork.
On the whole, the DANCING Final Conference showcased the cross-cutting nature of the interdisciplinary research conducted, but also highlighted the project’s commitment to bridging academic research with practice and to ensuring that persons with disabilities are active participants in shaping inclusive cultural spaces across Europe
Medicine in the Medieval North Atlantic World. Vernacular Texts and Traditions
No full textStudies of medical learning in medieval England, Wales, Ireland, and Scandinavia have traditionally focused on each geographical region individually, with the North Atlantic perceived as a region largely peripheral to European culture. Such an approach, however, means that knowledge within this part of the world is never considered in the context of more global interactions, where scholars were in fact deeply engaged in wider intellectual currents concerning medicine and healing that stemmed from both continental Europe and the Middle East.
The chapters in this interdisciplinary collection draw together new research from historians, literary scholars, and linguists working on Norse, English, and Celtic material in order to bring fresh insights into the multilingual and cross-cultural nature of medical learning in northern Europe during the Middle Ages, c. 700-1600. They interrogate medical texts and ideas in both Latin and vernacular languages, addressing questions of translation, cultural and scientific inheritance, and exchange, and historical conceptions of health and the human being within nature. In doing so, this volume offers an in-depth study of the reception and transmission of medical knowledge that furthers our understanding both of scholarship in the medieval North Atlantic and across medieval Europe as a whole
Library IT Development Department Stats, February 2024-February 2025
No full textAn infographic, created for Love Data Week 2025, showcasing some of the work done by the Library IT Development department in Maynooth University Library from February 2024 to February 2025