UCC Journals (Univ. College Cork)
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A five-year retrospective review of fatalities involving novel psychoactive substances in Southern Ireland
Get PDFIntroduction: Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are rapidly emerging and being reformulated to evade legislative controls, creating unpredictability in drug markets and ineffective drug policies. Given that Ireland has the highest self-reported NPS use within Europe and literature regarding health risks is lacking, the National Advisory Committee on Drugs has advocated for the surveillance of regional trends.
Objectives: To elucidate the demographic and autopsy findings of fatal cases involving NPS in Southern Ireland as compared to deaths involving traditional drugs of abuse (TDOA).
Methods: Post-mortem reports from the Cork-Kerry region with positive toxicology for illicit substances between 2012-2016 were retrospectively analyzed to compare NPS and TDOA cases with respect to circumstances surrounding death, toxicological results, and pathological findings.
Results: Between 2012-2016, there were 164 cases involving illicit substances in the Cork-Kerry region. NPS accounted for 17 (10.4%) cases, with an average annual mortality rate of 34.8 per 100,000 population. NPS contributed to the cause of death in 70.6% of cases where detected, compared to 43.5% for TDOA only. In both cohorts, fatal abusers were predominantly young males. Importantly, cases involving NPS showed a higher proportion of mono-drug intoxication and presentation to hospital prior to death. Autopsy findings were non-specific but commonly featured pulmonary congestion, aspiration, and cerebral oedema.
Conclusion: NPS are detected in a small proportion of medicolegal autopsies but contribute significantly to acute intoxication deaths. This study highlights the need for effective drug monitoring and enforcement strategies, along with improved management of drug toxicities presenting to hospital
Myth Versus Reality : Underdeveloped Ireland in the Nineteenth Century with Particular Reference to the South-west
Get PDFLate nineteenth century Ireland possessed many \u27hidden Irelands\u27, both real and imaginary, but at the hands of Irish nationalists it was very often the Ireland of myth and imagination which was committed to the pages of history. This has resulted in the caricaturisation of many of the realities of nineteenth century life in Ireland. Underdevelopment along the western seaboard was one reality of nineteenth century Ireland which has been seriously misrepresented in nationalist literature and nationalist ideology in general. However, in the late nineteenth century an underdeveloped Ireland was uncovered by philanthropic and \u27self-help\u27 enthusiasts. These were drawn mainly from the English ruling class and from the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. This clash of perceptions of the nationalistic peasantry and underdeveloped Ireland forms the basis of this paper. Divided into three sections, the paper will focus initially on the perceptions of cultural nationalists. These viewed the west as· a distinctive cultural region harbouring the remnants of Gaelic Ireland. Thus, it will be argued that cultural nationalists idealised the peasant and obscured the realities of hunger, hardship and deprivation which were the basis of the peasants\u27 world. The second section considers the west of Ireland as revealed by the "official mind" in the late nineteenth century when, steps were taken. To alleviate the problems of this other \u27hidden Ireland\u27. Finally, section three will consider under-developed Ireland as revealed through the "base line" reports of the Congested Districts Board for the south-west of Ireland. This section will focus on County Kerry and parts of West Cork in particular
The Church of Ireland Population in County Cork, 1911 - 1926
Get PDFThe Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 effectively divided the island into two self-governing states. It created two majorities but more importantly it created two minorities. Roman Catholics comprised an overwhelming majority in the Free State, but they formed a significant minority in Northern Ireland. The much more heterogenous Protestant population constituted sixty-six per cent of the Northern Irish population and a tiny minority of five per cent in the Free State. The fate of the northern minority has generated an extensive literature dealing with various aspects of that community\u27s problems (Rolston et al, 1983). However, the dearth of material on the southern minority is in itself significant. It may be both a reflection of the southern majority\u27s disinterest in the Protestant minority, and willingness by the southern minority itself not to "cause waves" within the southern state. Thus, the primary purpose of this paper is to examine the geographical dimensions of the reaction of the Protestant population in County Cork to the changing constitutional relationship between Ireland and Britain in the early years of this century
1986 Brittany Field Week
Get PDFIn the year of Our Lord 1986, on the 15th day of the month of April, a motley crew assembled outside the hallowed halls of higher education - the Geography Departmen
Popularising the Environment
Get PDFIn the recent past there has been a rapid and growing awareness of and interest in, the environment. This growing popularity is largely a result of three historical developments over the last hundred years, combined with other facilitating factors which have come. into being in the recent past. This paper will attempt to outline why such awareness developed. When it did, and why it is important that it should continue. The· problem posed by the necessity for environmental improvement in the face of economic growth, in both the developed and underdeveloped world, will also be examined. 
The Geography of Manipulation : The British Tabloids
Get PDFIntroduction Due to developments in communication networks· and technological innovations in the last fifty years, more people than ever before in the earth\u27s history have potential access to a constant supply of information. This information, however, is often presented in a simplified, abbreviated, uncomplicated manner. Those who administer the dissemination of information contend that this makes it easy for the public to assimilate.  
Spatial Variations in the Quality of Rural Life
Get PDFThe late 1960s and early 1970s saw an increase in population in rural Ireland. Prior to this period rural populations were in a state of decline. This rural growth, however, was not uniformly distributed throughout Ireland, in fact, it had marked spatial variations. Those rural areas which lay adjacent to urban centres experienced growth while more remote parts of the country, peripheral to urban centres, did not. This two-fold classification of rural areas has important consequences on the quality of life experienced by the residents of such areas