NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Convicting the Innocent? An Analysis of the Causes of Miscarriages of Justice in Ireland 1993-2022.
No full textThe aim of this dissertation is to develop a deeper understanding of miscarriages of justice in
Ireland. Through an analysis of successful appeals under the miscarriage of justice provisions,
namely s.2 and s.9 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993, the causes of injustices were revealed.
These include forensic/medical errors and eyewitness errors intermittently, and police
misconduct manifesting in a number of forms. A further goal of this research was to illustrate
the impact that the case law has had on the causes and frequency of miscarriages of justice
since court judgements increasingly began to emphasise the importance of electronically
recording interviews in police custody.
Given the dearth of research in this area of study in Ireland, the research adopted a qualitative
research approach given its core principle of being capable of generating theory. Documentary
analysis was chosen as the preferred qualitative research method and data was collected from
documentary evidence in the form of publicly available case judgements. The research
undertook a thematic analysis of documentary data and adopted an interpretative standpoint
and primarily inductive approach to this thematic analysis. Thus the themes that emerged
within this study are primarily data driven, though an element of deductive analysis on the basis
the research was guided by a number of research questions and hypothesis’ is true.
Following a discussion on the contemporary causes of miscarriages of justice relating to police
misconduct regarding witnesses and disclosing evidence, the research effectively demonstrates
that miscarriages of justice in Ireland are not isolated or rare events, but arise from systemic
defects that have been precisely identified by this dissertation and can be addressed
Mental Health and the Youth Justice System: Recognising and Responding to the Incarceration of Those with a Mental Health Disorder
No full textOver the past three decades, the mental health needs of young people who offend have become a widely recognised issue. Consequently, addressing these needs has become a priority for youth justice systems all around the world. The aim of this research was to investigate how the youth justice systems in the United States, England and Wales, and Ireland, have responded to the incarceration of young people with mental health disorders. The disproportionate number of those with mental health disorders within the youth justice system raises two questions. Firstly, what does the presence of mentally ill youth within the justice system tell us about the aims and objectives of the system? Secondly, what does the presence of mentally ill youth within the justice system mean for the operation of the system?
In order to examine how these youth justice systems have responded to the incarceration of mentally ill youth, this research adopted two main methods: a comprehensive literature review and a thematic analysis of key policy documents. The literature review involved a review of secondary data from a number of sources including books, journal articles, government bodies and other relevant agencies. The thematic analysis focused on policy documents from three youth detention facilities: Oberstown Children Detention Campus in Ireland, Parc Young Offender Institution in Wales, and Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall in California. These policy documents were analysed across a three year period: 2017 to 2019.
The findings of this research suggest that the progress which has been made by each jurisdiction to firstly identify and then address the mental health needs of incarcerated youth is indicative of the adoption of a welfare-based approach, thereby suggesting that punishment is not a central concern within the youth justice system. In terms of what the presence of mentally ill youth within the justice system tells us about the aims and objectives of the system, and what it means for the overall operation of the system, it is evident that the system has transformed to become a place where young people who offend can receive mental health treatment. However, society should not be reliant on the youth justice system to meet the complex needs of this vulnerable, young cohort. Instead, the mental health needs of young offenders should become the collective responsibility of society, not solely the youth justice system. Thus, this dissertation argues that the role of the youth justice system must be redefined so as to ensure that mental health services are provided outside of the system, and furthermore, that mental health is not criminalised
Comparative genomics and pangenomics of vancomycin-resistant and susceptible Enterococcus faecium from Irish hospitals
No full textIntroduction. Enterococcus faecium has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen, which is increasingly difficult to treat
due to the genetic acquisition of vancomycin resistance. Ireland has a recalcitrant vancomycin-resistant bloodstream infection
rate compared to other developed countries.
Hypothesis/Gap statement. Vancomycin resistance rates persist amongst E. faecium isolates from Irish hospitals. The evolutionary genomics governing these trends have not been fully elucidated.
Methodology. A set of 28 vancomycin-resistant isolates was sequenced to construct a dataset alongside 61 other publicly available Irish genomes. This dataset was extensively analysed using in silico methodologies (comparative genomics, pangenomics,
phylogenetics, genotypics and comparative functional analyses) to uncover distinct evolutionary, coevolutionary and clinically
relevant population trends.
Results. These results suggest that a stable (in terms of genome size, GC% and number of genes), yet genetically diverse
population (in terms of gene content) of E. faecium persists in Ireland with acquired resistance arising via plasmid acquisition (vanA) or, to a lesser extent, chromosomal recombination (vanB). Population analysis revealed five clusters with one
cluster partitioned into four clades which transcend isolation dates. Pangenomic and recombination analyses revealed
an open (whole genome and chromosomal specific) pangenome illustrating a rampant evolutionary pattern. Comparative
resistomics and virulomics uncovered distinct chromosomal and mobilomal propensity for multidrug resistance, wide-spread chromosomal point-mutation-mediated resistance and chromosomally harboured arsenals of virulence factors.
Interestingly, a potential difference in biofilm formation strategies was highlighted by coevolutionary analysis, suggesting
differential biofilm genotypes between vanA and vanB isolates.
Conclusions. These results highlight the evolutionary history of Irish E. faecium isolates and may provide insight into underlying
infection dynamics in a clinical setting. Due to the apparent ease of vancomycin resistance acquisition over time, susceptible E.
faecium should be concurrently reduced in Irish hospitals to mitigate potential resistant infections
Changes in Serum N-Glycome for Risk Drinkers: A Comparison with Standard Markers for Alcohol Abuse in Men and Women
No full textBackground and aim: Glycomic alterations serve as biomarker tools for different diseases. The present study aims to evaluate the diagnostic capability of serum N-glycosylation to identify alcohol risk drinking in comparison with standard markers. Methods: We included 1516 adult individuals (age range 18-91 years; 55.3% women), randomly selected from a general population. A total of 143 (21.0%) men and 50 (5.9%) women were classified as risk drinkers after quantification of daily alcohol consumption and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography (HILIC-UPLC) was used for the quantification of 46 serum N-glycan peaks. Serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), and red blood cell mean corpuscular volume (MCV) were measured by standard clinical laboratory methods. Results: Variations in serum N-glycome associated risk drinking were more prominent in men compared to women. A unique combination of N-glycan peaks selected by the selbal algorithm shows good discrimination between risk-drinkers and non-risk drinkers for men and women. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves show accuracy for the diagnosis of risk drinking, which is comparable to that of the golden standards, GGT, MCV and CDT markers for men and women. Additionally, the inclusion of N-glycan peaks improves the diagnostic accuracy of the standard markers, although it remains relatively low, due to low sensitivity. For men, the area under the ROC curve using N-glycome data is 0.75, 0.76, and 0.77 when combined with GGT, MCV, and CDT, respectively. In women, the areas were 0.76, 0.73, and 0.73, respectively. Conclusion: Risk drinking is associated with significant variations in the serum N-glycome, which highlights its potential diagnostic utility
Introducing Strategic Design in Education (SDxE): an approach to navigating complexity and ambiguity at the micro, meso and macro layers of Higher Education Institutions
No full textMembers of the Higher Education (HE) community have embodied the spirit of designers by identifying needs and creatively responding with speed, agility and ingenuity as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While these rapid changes were required at the time of the pandemic, the lack of an innovation structure in HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) has become evident. We argue it is necessary to implement an innovation structure in a HEI which can be used to guide all types of innovation, to ensure they are desirable, viable, feasible and suitable from the perspective of all stakeholders. This article builds on the ARRIVE innovation process and uses Vaugh et al.’s Principles for Designing Progress to develop the concept of Strategic Design in Education (SDxE). Through embracing the SDxE approach, the HE community has the potential to not only get comfortable in the complexity and ambiguity which will inevitably result in the HEI sector for decades to come, but have an opportunity to shape it into something more desirable. We propose that SDxE offers an actionable scaffold for Human-Centered innovation, one that holds the potential to affect change, improve collaboration and produce more successful outcomes across the micro, meso and macro layers of HEIs
Creating Resilient Futures.Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation Agendas
No full textThe scientifc evidence indicates that the Earth’s climate is changing, and without taking appropriate and early action, climate change will have severe impacts on our planet and society at large. Under high-end scenarios of climate change, impacts will include: run-away species and habitat loss, including damage to ecosystems and the support services they provide; damage to infrastructure, agricultural and trade systems; displacement of human populations, and substantial economic losses.Overall, the edited volume’s framing through resilience, legal and risk based lenses, and the Irish and international case studies, demonstrates a number of parallel frameworks and approaches that help consider the value of, and ability to increase, resilience to climate change through integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation agenda
Resisting the Far Right: Civil Society Strategies for Countering the Far Right in Ireland
No full textThe STOPFARRIGHT project was inspired by our concern at
the rise of the far right throughout Europe, North America and
elsewhere, and more immediately in Ireland, as the far right
became increasingly visible in demonstrations against Covid 19
public health measures in the country. Our main research question
was how civil society organisations most affected by far right (FR)
discourse – that is those groups supporting migrants, ethnic and
sexual minorities, women’s rights and groups with explicit anti-FR
activities - could counter-act such discourse and actions emerging
from it. To this end the main objective of the project was to work
with civil society organisations (CSOs) concerned about the far
right in order to establish from their perspective the level of threat
of the far right in Ireland, the extent and effectiveness of state,
political party and civil society counter-strategising against the
FR in the country, and ultimately to gather and share ideas about
how these could be improved. Additionally, the project sought
to facilitate information exchange between concerned sectors
in Ireland and international and European academics and civil
society groups who share this concer
Reflections on leading the social media team at IFLA WLIC 2022
No full textJuly 2022 finally saw IFLA WLIC (The International Federation of Library Associations World Library & Information Congress) come to Dublin. Originally slated for 2020 a pandemic meant it took place two years later than planned. So, in July, some 2,000 library professionals from over 100 countries descended on the Convention Centre, Dublin. Amongst these 2,000 were just over 200 volunteers from all across the globe, who, under the guidance of Lead Volunteers Eva Hornung and Clare Conneally, worked alongside IFLA and the IFLA Irish National Committee, to ensure the congress ran smoothly. This paper describes how we led one of those teams - a social media team of seven - whose job was to create content for the IFLA WLIC Communications team for IFLA WLIC website and social media. Our shared goal was to capture the buzz and energy of what for many was one of the most exciting weeks of their professional lives. What follows are our personal reflections on how we managed to achieve this
Simulated Changes in Seasonal and Low Flows with Climate Change for Irish Catchments
No full textWe assess changes in the seasonal mean and annual low flows (Q95) for 37 catchments
across the Republic of Ireland. Two hydrological models (SMART and GR4J) are trained and evaluated
for their ability to capture key hydrological signatures from observations before being forced with
bias corrected outputs from 12 Earth System Models from the CMIP6 ensemble. Projected changes
are derived for three shared socio-economic pathways (SSP126, SSP370 and SSP585) for the 2020s,
2050s, and 2080s. The results show a wide range of change in all metrics across the catchment sample.
While even the direction of change is highly uncertain in spring and autumn, there is a tendency
towards increased flows in winter and reduced flows in summer, together with large reductions
in annual low flows. Under SSP370, the median reduction in summer flows across catchments for
the 2080s simulated by GR4J is −21.3 percent (90 percent CI: 4.8 to −36.9 percent). For Q95, for the
2080s, GR4J returns a median reduction of −20.9 percent (90 percent CI: −2.5 to −38.2 percent), while
SMART suggests a median reduction of −21.2 percent (90 percent CI: −6.0 to −36.9 percent). Such
changes would pose significant challenges for water management, requiring significant adaptation.
Notably, for low flows in particular, significant reductions in emissions under SSP126 result in more
moderate future changes, indicating the importance of both adaptation and mitigation to sustainable
water management
Fringe banking and financialization: Pawnbroking in pre‐famine and famine Ireland
No full textPawnbroking, one of the oldest and most accessible forms
of credit, was a common feature of life in pre-famine and
famine Ireland. This article studies the role of pawnbroking
in the Irish financial system during this important period,
applying insights from modern studies on fringe banking.
In the period under study, a formal tiered financial system existed; regulated joint-stock banks offered services to
industry and the better off, while fringe banks provided
financial services largely, but not exclusively, to unbanked
groups. The main findings are that pawnbrokers provided
a steady source of credit throughout the island of Ireland
and that this credit stream was more durable than that provided by alternative financial service providers in the fringe banking market, especially during the famine. Our findings suggest a nuanced interpretation is needed as we find strong interrelationships between the various financial service providers