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Gender equity and care for transformative climate justice
Full text linkAs 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
Ogam, cryptography and healing charms in the nineteenth century: observations on ‘The Minchin Manuscript’
Full text linkOgam is well known as a writing system invented for the Irish language and
used extensively for inscriptions on stone monuments across Ireland and
Britain between the late fourth and seventh centuries. Although the script has
primarily been examined in the context of early medieval archaeology and
epigraphy, its long afterlife as an integral part of Irish manuscript culture from
the medieval to modern periods has also been acknowledged. The present contribution seeks to add to the existing scholarship on manuscript ogam by discussing the transmission of ideas about the script as a cryptic device into the
nineteenth century, with a particular focus on a recently discovered notebook,
National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh) Advocates’ Manuscript 50.3.11 (or
‘The Minchin Manuscript’), which consists almost entirely of healing charms
written in ogam
A Darker Shade of Green: The Twisted Roots of the Irish Banjo
No full textTraversing the intervening period between Hans Sloane’s documentation of early banjos in
Jamaica in 1688 and the introduction of a later version of the same instrument to the blackface minstrel show by Irish American blackface minstrel entertainers in the 1830s and 1840s, A
Darker Shade of Green: The Twisted Roots of the Irish Banjo investigates the profound, and
often troubling, transformation of performance practices and associated sociopolitical discourses connected with the early banjo through the instrument’s intersection with Irishness in the Atlantic world. Combining extensive archival research in America, England, Ireland,
and in repositories online, with a rich historicisation of banjo performance repertoire and
practices in the colonial West Indies and in antebellum America, critical biographical case studies of individuals and communities connected with the banjo during these periods are complemented with a parallel analysis of the creolized roots of the early blackface minstrel performance repertoire in eighteenth century Anglo-American musical theatre and in African
American banjo/fiddle tunes. Against the rather white-washed treatment both men have received up to now, in the study I identify blackface minstrel banjo-players Joel Walker
Sweeney and Dan Emmett to have both played important roles in aligning the banjo with a new–and profoundly influential–kind of overt racial mockery in antebellum print media and
popular culture. Setting the historical trajectory of the study within a wider frame of reference that begins in the seventeenth century period in which the African and Irish diaspora first came into extensive contact with one another in the Americas I argue that a retracing of the Irish
ancestry of blackface minstrel performers in antebellum America, and Irish slave owners and
planters in the colonial West Indies can serve as a decolonial praxis that that acknowledges the role that these and other members of the Irish diaspora played in the history of settler
colonialism and plantation slavery in this region. Key research questions animating the study
include: what the banjo’s history can tell us about race, music and power in American history
and what the story of historical banjo performance can tell us about the creation of identity for
the African and Irish diaspora in Atlantic world
Intellectual property rights over ‘integrated’ medical devices: the potential health impacts and bioethical implications of rightsholders’ control
Full text linkDespite extensive literature examining intellectual property rights (IPRs) and access to health, there has been limited examination of how IPRs can potentially impact the development, access to, delivery of, and use of medical devices. This article fills this gap, focusing on patent and copyright protections applicable to elements of medical devices that are attachable to or implanted into the human body, such as prostheses or pacemakers. Although the human body itself is not patentable in Europe (Article 5, Biotechnology Directive), elements of medical devices created outside the body are patentable. Moreover, certain aspects of such medical devices can be subject to copyright, and other types of IPRs. This article provides an overview of the types of IPRs that can apply over attachable and implantable medical devices. Following this, and focusing specifically on copyright and patent rights, it argues that such IPRs, alongside incentivizing technological development in certain contexts, also give rightsholders significant control over key aspects of how individuals use and access IP-protected elements of such devices, with the potential for health-related impacts and bioethical implications. Accordingly, the article argues that greater understanding and scrutiny are needed within the health law and bioethics communities around the potential impacts of IPRs over medical devices
Beyond the Grain: revisiting the Belmont Mills Archive at MU Library
Full text linkAs part of routine work in our Special Collections and Archives Department last year, I revisited
one of our lesser known collections at Maynooth University Library, the Belmont Mills
Archive (IE/MU/PP17). Donated back in 2015, this fascinating collection relates to the lives and
business interests of the Perry family at Belmont, Lisderg, County Offaly, their family, friends,
and community, over the course of a century. Belmont Mills was built on the site of an earlier
mill structure and is located in the village of Belmont. A handsome, two-storey, castellated
country house, Belmont House was built around 1810 and is situated on a prominent site
overlooking the mills. The house and mills formed part of the Belmont (or Bellmount) Estate,
purchased by the Perry family in 1859 from Captain John Collins for the sum of £3275. The Perrys
were a Quaker family originating in Shanderry near Mountmellick, County Laois, with strong
connections in both business and transportation. Under the ownership of the family, Belmont
Mills was to become one of the largest flour and oatmeal mills in the midlands
The implications of the patient microenvironment on mesenchymal stromal cell therapy in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome
Full text linkThe incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has risen exponentially in the
post-SARS-CoV-2 pandemic era. Current treatments for this disease are broad-spectrum, and
lack the specificity required to treat this highly-complex disease. Mesenchymal stromal cells
(MSCs) are an immunomodulatory and pro-reparative cell-type, that are a prominent interest
in the field of regenerative medicine. These cells can interact with other cells to dampen their
inflammatory effects, while also secreting paracrine factors that can aid in immune modulation
and repair. In the context of inflammatory disease, MSCs have been trialled, tested and proven
to have an exquisite safety profile in the context of many diseases; including ARDS. However,
they have not been therapeutically efficacious in the treatment of ARDS. Given that resident
stromal cells within the lung are known to be defective within the diseased lung
microenvironment, this project sought to identify the impact that elements of the ARDS patient
microenvironment could have on MSC therapeutic efficacy in a pre-clinical model of acute
lung inflammation. It was shown that general inflammation, by TNFɑ, could enhance MSC
modulation of neutrophils; a key driver of ARDS. This study further highlighted the impact of
differential inflammatory profiles of ARDS patients on MSC therapeutic efficacy. This firstof-
its-kind patient stratification study highlighted that MSCs exposed to a highly-inflammatory
ARDS microenvironment could enhance lung epithelium barrier function in a VEGFdependent
manner, but the same effect was not seen from MSCs exposed to lower levels of
inflammation. It was also identified that free fatty acids within the ARDS microenvironment
could enhance MSC pro-reparative capacity in an ANGPTL4-dependent manner, through
activation of the PPARβ/� nuclear receptor. This research largely contributes to the field of
cell-therapy, by promoting a need to investigate the environment in which the cells are placed,
and identifying the key mechanisms required for therapeutic effect in the inflammatory lung
Oligarchy, Populism, Democracy: Re-conceptualizing Democratization and De-democratization in the Neoliberal Era
Full text linkThe abstract is included in the text
The temporal organisation and practices of planning work: The temporalities of digital infrastructure, the digital infrastructuring of temporality
Full text linkDigitalisation is having a profound impact on the relationship between time and planning. The temporalities of planning's bureaucratic infrastructure is being transformed through its digitalisation, introducing machine and network time and reshaping the relations between past, present and future. In turn, the temporalities of digital infrastructure has led to re-infrastructuring of planning's temporalities, introducing a new timescape wherein the pace, tempo, timings, time patterns and temporal modalities of planning practice have been reconfigured. Yet, despite the profound effect of digitalisation on temporal relations, clock time remains important in the organisation and work of planning given the centrality of time rules and timetables, and this will continue to be the case. Using a case study of the development and control function of planning in Ireland, this paper examines temporalities of planning's digital infrastructures and the digital infrastructuring of planning's temporalities, illustrating the ways in which the temporal organisation and practices of planning work are being re-cast
Serum N -glycosylation is altered in Nephropathic Cystinosis
Full text linkChanges in glycosylation can serve as markers for rare genetic disorders, including lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). Nephropathic Cystinosis (NC), caused by mutations in the CTNS gene, is characterised by cystine accumulation in lysosomes due to dysfunctional cystinosin, a heavily N-glycosylated lysosomal transporter. We analysed total serum and IgG N-glycosylation using hydrophilic interaction ultra performance liquid chromatography (HILIC-UPLC) to explore the diagnostic biomarker capabilities and their pathophysiological relevance in NC. In this double-blind study (n = 12), we examined N-glycosylation of total serum and serum IgG from Irish participants with and without NC. Dimensionality reduction methods were used applying their glycan data to predict NC status, yet only modest predictive power was observed (66.6% for serum and 50% for IgG N-glycosylation). However, upon unblinding the data, we identified significant differences in specific serum N-glycosylation in NC, particularly in sialylation. These findings provide the first evidence that serum N-glycosylation is altered in NC. These changes may indicate disease-associated systemic alteration including dysregulation in N-glycosylation pathway. It provides justification for the need for a larger validation study and invites further exploration of its role in NC pathophysiology. We provide key recommendations for age stratification for studying serum, plasma and IgG N-glycans in juvenile cohorts as they display unique profiles compared to adult populations, an important consideration for all juvenile studies, even beyond the scope of rare diseases
