90,591 research outputs found
Peat slope failure in Ireland
No full textRecent peat failures in Ireland in the autumn of 2003 at Pollatomish, County Mayo
and Derrybrien, County Galway have focused attention on such events. However, peat
failures are not a recent phenomenon with possible evidence of peat failures in Ireland
having been identified as far back as the Early Bronze Age. This paper summarises
the issues surrounding peat failures in Ireland that would be of interest to an
engineer\engineering geologist assessing this geohazard. The distribution of peat
throughout Ireland, its formation, and its typical characteristic properties are
discussed. A review of historical failures shows that there is a relationship between
run out distance and failure volume and that the majority of the failures are clustered
at slope angles between 4º and 8º. It seems that the risk of fatalities from peat slides is
relatively low. The likely casual factors attributed to peat failures are presented using
examples of failure, including the recent failures at Pollatomish and Derrybrien both
of which have been investigated by the authors. Particular attention is paid to shear
strength properties of peat and the applicability of traditional soil mechanics. Given
the uncertainties which exist about peat strength, a cautious approach to slope stability
assessment is advocated together with identification of potential causal factors to
mitigate against this geohazard.Not applicabl
Beyond the Catholic-Protestant divide : religious and ethnic diversity in the North and South of Ireland
No full textPaper presented to the IBIS conference Old structures, new beliefs: religion, community and politics in contemporary Ireland, University College Dublin, 15 May 2003.This paper explores the challenges posed by the ethnic diversification of contemporary Irish society for conventional understandings of and responses to issues of religion, community and politics. It argues that the particularities of social and institutional histories and structures in the North and South have eclipsed wider considerations of both race and ethnicity and religious identity beyond the Catholic-Protestant divide. This has, in turn, served to obscure the many dynamic changes that such diversity has catalysed both within Irish civil society generally, and within the island’s traditional religious institutions themselves. The paper discusses the promises and potentials of conceptualising religion or religious identity and the relationships between religion and ethnicity within broader cultural and political fields, and their implications for the “new” (multicultural) Ireland.Not applicableti -TS 07.07.10
Author is part of the school of Sociolog
Social capital and self-rated health in the Republic of Ireland: evidence from the European Social survey
No full textThis paper analyses the determinants of self-reported health in Ireland, conditioning self-reported health on a set of socio-economic, labour market and social capital variables. Ireland has the highest self-reported health rate in Europe, a finding backed-up by other studies. Data were derived from the 2002 and 2005 European Social survey. The full 87,915 observations from both rounds were pooled and used to estimate mean self-rated health across Europe. The Irish data were isolated, totalling 2,049 individuals for 2002 and 2,286 individuals for 2005. The 2002 data were used to analyse the determinants of subjective health state, as it had a richer array of social capital variables. The results demonstrate statistically significant effects of income on self-reported health that are robust to different statistical specifications and statistically significant though modest effects of social capital variables such as associational membership and frequency of social meeting and labour market variables such as being on a limited as opposed to permanent contract
Composition and distribution of organic waste in Ireland : implications for land application practices
No full textPaper presented at Agricultural and biosystems engineering for a sustainable world. International Conference on Agricultural Engineering, Hersonissos, Crete, Greece, 23-25 June, 2008Questions about the economic and environmental sustainability of current waste management scenarios in Europe for various organic wastes, the policy drive at the EU, and the subsequent adoption of EU policy at national levels, has given momentum for diversion of organic wastes away from landfills and ultimately on to the land. The land has always been the receptor of choice for animal manures, but it is now becoming a popular management route for other organic wastes. Currently in Ireland, land is examined by specific sectors and regarded as a resource available uniquely to each sector. In contrast, it is reasoned in this paper that treating the diverse organic wastes potentially suited for land application as a unit waste stream and developing a detailed accounting of waste quantities and characteristics would serve as a gateway towards a consistent and holistic strategy from which a comprehensive land application strategy at national level or regional level could be developed.
The methodology used is a desk-based inventory that relied on existing secondary data in published reports. A literature based survey and quantification of organic wastes potentially suited for land application, in Ireland, was completed. The survey included a broad range of organic wastes from agricultural and non-agricultural activities - with animal manure, spent mushroom compost, biodegradable municipal waste, biosolids, sludge from onsite treatment plants, organic wastes from industrial sources the major ones. Reports from the Central Statistical Office of Ireland, study reports at the Environmental Protection Agency, Regional Waste Management Plans, Sludge Management Plans, County Waste Registries and European sources were consulted in association with codes and guidelines to determine the quantity and composition of organic wastes potentially suited for land application. Major and minor plant nutrients were used as a basis to describe the composition of the organic
wastes. Finally a GIS-based database of the organic wastes potentially suited for land application was developed and a distributional analysis was performed at different spatial scales.
Results of our analysis confirm that animal waste remains the largest source of organic waste in Ireland - as in most other European countries - and the major concern for management through land application due to the sheer volume of the waste. Between the small percentage of organic wastes of non-animal origin biosolids, sludge from industrial sources, biodegradable municipal wastes and spent mushroom compost constitute the major share. There is a spatial distribution of the organic wastes in terms of both the total quantity of organic waste and type of the organic wastes. While the volume of the non-agricultural wastes appears to be insignificant – compared to organic waste of animal origin – at a National level it constitutes a high local problem at lesser spatial scales, i.e. counties and regions. The research suggests that there is a need to a leap from the present, sector-specific approach used in managing the land application of waste to a comprehensive land application strategy that considers the total quantity and quality of waste relative to the land base suitable for receiving them.Not applicableConference websitehttp://www.ageng2008.com/Conference programme AgEng2008 at http://www.certh.gr/dat/85aaf06a/file.pdf?633675075989702252 - AV 3/8/201
Social Capital & Self-Rated Health in the Republic of Ireland. Evidence from the European Social Survey
No full textThis paper analyses the determinants of self-reported health in Ireland, conditioning selfreported health on a set of socio-economic, labour market and social capital variables. Ireland has the highest self-reported health rate in Europe. The results demonstrate statistically significant effects of income on self-reported health that are robust to different statistical specifications and statistically significant though modest effects of social capital variables such as associational membership and frequency of social meeting.
Hydrology and the Water Framework Directive in Ireland
No full textThe Water Framework Directive has been the catalyst for a considerable amount of data collection, analysis and research covering a wide range of physical and biological characteristics and involving a wide range of scientific, social and management related disciplines. This paper starts with a short description of the discipline of hydrology and then identifies the main hydrological aspects of work for the WFD and notes their ecological significance. Some idea is given of the range of organisations and disciplines involved in the work and of the links between them. Of particular significance is the degree of cooperation between River Basin Districts in setting up working groups for special studies, avoiding overlaps in research.Other funderWater Framework DirectivePlease replace pdf with published version http://www.ria.ie/RIA/files/07/0764837f-7c6a-454f-a6da-454f5977c0af.pdf - AV 2/08/201
Decomposing demand for public expenditure in Ireland
No full textThis paper, via the analysis of stated preferences from a nationwide representative survey of 1,100 adults, examines the determinants of preferences
for overall government expenditure and estimates a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model of demand for the three major categories of public expenditures in Ireland, namely, social welfare, education and health. Those on higher incomes are less in favour of government expenditure overall. However, and consistent with the available evidence on the utilisation and financing of the three main categories of government expenditures, decomposing the preferences demonstrates that those on higher incomes are particularly less in favour of social welfare expenditure but more in favour of spending on health and education
Evaluation of the uptake of voluntary calorie posting on menus in Ireland
No full textThis report was commissioned by the Department of Health, Ireland. Obesity is a public health problem in Ireland which is largely responsible for the increasing prevalence of diet-related diseases and growing financial burden on our healthcare system. Although overweight and obesity rates may have reached a plateau in Irish adults and children, they remain at an extremely high level as 1 in 4 children areoverweight or obese and an estimated 61% of adults are overweight or obese. Urgent public health action is required to reduce the levels of obesity among our children and adults. A sustainable national intervention strategy that combines government and community-led interventions is required. These interventions need to incorporate both nutrition education and environmental modification strategies to reduce levels of obesity. International literature suggests that calorie posting has the potential to have a positive effect on the obesity crisis by encouraging people to make healthier food choices through informed consumer decisions. This evaluation focuses on the uptake of voluntary calorie posting from a national representative sample of food service businesses in Ireland and explores the attitudes of food service businesses that do and do not display calories. This evaluation will explore the most effective and efficient way of implementing mandatory calorie posting on menus in Ireland
Irish timber - characterisation, potential and innovation
No full textIn order to increase the utilisation of Irish timber in construction and novel engineered wood products, the mechanical and physical properties of the material must be established. For timber products used for structural applications, the fundamental properties are the modulus of elasticity, bending strength, density and dimensional stability as these define the structural grade of the material. In order to develop engineering design models for applications such as reinforced timber, knowledge of the nonlinear stress-strain behaviour in compression is also required. The paper presents the programme and results of an ongoing research project Innovation in Irish Timber Usage which focuses on the characterisation of Sitka spruce as it is the most widely grown species in Ireland. In the past, a number of studies have been conducted to determine the properties of Irish-grown Sitka spruce. Nevertheless, due to the changes that have taken place in silvicultural practices since the publication of these studies, there is a need to determine how these properties have changed. This paper presents the data gathered from historical studies together with the results of an extensive test programme undertaken to characterise the properties of the present resource. Moreover, the paper examines the potential use of Irish grown Sitka spruce in novel timber products. Construction applications, such as fibre-reinforced polymer reinforced timber elements and connections, and cross-laminated timber are investigated.This work has been carried out as part of the project entitled
‘Innovation in Irish timber Usage’ (project ref. 11/C/207)
funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the
Marine of the Republic of Ireland under the
FIRM/RSF/COFORD scheme. The authors would also like to
thank ECC Ltd. (Earrai Coillte Chonnacht Teoranta) for
supplying the timber used in this project.peer-reviewe
A prospect of moving towards free milk quota market in Ireland – will milk quota movement follow efficiency?
No full textQuota trade in Ireland is ‘ring fenced’ to milk processors where farmers are not allowed to trade milk quota outside their designated milk processor. This ensures milk production staying within a region but has implications for the efficiency of milk production. In this paper, we simulated a free milk quota market in Ireland and compared the results with a milk quota exchange which was ring fenced to determine if the quota move from an inefficient region to a more efficient region. The results show that quota indeed follow efficiency of production when there is restriction over trade area.Milk quota trade, Irish quota market, Farm level model, Agricultural and Food Policy,
- …
