The Royal Irish Academy

In this episode, John Doyle and John FitzGerald discuss the subject of the UK financial ‘subvention’ to Northern Ireland, which has been dominating the public debate on the economics of a united Ireland.

You can read John Doyle's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.30

John Doyle is the Director of the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University.

John FitzGerald, MRIA, is the former Head of the Macroeconomics and Resource Economics Division at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI.)

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This is episode 4 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this first episode of Shelfmarks Zoë Comyns looks at an expedition to Rockall off the north-east coast of Donegal funded by the Royal Irish Academy in 1896.

The island is extremely remote and poor weather conditions meant it was impossible to land on Rockall. The crew of geologists, naturalists and biologists did collect dredge samples and bird specimens. This programme evokes his journey and the sense of discovery.

One of those on board was RIA member R.M. Barrington, whose interest in birds led to him to publish The Migration of Birds as Observed at Irish Lighthouses and Lightships (1900). Barrington asked lighthouse keepers all around the country to record information on all birds that died by striking the light stations. He asked that they: “cut off and label the wing and leg of every common bird which is killed at their station…All species can then be identified with certainty.’ He also requested that ‘Rare birds should be sent entire”.

He gathered more than 2000 specimens, legs and wings and whole birds arrive by post every week, from all over Ireland to his home in Wicklow allowing him to identify patterns and compile his book.

Zoe’s guest on Shelfmarks is Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places. Kerri brings Zoë to Baltray beach in Co. Louth where they discuss Kerri’s relationship with the natural world and she reads new pieces specially commissioned for the Shelfmarks.

Kerri chats about how being prompted by the notion of discovery and expedition she observes her baby son taking in the world for the first time.

She also writes about a dream that she often returns to in which she is observing a bird in a forest and has to choose between experiencing this moment and rushing home to document it.

Kerri has been writing for a number of years and she explores in her final piece one of her very first pieces of writing about a bird strike. Barrington’s studies resonant with her as she has come across numerous dead birds during her walks.

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is the author of Thin Places which was highly commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. She has written for the Guardian, the Irish Times, the BBC, Winter Papers, and others. She lives in an old railway cottage in the heart of Ireland with her family.

Shelfmarks is a podcast by our podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Zoë has spent time looking through the collections and library holdings in the Academy to explore how people have written about and observed our natural world over the centuries.

In this Culture Night special to start the series Zoë explores nature writing as it was when the Royal Irish Academy opened in 1785 to now, and how its focus has changed over the centuries.

We’re going to hear a little history about some of the texts in the RIA, about some of the naturalists and members who have been part of the Academy but also get a sense of the arc of writing about the natural world. We’ll also hear how the landscape and wildlife of Ireland itself has changed over the centuries.

Guests:

Lucy Collins (co-ed The Irish Poet and the Natural World)

Conor W. O'Brien (Ireland Through Birds, Life in Ireland)

and Booker longlisted writer Niall Williams (Four Letters of Love, A History of Rain, This is Happiness) and Christine Breen (Her Name Is Rose) who have co-authored a memoir about their garden, illness and the natural world - In Kiltumper.

Readings by Derbhle Crotty and Declan Brennan.

This project is funded by the Arts Council Literature Project Award.

In this episode, Christopher McCrudden and Oran Doyle explore the legal constraints or soft-law guidelines that are relevant to the franchise in the north and in the south, potential issues that arise from tensions between the two franchises, and possible resolutions.

You can read their paper, co-authored with David Kenny, as it appeared in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.18

Christopher McCrudden is Professor of Human Rights and Equality Law at Queen’s University Belfast and William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

Oran Doyle is Professor in law at Trinity College Dublin.

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This is episode 3 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In the final episode of this series, Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher discusses the vaccine rollout and answers questions on vaccines for teens, booster shots and more.

As we reach 70 percent of the population of Ireland vaccinated against COVID-19, host Dick Ahlstrom chats to immunologist Professor Christine Loscher about how Ireland has performed in terms of its vaccination programme, what we have learned about the virus and about vaccines over the last year and what’s new in terms of vaccine development. She also answers questions on the vaccination of children and teens and on the start of vaccine booster shots. Christine is a Full Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Science & Health at DCU. In 2020 she established the DCU Covid-19 Research & Innovation Hub which currently has 16 funded projects aimed at novel solutions in the fight against Covid-19.

More information on COVID-19 vaccines

The RIA's Life and Medical Sciences Committee has published a revised expert statement on vaccines. The statement is written in plain English and provides accurate information on vaccines.

‘Vaccines: a life-saving choice expert statement’ by Kingston Mills MRIA, Bert Rima MRIA and Dick Ahlstrom [link to https://www.ria.ie/sites/default/files/vaccines_expert_statement_july_2021.pdf ]

You can find more information on vaccines and vaccination at:

http://gov.ie/covid19vaccine

http://hse.ie

http://immunisation.ie

This series is organised by the Life and Medical Sciences Committee in partnership with the Health Research Board

In Vaccine Questions Ep 7 behavioural economist, Professor Pete Lunn shares expert insights on how our behaviour impacts the spread of the COVI19 and what drives this behaviour.

Pete is head of the Economic and Social Research Institute's Behavioural Research Unit and a member of a subgroup that advises NPHET on public response to the pandemic. He tells Dick what questions this group has asked about public behaviour in the pandemic, and shares some of the surprising answers this research has revealed about how we balance risks and make decisions.

This series is organised by the RIA Life and Medical Sciences Committee

In this episode Adele Bergin and Seamus McGuinness reflect on cross-border differences in living standards, opportunities and quality of life on the island of Ireland. So, who is better off?

You can read their paper, as it appeared in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.12

Adele Bergin is Associate Research Professor at the Economic & Social Research Institute, Dublin.

Seamus McGuinness is Research Professor at the Economic & Social Research Institute, Dublin. He is also a research fellow in the Institute of Labour Studies (IZA) in the University of Bonn and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National Institute for Labour Studies in Flinders University Australia.

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This is episode 2 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

Chief Bioethics Officer at the Department of Health, Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan talks about the difficult decisions officials and individuals must grapple with in this pandemic and the values and principles which underpin them.

While science plays a vital role in informing decisions such as prioritisation for vaccination, these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They impact on all our lives and require assessment of legal, socio-economic factors, and judgements about what is right and wrong and what kind of society we want to live in. Siobhán explains how bioethics provides a framework that helps guide this decision making and Dick asks for her thoughts on complicated questions like should vaccination ever be mandatory, are vaccine passports fair, and are rich countries doing enough to ensure people in poorer countries have access to vaccines.

This series is organised by the Life and Medical Sciences Committee in partnership with the Health Research Board

In this episode, Deirdre Heenan and Anne Matthews delve into how cross-border cooperation relating to health between Ireland and Northern Ireland really works. What collaborations are working? How did health co-operation really work during the COVID-19 pandemic? What are the best parts of each system? Does politics stand in the way of citizens' health? How could health outcomes for everyone on the island be improved?

You can read Deirdre Heenan's paper at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.10 Anne Matthew's response is available at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.11. These were both published by ARINS in Irish Studies in International Affairs.

Deirdre Heenan is Professor of Social Policy in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University.

Anne Matthews is a Professor in the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health at Dublin City University.

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This is episode 1 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this podcast series host Rory Montgomery talks to ARINS authors about their analysis of the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south, post-Brexit.

ARINS, Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.