The Royal Irish Academy

In episode five Dick chats to Professor Jane Suiter, Director of the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society at DCU about what drives the spread of disinformation and how it can undermine vaccination programmes.

What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation and are they the same thing as fake news? Dick asks Jane to explain what these terms mean and they discuss the evolution of disinformation, what drives it, and what makes people susceptible to it. Jane also outlines some ways it can be tackled, by those who own or regulate social media and by us as everyday users of digital media.

Emer Cooke, Head of the European Medicines Agency explains its role in assessing and authorising COVID19 vaccines, and Dick asks why should we trust the EMA to ensure that all the vaccines we receive are safe and reliable?

COVID19 vaccines can only become available to us here in Ireland once they are authorised by the European Commission following evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In this episode, host Dick Ahlstrom talks to Emer Cooke, an Irish pharmacist who took on the role of Executive Director of the EMA in November 2020. She explains the role of the EMA and the steps they take in evaluating vaccines to ensure they are safe and effective and that the information they base that assessment on is robust and reliable. She also describes what the EMA does to be transparent and engage with the public, and she shares her perspective on the benefits of vaccines.

The fifth in the series of the History of Emotions Podcasts 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History' examines the intersection between emotions, space and place in the context of Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Established in 1832 Glasnevin Cemetery is still in operation today and has always been committed to burying the dead of ‘all religions and none’. As Ireland’s first non-sectarian burial site, it has emerged to become an iconic commemorative and heritage space at the outskirts of the capital city. The variety of emotions elicited in this site range from grief and sadness to love and anger. And the visitors who come to Glasnevin stand in a longer tradition of using cemetery spaces for recreational purposes. But how can a cemetery reconcile its primary purpose in caring for the dead and their families, while conserving and making accessible the heritage of the site?

Dr Georgina Laragy is Glasnevin Trust Assistant Prof of Public History and Cultural Heritage M. Phil in the School of Histories and Humanities Trinity College, Dublin. She has written about poverty, workhouses and suicide in Irish history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The final podcast in the series will be released next Friday, 23 April 2021. Listen to the other podcasts in the series here.

Creative technologies supporting the humanities

This the forth of six podcast explores revolutionary solidarity among Irish and other international radicals as a feeling of belonging: 'Belonging: feeling solidarity in the interwar world', Dr Maurice Casey

This emotional experience is traced through a series of radical spaces that shaped the lives of socialists and communists in the 1920s and 1930s; the border between Soviet Russia and the wider world, the public meeting and the prison cell. Paying attention to the feeling of belonging that activists gained through their revolutionary work provides an insight into how ordinary people sustained their faith in social transformation amid moments of upheaval and catastrophe.

Dr Maurice J Casey is the current DFA Historian in Residence at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. His research interests include histories of transnational radicalism and the history of social movements in modern Ireland.

Creative technologies supporting the humanities

History of Emotions Podcasts. No.3 in the Series 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History'

Illan works on questions of protest, public order and critical legal theory. His latest book is Law & Disorder: Sovereignty, Protest, Atmosphere is published by Routledge. The book focuses on the moment when social unrest takes hold of a populace, bringing the state structures of government and sovereignty into question. It develops the idea that moods, atmospheres, affects and public feelings are crucial to understand the way in which sovereignty and protest work for the populace.

He has published on critical legal theory, affective dynamics of policing, theories of constituent power, the Arab Spring, protest and transitional justice in Colombia, theories of human rights and revolt, and new Andean constitutional apparatuses.

The fourth podcast in the series will be released on Friday, 9 April 2021.

Dr Lucy Jessop is Director of Public Health at the National Immunisation Office. In this episode she explains when, where and how people will get their vaccination shots, and answers lots of your questions around what side effects to expect.

Here's the link to a factsheet on vaccination for pregnant and breastfeeding women:

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/covid19vaccineinfo4hps/qaiogniac.pdf

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

This, the second of six podcasts deals with the emotion of detachment. 'Detachment: The Bellfield Plantation', Finola O'Kane Crimmins MRIA.

Finola O’Kane-Crimmins is Professor in Architecture at University College Dublin. Her research interests include History of Designed Landscape, Architectural and Landscape Conservation, Architectural History & Theory, Irish Social History, Architectural and Spatial Pedagogy.

The first podcast introducing the series is by Associate Professor Katie Barclay, University of Adelaide whose brief keynote provides an overview of the study of the history of emotions.

Each week we will be releasing a new podcast covering a range of emotions from detachment through anger, solidarity, grief and finishing with wonder and excitement.

Katie Barclay is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions and Associate Professor and Head of Department in History at the University of Adelaide. She is a graduate in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, where she completed her undergraduate degree, Masters and PhD. Before joining the University of Adelaide, she held a Research Fellowship in the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010, she worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick on a project, run jointly with Queen’s, ‘Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925’. In 2007-8, Dr Barclay was the Economic History Society Anniversary Fellow, held through the Institute of Historical Research, London. She went to Australia as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for the History of Emotions (2011-2014), and subsequently held a Discovery Early Career Award (2014-2017). In 2017-18, Barclay was a EURIAS Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus Universitet. She is currently working on a project on how accounting practices shape the self during the industrial revolution, funded by an ARC Discovery Project.

An introduction to the series.

The first podcast introducing the series is by Associate Professor Katie Barclay, University of Adelaide whose brief keynote provides an overview of the study of the history of emotions.

Each week we will be releasing a new podcast covering a range of emotions from detachment through anger, solidarity, grief and finishing with wonder and excitement.

Katie Barclay is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions and Associate Professor and Head of Department in History at the University of Adelaide. She is a graduate in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, where she completed her undergraduate degree, Masters and PhD. Before joining the University of Adelaide, she held a Research Fellowship in the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010, she worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick on a project, run jointly with Queen’s, ‘Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925’. In 2007-8, Dr Barclay was the Economic History Society Anniversary Fellow, held through the Institute of Historical Research, London. She went to Australia as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for the History of Emotions (2011-2014), and subsequently held a Discovery Early Career Award (2014-2017). In 2017-18, Barclay was a EURIAS Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus Universitet. She is currently working on a project on how accounting practices shape the self during the industrial revolution, funded by an ARC Discovery Project.

Professor Philip Nolan explains the numbers we hear on the news and virologist Dr Gerald Barry answers your questions on vaccines.

News coverage of the pandemic is full of numbers and statistics. Daily figures of new COVID19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths are provided alongside other numbers like 7-day average case number, incidence of disease per hundred thousand, positivity rate and growth rate. Where do these figures come from and what can they tell us?

In this episode Dick talks to Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group to NPHET about the work being done behind the scenes to bring us the most accurate and up-to-date numbers and projections and Dick asks him whether mathematical models can be used to predict when vaccination will allow life to get back to normal. UCD based virologist Dr Gerald Barry answers your questions on vaccines; how well they halt transmission, how long they are effective for, and are they as affective in people with comprised immune systems.

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