De-democratising the Irish planning system

This paper examines the practices deployed to de-democratise elements of the Irish planning system. It does so through scrutinizing the processes by which a new streamlined planning procedure for large scale residential developments was institutionalized. The paper investigates how a development lobby group successfully prompted the institutionalization of this streamlined procedure by momentarily capturing the policy formulation agenda surrounding a housing crisis. It demonstrates how this was achieved by defining problems regarding the democratic character of the planning system and accruing agency through solution specification and resonance with the ideologies and rationalities of pertinent political and senior civil servant decision makers. The paper undertakes this analysis by situating a discourse analytical approach within the Multiple Streams Framework. In doing so, the paper provides an original contribution to academic scholarship through novelty of theoretical application on a disquieting aspect of neoliberalism in a planning context that as yet has received limited attention.     

The transformation of the Irish border

This article introduces a special issue dealing with partition and the reconfiguration of the Irish border. Notwithstanding southern nationalist refusal to accept the partition of Ireland in 1921, the border gradually consolidated its position. The article describes the transformation in relations across the Irish border which first found a place on the political agenda in the early 1970s, but which was given full institutional expression only following the Good Friday agreement of 1998. This new configuration has two aspects, which seem at first sight to be in conflict with each other: it marks a new, unreserved acceptance of the legitimacy of the border by Irish nationalists (though moderated by British agreement to end partition if the two parts of Ireland so wish), and it is characterised by a significant growth in public sector bodies which span the border.     

The Economy of the Irish Rath

THE DISCOVERY of a Viking-Age burial in the Kilmainham-Islandbridge cemetery, Dublin, comprising skeleton, spear, sword-fragments and beads, is described from antiquarian MSS sources. The surviving pieces are detailed and the deposit tentatively dated to the late 9th or early 10th century. The grave-goods indicate one, possibly two, burials, one female. A brief survey of similar pagan burials in the British Isles and a close examination of this one would suggest a mixed Irish-Scandinavian cultural milieu for it.     

Writing the History of Irish Women

Joanna Bourke, Husbandry to Housewifery: Women, Economic Change, and Housework in Ireland 1890-1914 Margaret Ward (ed.) In Their Own Voice: Women and Irish Nationalism Mary O'Dowd and Sabine Wichert (eds) Chattel, Servant or Citizen: Women's Status in Church, State and Society Joan Hoff and Moureen Coulter (eds) Irish Women's Voices Past and Present