Price Variation in Spatial Oligopolies

The “geography of price” is being given renewed attention by geographers and economists. This paper examines spatial price variation in both unbounded (circular) and bounded (linear) one-dimensional markets. Firms compete for consumers in the short run by adjusting price until the Bertrand equilibrium is reached in the market. While firms act as spatial oligopolists in specific market segments, the profit-maximizing price of any given firm depends directly and indirectly upon the spatial-economic properties (locations, marginal costs) of all other firms in the market.     

Pirate Ports and Harbours of West Cork in the Early Seventeenth Century

In the early part of the seventeenth century in Ireland select harbours along the southwest coast of Munster acted as the North Atlantic headquarters for pirates, primarily made up of English mariners. The places picked by the pirates as their bases were spatially strategic and three harbours in particular dominated this West Cork landscape—Baltimore, Leamcon and Crookhaven. Complicit English officers facilitated this activity and pirates and their families settled on the estates of the local officials while others used this pirate landscape as a staging point for plundering adventures further afield. As a consequence, piracy in Irish waters at that time had a profound influence on local economies, social activities and, in some cases, political events. Indeed the tolerance shown to it in the early seventeenth century in the southwest may be explained by the fact that it facilitated the colonial effort ongoing under the Munster Plantation and thus, inadvertently, suited the purposes of official government.     

Irrefutable arguments: Teresa de Cartagena defends her right to authorship

Teresa de Cartagena wrote a masterful text of consolation for all who suffer illness or impairment entitled Arboleda de los enfermos [Grove of the Infirm] in which she recounts her spiritual response to the onset of deafness. The work was maligned, not for its content, but rather because detractors refused to believe that Arboleda could have been penned by a woman, especially one who suffered from a physical impairment. Teresa responded to those who doubted her authorship by writing a second text, Admiraçión operum Dey [Wonder at the Works of God]. She felt compelled to respond to her critics in order to assert a single, and irrefutable, truth: God gave her the ability to write Arboleda, and, since anything is possible for God, to deny her authorship is tantamount to denying the omnipotence of God. She declares that any reader who doubts her authorship does not believe that God is capable of miraculous deeds. She argues that it is rare for a woman to write but certainly not impossible if God so wills it. This article explores how Teresa constructs and builds what, on the surface, appears to be a simple, in not outright indisputable, tenet of Christian doctrine, i.e., God’s unlimited and inscrutable power.     

Absence makes the heart grow fonder: transatlantic Irish nationalism and the 1867 Rising

L'éloignement renforce l'affection: le nationalisme irlandais transatlantique et l'insurrection de 1867

While nationalist temporal narratives continue to be demythologized, relatively little comparative work has been done to demythologize nationalist spatial narratives. Consequently, the theorizing of nationalism often remains safely corralled within the territorial boundaries of a respective nation-state. In order to advance theoretical understandings of nationalism, it is imperative that geographers break this sedentary spell. This paper seeks to do just that, through analysis of a particularly vehement brand of nineteenth-century Irish nationalism known as Fenianism, and by revealing the crucial role that the Irish diaspora played in the transatlantic development of Irish nationalism.

Pendant que se poursuit la démythification des récits nationalistes d'ordre temporel, proportionnellement peu d'études comparatives ont été menées pour démythifier les récits nationalistes d'ordre spatial. De ce fait, la théorisation du nationalisme est généralement circonscrite à l'intérieur des limites territoriales d'un état-nation en particulier. Pour faire progresser les savoirs théoriques sur le nationalisme, il importe que les géographes puisse rompre ce charme sédentaire. Cet article vise à rendre compte de cela par un examen d'une sorte particulièrement véhémente de nationalisme irlandais au dix-neuvième siècle connu sous l'appellation de Fénianisme. Il montre aussi le rôle déterminant que jouait la diaspora irlandaise dans la montée du nationalisme irlandais transatlantique.

La ausencia es al amor lo que al fuego el aire: que apaga el pequeño y aviva el grande: el nacionalismo irlandés transatlántico y el levantamiento del año 1867

Aunque se sigue sacando del terreno de la mitología las narrativas nacionalistas temporales, hay pocos trabajos comparativos que hacen lo mismo con las narrativas nacionalistas espaciales. Por consiguiente la teorización sobre el nacionalismo se queda encorralada dentro de las fronteras territoriales de una respectiva nación-estado. Si los geógrafos quieren potenciar entendimientos teoréticos sobre el nacionalismo es imprescindible que rompan este hechizo sedentario. Es éste el objetivo de este papel y tratamos de hacerlo por el análisis de un tipo de nacionalismo irlandés del siglo diecinueve llamado Fenianismo, que era especialmente vehemente, y por revelar el papel decisivo de la diáspora irlandesa en el desarrollo transatlántico del nacionalismo irlandés.     

‘As a lever gains power by its distance from the fulcrum’: tracing Frederick Douglass in the Irish Atlantic World

Following the publication of his autobiography and fearing recapture and return to slavery, in 1845 the abolitionist Frederick Douglass embarked on an 18-month lecture tour of the United Kingdom, during which his thinking on the subject of abolitionism developed significantly. While this period in Douglass’ life has received only modest scholarly attention, even less has been paid to the fact that the tour commenced in Ireland – then arguably more akin to a colony than an integral region of the UK. Drawing on archival research and scholarship that advocates for a more interconnected sense of place, a more oceanic perspective on history and consequently a better sense of how political activity is forged relationally, the paper traces Douglass’ journey through the Irish nodes of the abolitionist Atlantic network. In the process, it considers the degree to which Douglass was influenced by this colonial and deeply sectarian society, it illuminates a forgotten world of Irish abolitionist activity, and contributes to debates regarding intersecting histories and geographies in the Atlantic World.     

Countering exclusion: the ‘St. Pats for all’ parade

The St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City has historically been a crucial site for annually reproducing narratives of Irishness through a very public performative ritual taking place on Fifth Avenue. However, in recent years controversy has surrounded this event, associated with the organizers' decision to ban self-identifying Irish homosexuals, a decision supported by the US Supreme Court. In response, a ‘counter-parade’ now takes place in the neighboring borough of Queens, which is beginning to mount a serious challenge to the more established ritual. Billed as the first all-inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade in the city's history, this ‘St. Pats for All’ parade articulates a very different narrative of Irishness than that paraded on Fifth Avenue. In this article I seek to examine this alternative event and the contested identity politics associated with Irishness in New York City, focusing primarily on the axes of nationalism and sexuality, and the role played by public space.