The Role of Telematics in Integrating Ireland into Europe's Information Society

This article is an evaluation of Ireland's participation in the Telematics Applications Programme (TAP), which was part of the European Commission's Fourth Framework Programme for the period 1994-1998. TAP was primarily concerned with public sector bodies and their ability to adapt to the Information Society. The article explores Irish participation in the programme and examines the contribution of this participation to the clustering of telematics experimentation within Ireland and to the increasing integration with other European regions arising from project networks. The role of the TAP programme in furthering Europe's information society in Ireland is assessed.     

Reviews

The Irish Ringfort Matthew Stout, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 160, ISBN 1.8518.1200.X, £19.95 (hb)

A Shorter Illustrated History of Ulster Jonathan Bardon, 1996 Belfast, Blackstaff Press pp. 336, ISBN 0.8564.0586.8, £14.99 (pb)

Belfast Merchant Families in the Seventeenth Century Jean Agnew, 1996 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 256, ISBN 1.8518.2251.8, £25.00 (hb)

The Civil Wars in Britain and Ireland, 1638–1651 Martyn Bennett, 1997 Oxford, Blackwell pp.472, ISBN 0.6311.9154.2, £55.00 (hb); ISBN 0.6311.91550, £15.99 (pb)

Parties, Patriots and Undertakers: Parliamentary Politics in early Hanoverian Ireland Patrick Mcnally, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.240, ISBN 1.8518.2255.0, £30.00 (hb)

Edmund Burke: His Life and Legacy Ian Crowe (ed.), 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 228, ISBN 1.8518.2306.9, £35.00 (hb)

The Irish Charter Schools, 1730–1830 Kenneth Milne, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 450, ISBN 1.8518.2232.1, £35.00 (hb)

The Tree of Liberty: Radicalism, Catholicism and the Construction of Irish Identity 1760–1830 Kevin Whelan, 1996 Cork, Cork University Press pp. 240, ISBN 1.8591.8060.4, £14.95 (pb)

The Royal Irish Constabulary: A Short History and Genealogical Guide Jim Herlihy, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp.256, ISBN 1.8518.2337.9, £39.50 (hb); ISBN 1.8518.2337.9, £14.95 (pb)

Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism since the Anglo‐Irish Agreement Fergal Cochrane, 1997 Cork, Cork University Press pp.440, ISBN 1.8591.8138.4, £45 (hb); ISBN 1.8591.2, £17.95 (pb)

Bonfires on the Hillside: An Eyewitness Account of Political Upheaval in Northern Ireland James Kelly, 1995 Belfast, Fountain Publishing pp. 229, ISBN 0.9525.5650.2, £2.95 (pb)

The New York Irish Ronald H. Bayor & Timothy J. Meagher (eds), 1996 Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press pp.744, ISBN 0.8018.5199.8, £37.00 (hb); ISBN 0.8018.5764.3, £21.50 (pb)

The Irish Experience in New York City: A Select Bibliography Ann M. Shea & Marion R. Casey, 1995 New York, New York Irish History Roundtable pp. 130, ISBN 0.8156.8121.6, US$ 29.95 (hb)

Dracula: A Norton Critical Edition Nina Auerbach & David J. Skal (eds), 1997 New York, W.W. Norton pp. 492, ISBN 0.3939.7012.4, £6.95 (pb)

The Un‐Dead: The Legend of Bram Stoker and Dracula Peter Haining & Peter Tremayne, 1997 London, Constable pp. 199, ISBN 0.0947.5430.6, £16.95 (hb)

The Mammoth Book of Dracula Stephen Jones (ed.), 1997 London, Robinson Publishing pp. 512, ISBN 1.8548.7520.5, £6.99 (pb)

James Joyce: Ulysses Vincent Sherry, 1997 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp. 141, ISBN 0.5214.2075.X, £19.95 (hb); ISBN 0.5214.2136.5, £7.95 (pb)

The Word According to James Joyce: Reconstructing Representation Cordell D. K. Yee, 1997 Lewisburg, Pa. Bucknell University Press/ London, Associated University Press pp. 176, ISBN 8387.5330.2, £30.00 (hb)

Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett James Knowlson, 1996 London, Bloomsbury pp. 872, ISBN 0.7475.2719.9, £25 (hb)

Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist Anthony Cronin, 1996 London, HarperCollins pp.645, ISBN 0.2461.3769.X, £25.00 (hb); ISNB 0.5860.9076.2, £8.99 (pb)

Beckett: The Irish Dimension Mary Junker, 1995 Dublin, Wolfhound pp. 190, ISBN 0.8632.7384.X, £27.50 (hb)

Thomas Kinsella Donatella Abbate Badin, 1996 New York, Twayne pp. 226, ISBN 0.8057.7047.X

Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo‐Irish Literature Augustine Martin (anthony Roche ed.), 1996 Dublin, University College Dublin Press pp. 259+xx, ISBN 1 9006.21 0 1.0, £25.95 (hb); ISBN 1.9006.2102.9, £15.95 (pb)

Twentieth‐Century Irish Drama: Mirror up to Nation Christopher Murray, 1997 Manchester, Manchester University Press pp.288, ISBN 0.7190.4156.2, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7190.4157.0, £12.99 (pb)

The Irish Play on the New York Stage, 1874–1966 John D. Harrington, 1997 Lexington, Ky., University Press of Kentucky pp. 179, ISBN 0.8131.2033.0, US$ 27.95 (hb)

The Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (Vol. 2, No. 2, 1996) Osilla Bertha (ed.), 1996 Debrecen, Kossuth Lajas University Press pp. 182, ISSN 1218.7364, US$ 15.00

Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert (Irish Music in the 20th Century) Axel Klein, 1996 Hildesheim, George Olms Verlag pp. 526, ISBN 3.4871.0196.3, with Music Examples, Bibliography, and Discography DM 98 (hb)

Here's Looking at You, Kid! Ireland goes to the pictures STEPHANIE MCBRIDE and RODDY FLYNN (eds), 1996 Dublin,Wolfhoundpp. 138, ISBN 0.8632.7556.7, £9.99 (pb)

Wilde Director, Brian Gilbert Screenplay by Julian Mitchell Samuelson/Polygram, 1997     

Afghanistan observed

Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xvii + 378 pp. No price given.

Barnett R. Rubin, The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xi + 190 pp. US$25.00 (paper).

David B. Edwards, Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. xviii + 306 pp. No price given.

J.L. Lee, The ‘Ancient Supremacy’: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. i + 695 pp. No price given.     

Australia’s refugee policy: domestic politics and diplomatic consequences

ABSTRACT

Refugee policy involves a two-level game. For Australia since approximately 1998, the politics of refugees has been toxically affected by domestic politics. This has had potentially negative effects on Australia’s reputation and soft power. This article provides an overview of the issue, explores the ways in which considerations of domestic politics have come increasingly to shape Australia’s policy and concludes with a discussion of the consequences of Australia’s treatment of refugees for its diplomacy and soft power.     

Local diversity in settlement,demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal

The Southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition demonstrates considerable regional variability in settlement location, density, and size. While researchers have shown that the region around the Tungabhadra and Krishna River basins displays significant subsistence and demographic continuity, and intensification, from the Neolithic into the Iron Age ca. 1200 cal. BC, archaeological and chronometric records in the Sanganakallu region point to hilltop village expansion during the Late Neolithic and ‘Megalithic’ transition period (ca. 1400–1200 cal. BC) prior to apparent abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC, with little evidence for the introduction of iron technology into the region. We suggest that the difference in these settlement histories is a result of differential access to stable water resources during a period of weakening and fluctuating monsoon across a generally arid landscape. Here, we describe well-dated, integrated chronological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and archaeological survey datasets from the Sanganakallu-Kupgal site complex that together demonstrate an intensification of settlement, subsistence and craft production on local hilltops prior to almost complete abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC. Although the southern Deccan region as a whole may have witnessed demographic increase, as well as subsistence and cultural continuity, at this time, this broader pattern of continuity and resilience is punctuated by local examples of abandonment and mobility driven by an increasing practical and political concern with water.