Having been designed and built to offer shelter for a single boat, the revenue cruiser, Fethard Dock is diminutive in scale, measuring approximately 30 meters in width by 60 meters in length, and had been described as Ireland’s smallest harbour in an early 20th century survey.13 The harbour, as currently configured, consists of a quay and two piers, one L-shaped, in addition to slipways outside the structure on each side, the eastern slipway likely a more recent addition. The smaller north-west pier is of a scale that suggests it is more properly described as a groyne, a structure intended to offer additional shelter to a harbour rather than a platform for landing goods. There had also been a watch house on this groyne structure, later removed, in addition to private warehouses on the quay previously owned by the local Lynn family, now in ruin.

Peter G. Rowe, in his treatise Civic Realism, describes a good civic work to be dependent not only on the manifestation of the familiar, the pluralistic and the critical, but is also “inextricably bound up with the continual advancement of the expressive means by which it is made and elaborated.” The strength of Cardew’s work on purely urban grounds–the resonance each project develops with the given environment through a profound understanding of the social and cultural aspirations of the communities it both serves and neighbours–is undeniable. But just as apparent throughout the portfolio is an indelible trace of material and structural imperatives, which seem to inform the work in equal measure to his very evident social objectives. So to view this body of work in an isolated fashion from a theoretical construct regarding society or from an equally isolated position of the relevance of making to design is to fail to grasp the totality of the work. The two forums, that of social theory and that of making, are here inexorably linked and interdependent–a truly civic body of work.

Was als lokaler Streik von 130 Mechaniker:innen für einen Tarifvertrag in den schwedischen Tesla-Servicewerkstätten begann, eskaliert zu einem globalen Konflikt. Laut dem schwedischen Schlichter für Arbeitskonflikte hat Tesla-Chef Elon Musk seinen lokalen Managern jegliche Zugeständnisse an die Gewerkschaften untersagt, obwohl Tarifverträge seit Jahrzehnten ein zentraler Bestandteil der schwedischen Arbeitsbeziehungen sind. Offensichtlich fühlt sich Elon Musk unendlich mächtig und glaubt, dass er selbst die mitgliederstärksten Gewerkschaften Europas in die Knie zwingen kann.

Editorial in Pride edition of Ireland’s largest LGBT publication.

Tá scéimeanna ceannródaíocha d’aos óg na hÉireann ar bun ag Gael Linn le 70 bliain, a deir Máire McCafferty.

In summer 2014, as Israel's war on Gaza intensified, Israeli actor Gal Gadot uploaded a selfie to Facebook that drew worldwide attention. It showed Gadot and her daughter covering their eyes after lighting Shabbat candles, with the caption "I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children...We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom! #weareright #freegazafromhamas #stopterror #coexistance #loveidf."

It has been argued that, at its core, social work should be committed to challenging inequality, promoting social justice and human rights (Ife, Soldatić and Briskman, 2022). These aspirations are underpinned by the Global Agenda for Social Work (IFSW, 2018) which emphasizes the importance of the profession in contributing to policy development as a way of promoting equality, providing advocacy, and upholding the human rights of mental health service users. This has led to shifts away from deficits to strengths-based perspectives when intervening in the lives of service users.

The looting and violent protests that occurred on the streets of Dublin on 23 November 2023 have been rightly understood as indexing prevailing tensions within the state. The street violence emerged in the aftermath of the knife attack on staff and students of the Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Street that left one five-year-old girl fighting for her life, several other children injured, and a creche worker who tried to shield the children from the attacker in an intensive care unit. That the attack was committed by an Algerian-born Irish citizen was seized upon by agitators who utilised social media platforms such as Telegram to mobilise protestors, stoking anxieties regarding immigration levels in Ireland. The events of that day offer an insight into both the interplay between the multiple crises (of housing, policing, and public service provision, to name a few) impacting contemporary Ireland and the role social media plays in shaping public discourse and fomenting discontent. One perhaps unlikely-seeming factor in the 23 November disturbances was the prominence of Irish sportsman Conor McGregor in public discussions and digital messaging. In this blog post I supplement the already substantial commentary on the recent riots with a consideration of the role celebrity can play in times of crisis, tracing how in a contemporary age marked by the instantaneous flow of digital media, such prominent figures can focalise disparate strands of discontent.

On Saturday, September 14, a group of healthcare professionals, academics, and community advocates launched the Professional Association for Trans Health Ireland (PATHI) during the closing plenary of the TransCare conference in University College Cork.