‘A sort of whirlwind’: mapping the changing geography of Presbyterian religious observance in Ireland

Since the European Reformation and the colonisations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Ireland has evolved a distinctive religious geography which had profound implications for its political development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading ultimately to the division of the island along explicitly religio–territorial lines in 1921. Troubled Geographies, a major project funded under the auspices of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's ‘Religion and Society’ programme was the first attempt to seek to understand patterns of change in the island's complex geography of religious settlement in the period since the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century up to the most recent published censuses for both Northern Ireland and the Republic. This paper will present findings from a smaller spin-off project funded by the British Academy, which digitised records of attendance at Presbyterian churches across the island over the last 150 years, enabling us to assess how patterns of practice were affected by the momentous events of the period, including partition, civil war, two world wars, the vicissitudes of the global economy and the Troubles of the more recent past. In addition, the use of new quantitative materials such as those in the Presbyterian records enables us to reflect on how patterns of substantive religious practice reflect those on nominal religious affiliation available from successive censuses from either side of the border.     

Long term results and functional outcomes following cardiac surgery in octogenarians

Objective. Cardiac surgery for patients >80 years has seen a dramatic increase in the last decade. The aim was to assess the long term survival and quality of life in this patient population.

Method. Patients who underwent cardiac surgery between 1995 and 2007 were identified and case notes reviewed. Follow-up was undertaken by personal interview with the patient or the nearest kin to complete a pre-planned questionnaire.

Results. Sixty six (M:F; 45:21) octogenarians had Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) only (55%), Aortic valve replacement (AVR) only (12%), Mitral valve replacement (MVR) only (3%), Valve and CABG (25%) and complex procedures (5%). Fifty-eight percent were elective procedures. Operative mortality was 8% (n = 5). Multivariate analysis identified complex procedures, prolonged bypass time and re-do/emergency surgery as predictors of death (p < 0.05). Median Intensive care unit (ICU) stay was 206 h (range 43–1176 h), with >70% leaving ICU in 72 h. Late mortality involved five patients (8%) who died at 10 yr; 7 yr; 3 yr; 1 yr; and 8 months; and 2 yr and 7 months, respectively. Survival by Kaplan–Meir was 8.8 yr (Standard Error (SE) = 0.66, Confidence interval (CI) 7.6–10.1), median survival was 10 yr and mean Barthel's index 17.7 (min 0, max 20).

Conclusions. Cardiac surgery can be accomplished in octogenarians with good long-term survival and quality of life. However, complex procedures, prolonged bypass and re-do/emergency surgery contribute significantly to mortality.     

Juvenile offenders and independent living: an Irish perspective on program development with St. Xavier's

This chapter views a specific population within the Irish social care system and draws from the authors' collective experience in relation to young offenders who are leaving care. It describes how effective program development for these youth is considered crucial to their long-term success and permeates all good practice.     

Specificity of back muscle response to submaximal fatiguing contractions

A fatigue-related decrease in quality and accuracy of the proprioceptive feedback from muscle spindles in the back (e.g. stretch reflexes) may lead to a deterioration of spinal stability, thereby making the spine more vulnerable to external perturbations. Endurance time, tissue oxygenation, reflex latency and blood pressure response were studied in twenty subjects during a submaximal endurance test of the back extensors (20 % MVC) performed as either a position task (supporting a weight stack while maintaining trunk position) or a force task (exerting a force against a dynamometer). Mean endurance time was 8.91 (± 2.79) min for the force task and 10.86 (± 6.93) min for the position task. This result is in striking contrast to what has previously been reported from limb muscles, and suggests that back muscles are especially well suited for postural tasks. An increased reflex latency found after the position task indicates that the disadvantage of the prolonged endurance time is a deterioration of the afferent input from the muscle spindles that may potentially hamper the protection of the spine.     

Armed activism as the enactment of a collective identity: the case of the Provisional IRA between 1969 and 1972

This paper argues that micro-mobilization into armed activism is strongly motivated by the enactment of an identity that people already have prior to their mobilization as a way to strongly assert and emphasize individual agency in the face of major changes in the political context. Empirically, it advocates that those who joined the Provisional IRA between 1969 and 1972 did so in order to respond to a need for action by a northern nationalist community that stemmed from a perceived, alleged or actual, sense of second-class citizenship. We suggest that the importance of identity rather than ideology can also help us to explain why IRA members and former members overwhelmingly accepted the compromise peace settlement of the 1990s despite the fact that core ideological goals had not been realized. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research outside the Irish context.     

REFRAMING ONLINE: ULSTER LOYALISTS IMAGINE AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE

This article examines one initiative aimed at taking advantage of new technologies to build new transnational connections between a political movement in the “homeland” and a diaspora population in the United States. It analyzes an initiative by Ulster loyalists in Northern Ireland to mobilize Americans of Ulster Protestant descent in support of their cause, while simultaneously attempting to undermine the American support base of their Irish nationalist opponents. By contrast with Irish nationalists, Ulster loyalists have never had significant support networks in the United States. This attempt to mobilize a distant diaspora has met with little success. This article argues that loyalist understandings of their imagined audience in the United States are built on a misleading caricature of Irish-American support networks for Irish republicans. These misunderstandings direct loyalists towards a strategy that places undue weight on the role of homeland propaganda in converting shared ancestry into political support for ethnic compatriots in the “homeland” to the neglect of more fundamental factors in the mobilization of transnational support networks. The article argues that new technologies are of minimal significance for the mobilization of transnational support networks on the basis of shared ancestry in the absence of other fundamental conditions for mobilization. However, the new technologies allow movements to learn more about distant and little-understood support pools. The reflexive character of online interaction is illustrated by the way in which at least some loyalists have begun to explore other bases for transnational co-operation.