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Based on the rich extant research in the field of mental health in acculturation, it is calling to identify religion as one of the meditative variables of the relationship between acculturation and mental health. In addition, little knowledge exists about the detailed religious experience of Chinese migrants in Ireland. This research adopted classic grounded theory to guide data collection and analysis. The findings show that Christian faith plays a significant role as a mediator in the cross-cultural adaptation of the participants with two aspects of the mental impacts: helping to cope with mental stress and providing spiritual satisfaction. The results in this paper are part of the findings from an investigation of the religious experience of the participants during their cross-cultural adaptation in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moral and practical regulation of sexuality and associated risk has been in some ways traditionally bound by Catholic religious doctrine in the Republic of Ireland. Over the last century, however, the emergence of professional social work as a state risk management strategy around sexuality is evident. This tallies with the disrepute of the Church following high-profile abuse scandals and publicized tragedies tied to institutional segregation. This paper presents theoretically informed critical commentary, through uptake of the Foucauldian notion of discourse. It concludes that critique of the regulation of sexuality, should be qualified on three counts. Firstly, tensions between Catholicism and social work remain. Secondly, wariness towards the operation of power is requisite. Thirdly, both that which is said, and unsaid, enlightens present debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wellbeing is central to the new Junior Cycle (lower secondary education) in Ireland as a principle and curricular area. This paper argues that while it should never be the case that the rights of parents or their children regarding Religious Education are compromised, Religious Education can make a real and positive contribution to wellbeing in the Junior Cycle. The paper begins by reviewing two recent international longitudinal studies to demonstrate the strong positive correlation between religion and wellbeing. It goes on to highlight the potential of Religious Education in helping schools to fulfil the Junior Cycle wellbeing requirements. It concludes that as a legitimate source of wellbeing, Religious Education with sound content and pedagogy, well taught by qualified and supported teachers, can be an integral part of a Junior Cycle programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of religion and migration, and investigates how religious beliefs, practices, and identities can be both beneficial and/or a deterrence to the process of social integration. A qualitative case study was conducted at a multicultural, nondenominational Christian church in Dublin, Ireland, composed of both Irish‐born citizens and migrants from around the world. Within the church, Irish‐born and foreign‐born congregants frequently interact, suggesting religion is a bridge that is encouraging social integration. Alternatively, noncongregant Irish‐born members in the larger community where the church is located are skeptical of the church and maintain that it is a type of religious cult. From this perspective, religion can be perceived as a barrier that hinders a migrant's ability to integrate into society. Consequently, this paper analyzes the dichotomous function of religion and religious identity within the social integration process in Dublin, Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how one of the most influential figures in nineteenth-century Ireland, Cardinal Paul Cullen, used language and translation to further his career and his vision for the Catholic Church in this period. It shows how Cullen's language skills served him throughout his life in his role as an agent and liaison, a linking figure between different worlds. The paper demonstrates how Cullen's linguistic abilities and translations gave an early jump-start to his career and subsequently expanded his sphere of influence from the confines of the Vatican to the vast expanses of the Catholic English-speaking world. Through language, Cullen positioned himself as a vital conduit for Irish–Vatican relations and came to be the dominant force in Irish Catholicism for almost thirty years, connecting Ireland to Rome and translating his ambitions and those of the Vatican into reality in Ireland. The paper will demonstrate how language was a forceful tool for change and an instrument of power when wielded by Cullen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims and objectives To challenge statements made about 'Careful Nursing' as a 'distinctive system' of nursing established by the Irish Sisters of Mercy, prior to Florence Nightingale, and which is said to have influenced her. Background Numerous publications have appeared claiming the emergence of a 'distinctive system' of nursing as 'Ireland's legacy to nursing', which, it is claimed, influenced Nightingale's system. One paper argues that the Irish system has its philosophical roots in Thomist philosophy. Several papers argue the ongoing relevance of the Irish system, not Nightingale's, for contemporary nursing theory and practice. Nightingale's influence on and legacy to Irish nursing are not acknowledged. Design A Discursive paper. Methods Archival and published sources were used to compare the nursing systems of Florence Nightingale and the Irish Sisters of Mercy, with particular attention to nursing during the Crimean War. Results Claims were challenged of a 'distinctive system' of nursing established by the Irish Sisters of Mercy in the early nineteenth century, and of its stated influence on the nursing system of Florence Nightingale. The contention of great medical satisfaction with the 'distinctive' system is refuted with data showing that the death rate at the Koulali Hospital, where the Irish sisters nursed, was the highest of all the British war hospitals during the Crimean War. Profound differences between the two systems are outlined. Conclusions Claims for a 'distinctive' Irish system of nursing fail for lack of evidence. Nightingale's principles and methods, as they evolved over the first decade of her school's work, remain central to nursing theory and practice. Relevance to clinical practice Nightingale's insistence on respect for patients and high ethical standards remains relevant to practice no less so as specific practices change with advances in medical knowledge and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about Eucharistic participation by way of exception where Christians of other traditions are concerned. This paper identifies and illuminates a familial exception which pre-exists the exceptions spoken of in the Code of Canon Law and the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, and which calls for the application of those exceptions. It further argues that a recognition of this exception could open the way to a more normal application of the canonical exceptions, in the process making Eucharist an opportunity for familial reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first of two papers in this Special Issue, Lord Alderdice draws on his personal experience of living and working in Northern Ireland and other countries that have suffered from terrorism, and describes from a psychoanalytic and systemic perspective the history of national, cultural and political conflicts which form the backdrop to the struggles against fundamentalism, radicalization and terrorism in current times. By examining and understanding the group dynamics and collective experiences of minority populations that have suffered generations of subjugation, humiliation and injustice at the hands of others, Lord Alderdice demonstrates how terrorism is not an individual but a group phenomenon and that any successful intervention aimed at reducing fundamentalism, radicalization and terrorism needs to identify and take into account the complex relational processes and experiences in all parties involved in the current global conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After 1918, the birth of independent small states in Central Europe was a common point of reference in Ireland. This article aims to provide a more complex understanding of Irish images of postwar Austria, highlighting the coexistence of some elements of Austria's imperial legacy and new characteristics of the independent small state. Irish commentators focused heavily on the newly drawn borders in Central Europe, including the redistribution of nationalities, which was considered a significant factor in the formulation of identities in the newly independent, self-declared nation-states. This article discusses how Irish intellectuals, journalists, and politicians connected the issues of changing borders and the ethnic composition of Austria to actual Irish problems, especially in relation to the question of (greater German) unity. In addition, this article also explores how the significance of religion in Irish national identity determined perceptions of postwar Austria. Catholicism came to symbolize more than the everyday religion of the majority of the Irish population, and it manifested itself in Irish perceptions of the wider world, including the small successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to advance scholarship on the governance of religious difference and its relationship to social reproduction, inclusion and exclusion, with specific reference to parenting, schooling and childhood. Rather ask 'how does the state and religion govern religious pursuits?', the focus of this paper is 'how might parents' and children's religious expressions be already implicated, or caught up in, the ordering and coordination of complex social systems?' Drawing on Foucault's concept of governmentality, it analyses how the political rationalities of freedom of choice and diversity are deployed through media discourse. The paper traces an iterative process of producing a symbolically 'new' national space, which re-legitimises state (and more 'discerning' school patron) power in a marketised, global age. It argues that 'Irish' parents are evaluated in this imagined space in terms of their capacity to combine consumption and religious practices responsibly and authentically. In its implicit citation and elision of generational, classed and racialised hierarchies, the mediated, moral governance of responsible religious and ethical subjects, expressions and practices becomes clear. The paper concludes by noting the potential contribution of governmentality thinking to contemporary debates on religious and secular governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, presented in two separate parts, defines a select number of demographic markers for the population that comprised members of the Newgarden Meeting, County Carlow, Ireland and their descendants 1600-1900. These in turn were compared with those derived by Vann and Eversley (1992) for the Quaker population of Ireland at large with the objectives of identifying consistencies and/or evidence for regional variation within a genetic context. In part 1 the sources of data, their utility and approach to analysis were discussed and it was concluded that there were some constraints on their usage for analytical purposes. Part 1 also dealt with aspects of age at marriage, delayed marriage, occupation and marriage catchment analysis. Part 2 deals with family size, births including birth interval analysis, birth management, fertility and some aspects of age analysis. It was found, for example, that over time family sizes became smaller, marriages were delayed, lifespan gradually increased and families were sometimes planned. While many of the results outlined in the two sections of this paper parallel those of Vann and Eversley there are sufficient differences in several of the demographic markers to suggest there may have been some variation in rural Ireland from the national trends. In so far as the Newgarden/Carlow population is concerned and in contrast with results derived from the analysis of the national population, these include a tendency for females to marry earlier and males later, a greater proportion of females marrying under the age of 20 and after 1800 a trend for males to marry much younger women and a consistent trend to reduce the sizes of families over time. These and the other results, then, invite analysis of data from other regions to test this hypothesis [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to a variety of complex historical and socio-cultural factors, the Irish education system remains heavily influenced by denominational mores and values [Ferriter, D. 2012.Occasions of Sin: Sex & Society in Modern Ireland. London: Profile Books], particularly those of the Roman Catholic Church [O’Toole, B. 2015. “1831–2014: An Opportunity to Get it Right This Time? Some Thoughts on the Current Debate on Patronage and Religious Education in Irish Primary in Primary Schools: Reflections from the Republic of Ireland.”Irish Educational Studies34 (1): 89–102. doi:10.1080/03323315.2015.1010704; Faas, D., M. Darmody, and B. Sokolowska. 2016. “Religious Diversity in Primary Schools: Reflections from the Republic of Ireland.”British Journal of Religious Education38 (1): 83–98]. Unsurprisingly, with the declaration by the Church that homosexuality was ‘intrinsically disordered’ [Libreria Edittrice Vaticana. 2003. “Roman Catholic Catechism.” Accessed January 18 2013.http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm], the professional identity and practice of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teachers working in denominational schools is often (in)formed by fear, as well as perceived, or actual, harassment and discrimination [Gowran, S. 2004. “The Experiences of Gay and Lesbian Teachers in Irish Schools.” InPrimary Voices, edited by J. Deegan, D. Devine, and A. Lodge, 37–56. Dublin: IPA; Fahie, D. 2016. “‘Spectacularly Exposed and Vulnerable’ – How Irish Equality Legislation Subverted the Personal and Professional Security of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teachers.”Sexualities]. This paper examines the lived-experience of 23 self-identified LGB teachers who work(ed) in Irish Roman Catholic primary schools. Their unique experiences and perspectives of faith-based schooling are examined against a backdrop of the complex processes of rationalisation and reflexivity these teachers undertake as they endeavour to reconcile their sense of personal integrity – as members of the LGB community – with their professional responsibilities. The study draws particular attention to those LGB teachers who hold deeply felt, and sincere, beliefs in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church but who, nonetheless, express a level of discomfort at the language and tone of church dogma in respect of minority sexualities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the reverberations which news of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 had in the Irish Free State. As a result of the Irish Catholic Church and the conservative press hailing General Franco as the saviour of Catholic Spain from a godless Communist minority, Irish public opinion was overwhelmingly pro-Franco. Against this background, the paper gives a brief overview of the most interesting literary treatments of the Spanish Civil War in different genres by both pro-Nationalist and pro-Republican Irish writers. The rest of the paper focuses on Peadar O'Donnell, Irish novelist and one of the founding figures of the Republican Congress, a radical left-wing movement of the 1930s. His book Salud! An Irishman in Spain (1937) represents an eyewitness account of the mobilization of the Republican defence forces and the workers’ revolution in Catalonia during the first few months of the war. O'Donnell tried to present a seemingly even-handed picture of the Spanish revolutionary anarchists, whose agricultural reforms he clearly admired, but whose violent attacks on the Catholic Church he condemned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the emerging bioethical debate on assisted reproductive technology (ART) in Ireland, which is shaped by the long-standing contentious issue of abortion and the constitutional protection afforded to the ‘unborn’. The focus of the paper is on the way in which the terms of this debate are shaped and constrained by the historical relations of power between church, state and medicine. Since the representation of Ireland as a post-Catholic, plural republic is becoming increasingly mainstream to cultural and political discourse, we pay particular attention to how the Catholic Church embraces bioethics as a meta frame or code for refocusing questions of values, beliefs and meanings to sustain the ideal of Ireland as a ‘pro-life’ and essentially Catholic nation. The Catholic Church is not simply asserting its voice of dissent in the context of public debate as one voice amongst a plurality of other voices, but to shape the emerging debate as a powerful, institutional actor. The opportunity to do so is afforded by the lack of public debate on bioethical issues and the exceedingly slow pace at which bioethics is moving towards an institutionalised framework in Ireland. These events can be explained by the legacy of the social power of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the direct and indirect influence it has long exercised over public policy vis-à-vis the state and its institutions, including medicine. There are two interconnected threads to the contextual analysis presented in our case study: first, the legacy of the social power wielded by the Catholic Church, and its slow and incremental demise reflected in the pace of secularisation in Ireland and the privatisation of morality; second, the emergence of a bioethical regulatory debate on ART, which is mired in the abortion controversy. Our analysis focuses on a number of key contradictions and tensions in the way in which the key institutions of church, state and medicine navigate their own positions vis-à-vis a bioethics debate, and how this constrains public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking as its starting point Carr's view that historical narrative reflects the preoccupations of the time in which it is written and Foucault's concept of consensual historical discourse as the outcome of a social struggle in which the victor suppresses or at least diminishes contrary versions of historical events in favour of their own, this paper traces and discusses the historical narrative of British nursing in the Crimean war and, in particular, three competing narratives that have arisen in the latter half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. These are the established narrative surrounding Florence Nightingale, the new narrative surrounding Mary Seacole and an Irish narrative surrounding the role of the Sisters of Mercy. It is argued that the increased vehemence of the debate surrounding these narratives is representative of the changes that have taken place in British society. However, we also argue that the Irish narrative and its critique are reflective of deep‐rooted Anglo‐Protestant attitudes articulated by Nightingale and uncritically accepted by subsequent historians even in modern British historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has suited both sides of Ireland's religious and political divide to portray the Great Famine that affected Ireland in the late 1840s as primarily affecting the Catholic population. However, while the geographies of the Famine have been explored in detail in recent years its religious dimensions have been largely ignored, albeit with a few exceptions. As a consequence, the assumption that the Great Famine was a Catholic famine has not been sufficiently challenged. Drawing on a relatively untapped source, the 1834 Commission on 'the state of religion and other instruction in Ireland,' as well as census data, this paper explores the relationship between religion, poverty and population loss over the Famine period. It shows that Catholics were disproportionately affected by the Famine because the Famine was most severe in areas whose population was overwhelmingly Catholic. In more mixed areas, however, the Protestant population seems to have been at least as affected as Catholics if not more so. This conundrum explains why the Famine actually had a surprisingly small impact on Ireland's religious demography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Republic of Ireland the vast majority of primary schools are owned and run by the Catholic and Protestant Churches. There is no parallel state system of education. Religious education in schools is doctrinal in nature and is permitted to permeate throughout the school curriculum. In addition, legislative provisions permit schools to discriminate in favour of co-religionists in admissions and employment policies. In the absence of the provision of non-religious schools, such a system of education violates the international right to freedom of religion or belief of minority-belief and non-belief pupils, parents and teachers. The aim of the paper is to examine the effectiveness of using international human rights law in working to bring about change in the place of religion in Irish schools. It traces attempts to bring the situation in Ireland to the attention of international human rights supervisory bodies and evaluates subsequent measures taken by the Irish authorities in response to international criticisms. It situates this analysis within a broader theoretical debate around the relationship between law and social change, and the way law may work to produce change and the factors that may limit that change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the characteristics associated with marriages between Roman Catholics and members of other religious denominations in Ireland before the Great War. Using the entire digitized returns of the 1911 population census, we find that such marriages were relatively rare, occurring in less than 1% of total marriages. Some of this infrequency can be attributed to ethno-religious hostility—especially in the north of the country. However, we also show that the rarity of intermarriage reflects local marriage markets, as non-Roman Catholics living in communities with fewer coreligionists were more likely to intermarry. We examine the individual characteristics of partners in these marriages, looking at the religious denomination of their children, their decision to marry out, and their fertility behavior. Our findings illustrate how the frequency of intermarriage reflects historical levels of intolerance, but only after local marriage market conditions have been accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue raised some points of interpretation that need developing. Everyone writes with a (more or less overt) set of assumptions, which is particularly true where the subject matter is as politically contentious as nationalism and that nationalism is still contested, as with Ireland. This was particularly true of this issue. This response aims to tease out some hidden assumptions and interpretations in those papers to further our understanding of the role of religion not just within the general framework of nationalism but also within our own assumptions of religious and ideological norms and values when studying nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 news from Spain was a daily feature on the front page of major newspapers in Ireland. The Irish Christian Front was set up which organized mass demonstrations and financial campaigns throughout the country in support of Franco. In November 1936, 700 men set sail with General EoinO'Duffy to fight on the side of Franco. The minority Irish left battled against this tide, and sent their own forces to join the International Brigades in defence of the Republic. This paper focuses on the efforts made by the Irish left to continue the campaign in support of the Republic. It explores the final days of the Irish International Brigaders on the Ebro front, their return home, and for some, their imprisonment in Francoist Spain. It looks at the efforts of one, George Leeson, to aid Spanish Republicans and International Brigaders imprisoned in the French camp of Argeles-sur-Mer. It looks at the renewed efforts within Ireland in the last year of the war to provide medical aid and food through the Irish Foodship for Spain Committee. Finally, it examines the hostile environment the International Brigaders faced when they returned home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Europe, there are few greater disparities in national sexuality education reputation and discourses than between those of Ireland and Sweden. Sweden introduced a school-based model in 1933 and is often hailed as a ‘global leader’, while Ireland's 1994 introduction of relationships and sexuality education could classify it as a ‘late bloomer’. Sweden's social democratic state and reputation of sexual liberalism contrast sharply with the Republic of Ireland's post-colonial nationalism, historically linked to the Catholic Church. Ireland's continued lack of provision for safe and legal abortion services juxtaposes against Sweden's historical role in the eugenics movement. Dissecting sociopolitical milieux from the perspective of those working in sexuality education proves useful for facilitating new insights. Using queer-feminist methodologies, sexuality education professionals in Ireland (n = 17) and Sweden (n = 17) were interviewed, followed by an examination of their narratives. This paper aims to illuminate how and why certain discourses emerge, why others are blocked and to theorise hidden intricacies as well as wider movements which may be underway. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite growing awareness of the limitations of group-level analyses in ethnic studies, research on ethnic conflict has paid virtually no systematic attention to variation at the individual or micro level. Addressing that gap, the present paper draws upon data from interviews conducted with members of two broadly-defined categories recently arrived in the Republic of Ireland, Muslims and Nigerians. Results indicate that while members of both immigrant categories experience a good deal of ethnic conflict or hostility, such conflict is rarely collective and invariably varies across individuals. The research data are consistent with Donald Black's theory of moralism. Black's theory, based on his theoretical system known as pure sociology, predicts that ethnic hostility increases with the social inferiority and cultural distance of the immigrant, and that higher status immigrants are more assertive in responding to hostility, though they experience less of it (the status paradox). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While ritual practice is not exclusive to religion, religious systems have always relied on rituals to act as their expressive voice. Ritual, by its very nature, is a performed event. Through music, movement, poetry, silence, art and proclaimed word, religions embody and express the beliefs, tensions and aspirations of the communities who perform them. Drawing on the works of Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Paul Tillich, John Caputo and Talal Asad, this paper probes understandings of religion, which push beyond fundamentalist and denominational definitions, to propose a view of religion as embodied not-knowing, rather than conceptual certainty. It is from this perspective that we can revisit the potential of ritual practice -- specifically musical practice -- as a space of community creation, challenge and reconciliation. This proposal is grounded with reference to my own experience of working with asylum seekers in a number of churches in Limerick city, with particular reference to the role of music in the rite of baptism for children, seen against the backdrop of the Irish citizenship referendum of 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the use of violence by Loyalist paramilitaries over the course of the peace process and after the Belfast Agreement. The focus is on a largely understudied area in post-Agreement Northern Ireland. It is argued that Loyalist paramilitaries have continually used violence to serve several objectives. These objectives of violence have shifted in dominance as the peace process unfolded. A typology of the objectives of Loyalist violence is presented which identifies violence as either between or within groups and in search of political, sectarian, economic, social and territorial aims. In conclusion, the article considers some implications of continuing Loyalist paramilitary violence for state and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that discourse on community as a socio-political problem needs to be located within historical, institutional, and socio-structural contexts if it is to be properly understood. In particular, it suggests that the role of religion in promoting forms of communitarian discourse and practice needs to be given greater attention than it has hitherto received within the social sciences. The article pursues this argument through examination of the religious discourse on community cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By providing an analysis of its role in Catholic responses to three major socio-political crises in Ireland between the 1890s and 1960s, the paper suggests that not only does socio-religious discourse on community constitute a powerful alternative to secular social-scientific discourses, but that such discourse is particularly effective in helping to constitute specific groups as communities, given favourable sociological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the concept of a “Celtic” form of spirituality that has developed recently within Christianity in Britain and Ireland, in particular in relation to ancient pilgrimage sites. One of these, the Scottish island of Iona, has always been subject to reinterpretation; but while the resident population and the Iona Community may have contributed to current expectations, they do not necessary identify with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the papers published in the 1993 issue of Social Compass. There are two papers about the religious phenomenon in Ireland and its history. Other discussions are devoted to either to general theoretical concerns or to analysis of the religious situation in particular countries and contexts. They were selected by the Editorial Committee from some thirty papers that were submitted and anonymously refereed.