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State labour inspection has been relatively underresearched in economic and labour geography, despite its prospective role in tackling worker exploitation as part of national state regulatory strategies. This paper seeks to address this gap by critically examining state labour inspection as a government function capable of upholding labour standards within and across economic space. A key contribution of the paper is to make stronger connections between workers' spatial strategies and their ability to shape how labour inspection and standards enforcement is carried out. Focusing upon the UK and Ireland, we examine different ways in which some labour-friendly groups have sought to contest but also to support state labour inspection efforts with a view to protecting workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the state of the art for strength grading of construction timber grown in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It includes the latest approvals based on recent research on spruce, larch and Douglas-fir. It lists the following information along with the primary references: visual grading grades and strength class assignments; grading machines with approved settings for machine control grading; the species, size ranges and strength class combinations covered; and grade determining properties of specific strength classes for the UK and Irish markets. This paper is useful for those grading timber, and those specifying UK and Irish grown timber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests whether Irish and UK petrol and diesel markets are characterised by asymmetric pricing behaviour. The econometric assessment uses threshold autoregressive models and a dataset of monthly refined oil and retail prices covering the period 1994 to mid-2009. In addition to providing an appraisal of the existence of asymmetry in the Irish and UK markets, the paper provides an important methodological contribution. Tests of asymmetry in the literature normally partition the sample into periods of falling and rising international oil prices. This fails to account for price pressures coming from the equilibrium error of the cointegrating relationship. In particular, the possibility of conflicting price pressures arising from short-run dynamics in retail prices and responses to disequilibrium errors needs to be explicitly modelled. We take this issue into account in an econometric model and we highlight the importance of this distinction. In terms of the asymmetric behaviour of these markets, the paper finds no evidence to support the "rockets and feathers" hypothesis that prices rise faster than they fall in response to changes in the value of international oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Speech and language therapists can improve the quality of life of people receiving palliative care through the management of communication and swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). However, their role in this domain is poorly defined and little is understood about the current international professional practice in this field. Aims: To examine how speech and language therapists perceive their role in the delivery of palliative care to clients, to discover current international speech and language therapist practices and to explore the similarities and differences in speech and language therapists’ practice in palliative care internationally. This will inform professional clinical guidelines and practice in this area.Design:Anonymous, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design.Participants:Speech and language therapists working with adult and paediatric palliative care populations in Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where the speech and language therapist profession is well established. Method: Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants internationally using gatekeepers. An online survey was disseminated using Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com). Results: A total of 322 speech and language therapists responded to the survey. Speech and language therapist practices in palliative care were similar across continents. Current speech and language therapist practices along with barriers and facilitators to practice were identified. The need for a speech and language therapist professional position paper on this topic was emphasised by respondents. Conclusion: Internationally, speech and language therapists believe they have a role in palliative care. The speech and language therapist respondents highlighted that this area of practice is under-resourced, under-acknowledged and poorly developed. They highlighted the need for additional research as well as specialist training and education for speech and language therapists and other multidisciplinary team members in the area of palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase in transnational migration among women has lead to a reappraisal of theoretical explanations of migratory movement ( ; ; ). This paper reviews a number of theoretical explanations of transnational migration and then applies these theories to a qualitative study of women who migrated from Ireland to Britain in the 1930s. I explore the women's reasons for leaving Ireland and their experiences as young economic migrants in Britain in the inter-war years. Women have made up the majority of Irish migrants to Britain for much of the twentieth century yet the dominant stereotype of the Irish migrant has been the Mick or Paddy image ( ). Through an analysis of these twelve women's narratives of migration, I explore themes such as household strategies and familial networks. I am interested in the interwoven explanations of migration as both a form of escape ( ) and a rational family strategy and, hence, the ways in which women's decision to migrate can be seen as a combination of both active agency and family obligation. Drawing on the work of ) as well as ) and , ), I will analyse the ways in which family connections may transcend migration and engage with the concept of ‘transnational family’ ( ). In so doing, I raise questions about the complex nature of migration and the extent to which it could be described in terms of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguing that the life chances of the Irish emigration in different countries of destination are a highly significant topic for sociologists, this article examines aspects of the health of people of Irish descent born in Britain. This is the subject of a research programme in the Medical Sociology Unit in Glasgow, funded by the UK's Medical Research Council. This historical background to this venture lies in the discovery of a health disadvantage among the Irish in Britain, and the establishment of links between the Irish emigration and high mortality in British cities, despite low mortality in Ireland when the migration was at its height. Theoretical accounts which have guided investigation of this issue include the possibility of prolonged effects from early capitalism in Britain, or that of entrenched effects from cultural exclusion, whether derived from competition for jobs and housing, or from political and religious divisions. These varying accounts lead to competing predictions, and the paper concludes by reviewing progress in testing these predictions, and by suggesting implications for research in other countries of destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]