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The study of religion and religious education (RE) has become a significant educational issue in Europe and in the wider international context. This original research study offers another voice, often absent from the conversation, that of the children in one Irish Catholic primary school classroom. Thirty-five children aged between eleven and thirteen become co-researchers in a participatory-based exploration of their views on religion and religious education. An interpretive paradigm is used, which is concerned with understanding the world as it is from the subjective reality of the individual. The study is therefore grounded in the children’s own experiences and perceptions within the qualitative field of study. Children in the study are from a variety of religious and belief traditions and all did not partake in formal RE in school, as per their parent’s right to withdraw then. The children highlight how their families’ belief systems have an influence on how they perceive their religious selves. Many try to reconcile the different religious and belief systems that are to be found within their homes with the articulation of their own belief systems. Seventy-one percent of children who self-identify as accessing the Catholic tradition cite grandparents as the main influence in their belief system, which is significant for the future of the tradition in Ireland. All children articulate their desire to learn more about other religious or belief traditions as part of their RE curriculum in school. Identification of and respect for diversity is evident, but little knowledge is articulated in relation to the content of the others’ religious traditions. Interest is shown in learning about the religious other in children’s environment by engaging in what Ipgrave (Mc Kenna, et al, 2008, pp.13-25) refers to as “Spiritual Sharing” - learning the stories of religious and belief traditions beyond their own and partaking in the participatory methods employed in the study. The research findings suggest that children have a clear sense of “being” religious or having a belief system that is valued. They identify how it is to “behave” in a certain way as a result of this. Noticeably, the Catholic children struggle with a sense of belonging to communities of faith practice which is not the case for children of other traditions in the study. Irrespective of whether children access RE as an element of their curricular experience or not, all children endorse the importance of RE in the primary school curriculum. The thesis concludes by considering the implications emerging from this research in the Irish context and offers recommendations for reflection by the various stakeholders for policy and practice going forward.

Caractérisée par sa beauté lyrique et sa profondeur éthique, qui fait ressortir les miracles du quotidien et de passé vivant ». Il se penche ici sur le processus de la propre création poétique dans un texte particulièrement révélateur, car son œuvre n’est pas seulement poésie, mais aussi « pensée sur la poésie et tentative pour définir le personnage du poète, dans un vaste mouvement où tout est étroitement lié, où créer est inséparable de la réflexion sur l’acte créateur ». On trouvera ensuite des articles de spécialistes de la littérature irlandaise et d’amoureux de la poésie qui tous l’appliquent à décrire la « transition du monde des données aux mots de l’invention » et proposent un périple dans les confins de l’imagination de S. Heaney lui exprime son attachement à la terre d’Irlande, dans la gestion, par exemple, du mythe nouveau de la tourtière, mais donne en même temps à sa poésie une perspective internationale. L’artiste qui reste le plus modèle aux traditions locales est aussi le plus universel.

La poésie des trois premiers recueils de Seamus Heaney – Death of a Naturalist (Mort d’un naturaliste, 1966), Door into the Dark (La Porte de la nuit, 1969) et Wintering out (L’Hiver dehors, 1972) – semble être celle des retrouvailles heureuses, celle qui permet à l’imagination de s’assurer la possession d’un passé familier. De façon trompeuse, elle parvient à transcender la ligne de partage que l’instruction et l’éloignement ont tracée entre le moi qui écrit et le moi dont il est question. T...

The characteristics of Seamus Heaney’s early poetry are well known: it is a poetry in which he seeks to define and repossess the background within which he has been formed; it is a poetry of realistic detail about activities in the countryside, its skills and crafts, in which the poet’s sensuous appreciation of language is a prominent feature. He enjoys the musical possibilities of language, its ability to make sounds that illustrate and echo the meaning. "I rhyme", he says, to "see myself, t...

Le processus de la création est ici étudié en poésie, au théâtre et dans le roman, chez quelques-uns des auteurs les plus éminents de la littérature contemporaine irlandaise - Seamus Heaney et John Montague, Tom Kilroy et Tom Murphy, John McGahern et John Banville. Chaque écrivain essaie de déterminer ce qui se passe en lui lors de la gestation de son œuvre. En face, un critique expose son point de vue sur le même phénomène. L’écrivain se livre à une introspection courageuse ; le critique à une exploration minutieuse qui est nourrie par l’examen des écrits. L’auteur part de l’avant-propos de la création, de la préhistoire de l’œuvre - « l’opération préverbale de la psyché » - pour atteindre le cœur même de la création au passage « du monde des données aux mots de l’invention », ces mots qui ont chacun leur poids, leur couleur, leur forme, leurs rapports propres ; le critique dissèque l’œuvre créée et ainsi remonte le chemin vers cet instant si difficile à appréhender où s’opère la cristallisation. C’est là qu’ils se rejoignent. La convergence de ces regards intérieurs et extérieurs et leur complémentarité éclairent le mystère de la création. Est-il présomptueux de parler d’inspiration ?

A murine model simulating human street rabies virus infection was used to evaluate the post-exposure efficacy of polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I:C), chlorite-oxidized amylase (COAM), cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C), adenine arabinoside (Ara-A), and 6-azauridine (6-Azu). In addition, this model was used to determine the post-exposure effectiveness of four inactivated rabies vaccines when used alone as well as in combination with poly I:C therapy. The results of these studies indicate that post-exposure treatment with poly I:C significantly reduced mortality in mice challenged with street rabies virus. Successful therapy was associated with the injection (im) of poly I:C into the same site as challenge virus, while in only one instance did protection result from the injection of poly I:C into the opposite limb. Pretreatment of mice with COAM 3 h prior to poly I:C stimulation resulted in an enhancement of the serum interferon response. However, the increased interferon titers were not reflected by increased protection against rabies infection over that achieved with poly I:C therapy alone. In experiments designed to determine the mechanism involved in protection with poly I:C, it was demonstrated that muscle tissue injected with poly I:C contained four to eight times more interferon than comparable muscle tissue taken from the opposite leg of the same animal. Furthermore, exogenous interferon injected into the same site as virus challenge was also effective in reducing rabies mortality; however, the same quantity of interferon injected into the opposite limb was totaling ineffective. Three of the rabies vaccines used in these studies was not efficacious against rabies virus challenge despite the induction of substantial levels of neutralizing antibody. However, treatment with these same vaccines combined with poly I:C therapy resulted in highly significant protection from rabies infection. The level of protection exceeded that achieved with poly I:C therapy alone. The hamster kidney vaccine was effective in reducing rabies mortality over a 25-fold concentration range. However, combined treatment with this vaccine and poly I:C did not result in an increased level of protection. The data further indicate that protection was not directly correlated with the magnitude of the serum neutralizing antibody response. The antiviral agents Ara-C, Ara-A and -Azu were effective in reducing rabies virus replication in vitro. However, treatment of mice challenged with rabies virus with these same drugs was not associated with reduced mortality. It was concluded from these studies that the induction of local interferon combined with an immune response both contribute to the post-exposure protection of mice against street rabies virus infection. The use of poly I:C as an adjunct to active vaccination should be seriously considered in the treatment of exposure to rabies virus.