Members Research Series Archives - Page 2 of 5

Gladys Ganiel MRIA

Gladys Ganiel MRIA is professor in the sociology of religion at Queen’s University Belfast.

My passion is exploring and helping others to understand the significance of religion in the contemporary world, particularly on the island of Ireland, but also further afield. My earliest research interest was in the role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, a topic I pursued in my doctoral studies at University College Dublin and in the first years of my academic career at the Belfast campus of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin. My first book, Evangelicalism and conflict in Northern Ireland (Palgrave 2008), analysed how evangelicalism was contributing to peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. It broke new ground, because previous studies had focused almost exclusively on how evangelicalism had contributed to division and violence. Pushing beyond the stereotypical association of evangelicalism with Reverend Ian Paisley, I documented the diversity within evangelicalism and explored how evangelical identities were changing in response to political developments and evangelicals’ self-critique of their tradition.

My interest in evangelicalism provided a foundation for my work on Emerging Christianity, which resulted in another book, this one co-authored with Gerardo Marti, The deconstructed church: understanding emerging Christianity (Oxford 2014). The deconstructed church is one of the first comprehensive social scientific analyses of the Emerging Church Movement, a reform movement within Western Christianity that reacts against its roots in conservative evangelicalism by ‘deconstructing’ contemporary expressions of Christianity. It won the 2015 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Social Scientific Study of Religion, the largest such organisation in North America. We argued that the Emerging Church Movement is the most significant re-framing of Western Christianity in the early twenty-first century, describing how Emerging Christians are shaping a distinct religious orientation that encourages individualism; deep relationships with others; new ideas around the nature of truth, doubt and God; and innovations in preaching, worship, Eucharist and leadership.

[A] major [research] interest of mine is religious trends on the island of Ireland. My book, Transforming post-Catholic Ireland: religious practice in late modernity was the first major academic book to explore the dynamic religious landscape of contemporary Ireland, north and south, and to analyse the island’s ongoing religious transition. I developed an original concept—‘extra-institutional religion’—which helps to explain how people of faith are practising religion in a secularising Ireland, ‘outside of and in addition to’ the institutional Catholic Church.

More recently, I worked on a research project with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland that resulted in a book co-authored with Jamie Yohanis, Considering grace: Presbyterians and the troubles (Merrion Press 2019). Considering grace records the stories of 120 ordinary people’s experiences of the Troubles, exploring how faith shaped their responses to violence and its aftermath. It is not a conventional academic book, but rather a collection of stories from Presbyterian ministers, victims, members of the security forces, those affected by loyalist paramilitarism, ex-combatants, emergency responders, health-care workers, peacemakers, politicians, people who left Presbyterianism, and ‘critical friends’ of the Presbyterian tradition. Considering grace is the first book to capture such a full range of experiences of the Troubles of people from a Protestant background. I also wrote a biography of one of Northern Ireland’s most significant faith-based peacebuilders, Unity pilgrim: the life of Fr Gerry Reynolds CSsR (Redemptorist Communications 2019), highlighting his contributions to ecumenism and the lessons that peacebuilders can learn from his witness.

Another major interest of mine is religious trends on the island of Ireland. My book, Transforming post-Catholic Ireland: religious practice in late modernity (Oxford 2016) was the first major academic book to explore the dynamic religious landscape of contemporary Ireland, north and south, and to analyse the island’s ongoing religious transition. I developed an original concept—‘extra-institutional religion’—which helps to explain how people of faith are practising religion in a secularising Ireland, ‘outside of and in addition to’ the institutional Catholic Church.

I have served as co-editor, with Andrew Holmes, of a forthcoming Oxford handbook of religion in modern Ireland (publication expected 2024), consisting of 32 chapters written by leading academics. It is the first such volume to employ an all-island approach to the relationships between religion, society, politics and everyday life on the island of Ireland.

I am currently leading a three-year research project, funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform, which investigates the role of religion in societies emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, including the island of Ireland. The project involves partners in Canada, Germany and Poland, ensuring a comparative dimension. We are focusing on discourses around health, illness and science; changing relationships between religion and the state; and religious adaptations to the digital world.

I hope my work prompts others start to think about religion in new ways.

Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin MRIA

Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin MRIA is professor of history and former head of the School of History at University College Dublin (UCD)

I joined UCD as a lecturer on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ireland, and the history of the island during this period has remained an important focus of my work. Most of my research over the past thirty years, however, has explored aspects of the religious culture of Early Modern Europe, but I have consistently attempted not merely to place Irish events and processes in a wider comparative context, but to investigate how they can in turn illuminate and produce fresh perspectives on the wider history of the European reformations.

My first monograph Catholic reformation in Ireland: the mission of Rinuccini, 1645–49 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) was an attempt to understand the profoundly influential career in Ireland of GianBattista Rinuccini, papal nuncio to the proto-state of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland during the 1640s. It considered why Rinuccini first dominated the politics of the Confederates but was then rejected and expelled from Ireland, and, through analysis of his formation and career in Italy, investigated what motivated his behaviour. His mission provided an opportunity to explore both Irish participation in the profound changes that occurred in European Catholicism and the factors that rendered it a peculiar outlier among mainstream Catholic European societies.

During my career I have been lucky to have enjoyed a very productive working relationship with my colleague in Trinity College Dublin, Robert Armstrong. I have benefitted from the extraordinary breadth and depth of his knowledge in general, and his expertise in the history of Protestantism in particular has complemented my own concentration on Irish and European Catholicism. Together we have initiated four major thematic and collaborative projects, which primarily investigated different aspects of the religious history of the archipelago of Britain and Ireland. The findings were published in four co-edited volumes, Community in early modern Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006), Insular Christianity: alternative models of the church in Britain and Ireland c. 1570–c. 1700 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), Christianities in the early modern Celtic world (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) and The English Bible in the early modern world (Leiden: Brill, 2018).

[Confessionalism and mobility in Early Modern Ireland] examined the evolution of different religious communities in Ireland through the prism of mobility. The religious transformation of the island was mediated by individuals with very significant migratory experiences, and a variety of mobilities affected and inflected the confessional self-understanding and practices of the Irish population. In addition to highlighting the vital importance of transnational experiences in the formation of different Irish clergies, this book emphasised the amenability of some of the most important identity texts of Early Modern Ireland to reading as the products of a migrant sensibility.

My second monograph, Catholic Europe, 1592–1648: centre and peripheries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), examined the processes of Catholic renewal in a highly unusual fashion. Taking advantage of my knowledge of the sui generis evolution of confessional change in Ireland, it focused primarily on how Catholicism adapted and developed in a series of societies on the periphery of Europe—Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, East-Central Europe and the Balkans. The chronological focus of the book was uncommon. Because the timing of Catholic reform occurred differently on the periphery of Europe than in the more studied heartlands of Italy, Iberia, much of present-day Germany and France, I argued that the critical epoch of religious change in these areas did not occur until the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century.

My third monograph, Confessionalism and mobility in Early Modern Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), examined the evolution of different religious communities in Ireland through the prism of mobility. The religious transformation of the island was mediated by individuals with very significant migratory experiences, and a variety of mobilities affected and inflected the confessional self-understanding and practices of the Irish population. In addition to highlighting the vital importance of transnational experiences in the formation of different Irish clergies, this book emphasised the amenability of some of the most important identity texts of Early Modern Ireland to reading as the products of a migrant sensibility.

In addition to these seven books, I have published over fifty shorter peer-reviewed articles of various kinds, which have utilised an extensive source basis in six different languages—English, Irish, Latin, French, Italian and Hungarian.

Kath Browne MRIA, is professor of geography at University College Dublin, principal investigator on the European Research Council-funded ‘Beyond opposition’ project and lead researcher on the Horizon Europe project, RESIST

I am a geographer who studies sexualities and genders. Geography can often be associated with glaciers, mountains and rivers—and these are important features!—my research, however, looks at people and place. I am interested in how societies differentiate and create hierarchies and inequalities. I enjoy not only creating new understandings of this, but also experimenting in social change, thinking about how things might be different and working with communities, policymakers and service providers to make change happen.

I spent fifteen years at the University of Brighton where, through a series of projects, I worked with communities and service providers to understand how lesbians, gay men, bi and trans people experienced the city. Brighton is known as the ‘gay capital’, and the research showed that although some benefitted from the city and enjoyed new legal rights and protections, such as civil partnerships and employment protections, others needed support, including around housing, safety, aging, mental health and physical health. The local council created numerous policies, initiatives and supports to address the issues we found. LGBT community groups also used the research for their work, to demonstrate their needs. The methodology we used—involving all stakeholders from the outset, producing a questionnaire that cut across issues, and developing analyses with those who both need support and those who make policy and provide services—has been applied locally, nationally and internationally to make meaningful change.

Researching heteroactivism led me to consider how everyday spaces are experienced by those who are opposed to/concerned about socio-legal changes to genders, sexualities and abortion. It was clear that social divisions and polarisations around these issues were challenging social cohesion, and merely debating these issues was insufficient; we needed to consider how we might live together and treat each other while holding views on which we may never agree.

From 2012 to 2020 I explored another aspect of LGBT equalities. I worked with Professor Catherine J. Nash in Canada, to develop the concept of heteroactivism (we co-authored Heteroactivism: resisting lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans rights and equalities (Bloomsbury, 2020), to name and theorise resistances to sexual and gender equalities in Canada, the UK and Ireland. These resistances took various forms, but could no longer be characterised within the ways in which homophobia had been conceptualised at the end of the twentieth century. Heteroactivist resistances worked to move away from accusations of bigotry/hate, and often religious references, to focus instead on what heteroactivists believe is ‘best for society, best for children’.

Researching heteroactivism led me to consider how everyday spaces are experienced by those who are opposed to/concerned about socio-legal changes to genders, sexualities and abortion. It was clear that social divisions and polarisations around these issues were challenging social cohesion, and merely debating these issues was insufficient; we needed to consider how we might live together and treat each other while holding views on which we may never agree. That drove the ERC project Beyond opposition, which looks at the experiences of people who are concerned about or opposed to legislative, political or social changes in relation to sexualities and sex/gender.

Recognising the divisions and problems of so called ‘anti-gender’ mobilisations, I also lead the Horizon Europe project RESIST. This project will explore how these politics are manifesting across Europe, and how they affect everyday lives. It will also learn about the feminist and queer practices of resistance against ‘anti-gender’ politics, and how they function and are theorised in autonomous, grassroots collectives and organisations.

Overall, throughout my career I have sought positive social change that recognises that where we are matters to the power relations that re-constitute our lives.

Enrico Dal Lago MRIA

Enrico Dal Lago MRIA, is established professor of history at the University of Galway and a recipient of the D.Litt. on published work in history awarded by the National University of Ireland

In my research I apply a comparative methodology; looking at two case-studies and analysing the similarities and differences between them in order to understand better the reasons for the occurrence of apparently similar historical developments in different contexts.

My research in comparative history shows that the paths followed by the modern United States and Italy can be taken as paradigmatic examples for the study of the deep changes in economics, in social and labour relations (free and unfree), and in political ideologies that characterised the processes of nation-building in the nineteenth-century Euro–American world, and that continued into the twentieth century.

Focusing on the years 1815–76 I have explored the events and transformations happening in the United States and Italy at this time as being particularly representative of the deep economic, social and political changes experienced by the nineteenth-century Euro–American world as a whole. I have analysed these changes in relation the economies, the ideologies of power and the labour relations that characterised the agrarian countryside, exploring in particular—in a book called American slavery, Atlantic slavery, and beyond: the U.S. ‘peculiar institution’ in international perspective (Routledge, 2012)—the effects of capitalism on slavery and free labour in the United States, Italy and the entire Atlantic World.

I have also looked at the birth of radical public opinion, which equally affected discourses of antislavery and democracy, and at the successes of ideologies and political programmes of nationalism based on progressive principles. My research on the former appeared in a book focused on the two most prominent radical activists in the nineteenth-century United States and Italy: William Lloyd Garrison and Giuseppe Mazzini: abolition, democracy, and radical reform (Louisiana State University Press, 2013). I published on the latter in a book that compared Abraham Lincoln with the first Italian prime minister: The age of Lincoln and Cavour: comparative perspectives on nineteenth-century American and Italian nation-building (Palgrave, 2015), and partly in a just-published biography of Lincoln (Lincoln, Salerno, 2022).

My current project focuses on the historical roots of large-scale governmental intervention and how it relates to environmental awareness and social justice. It involves a comparative study of the two largest public projects undertaken in the United States and Italy in the 1930s, which sprang from two very different types of government: establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), undertaken by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal democracy, and reclaiming Latium’s Pontine Marshes, undertaken by Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship.

I consider the different issues in my research as parts of a common history of nation-building in the nineteenth-century Euro–American world. I have been particularly interested in the role that regional elites and agrarian labourers—especially African American slaves and southern Italian peasants—played in the processes of modernisation of the southern peripheries of North America and Italy, and the impact of elite ideologies and of cataclysmic events such as civil wars on the incorporation of those southern peripheries into modern nation-states. Taking the U.S. south and southern Italy as paradigmatic case-studies in this sense, I published two books that compared these regions in the nineteenth century, specifically at the time before and during the American civil war and Italian national unification: Agrarian elites: American slaveholders and southern Italian landowners, 1815–1861 (Louisiana State University Press, 2005) and its sequel Civil war and agrarian unrest: the Confederate south and southern Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Following a period of heavy administrative duties at the University of Galway—first as head of the History Department and then as head of the School of History and Philosophy—I once again have more time for research. I now aim to bring my particular comparative perspective forward in time, into the twentieth century, specifically the 1930s, but also to connect with the present. My current project focuses on the historical roots of large-scale governmental intervention and how it relates to environmental awareness and social justice. It involves a comparative study of the two largest public projects undertaken in the United States and Italy in the 1930s, which sprang from two very different types of government: establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), undertaken by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal democracy, and reclaiming Latium’s Pontine Marshes, undertaken by Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship.

Despite sharp divergence and enormous differences in terms of the politics, society and economics that characterised American democracy and Italian Fascism in the 1930s, I believe it is worthwhile to investigate comparatively how the two governments had a profound impact on pre-eminently agrarian regions in the United States and Italy. In the process, they both provided early examples of the type of full-scale public involvement in environmental issues and in plans for the improvement of the lives of workers that is currently advocated by many as a necessary step for dealing effectively with the global ecological, social and economic crisis.

A woman with shoulder length dark hair, wearing a floral shirt, stands smiling against a green bush — Claudia Kinmonth MRIA

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA, is an independent researcher, art and design historian, and is currently Research Curator (Domestic Life) at the Ulster Folk Museum in Belfast and a member of the board of the National Museum of Ireland

My study of Irish art and design began at London’s Royal College of Art, where I graduated in Design History. Six years working as a restorer and woodworker, then training at the London College of Furniture, provided insights into materials and the ways things were made. Having worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sir John Soane’s Museum, I am now regularly involved with museums in Cork, helping with accreditation (Cork Public Museum), categorisation and care of collections (Cork Butter Museum). I am Research Curator (Domestic Life) for the Ulster Folk Museum (Belfast) and currently serve on the board of the National Museum of Ireland.

Museum objects are central to my research, which is interdisciplinary and draws widely from texts, manuscripts, poetry, oral history, artworks and of course objects. Familiarity with collections throughout the island of Ireland allows me to see how little our Irish ancestors needed; they used and repaired what they owned or made themselves. Recycling was habitual; once wooden cartwheels wore out, the spokes saw new life as rungs for ladders, and the curved felloes became rockers for babies’ cradles. Timber washed ashore was salvaged for building homes or making furniture. When I examine the insides of case furniture, I often find the distinctive large bore holes of the marine shipworm, Teredo, which lives only in wood floating at sea.

Studying museum objects and making comparisons led me to research the secretive, largely undocumented craft of the Irish horner. Horners converted cow horn into a smooth, translucent material, to create objects such as drinking horns, powder horns, inkwells and ceremonial goblets. They also crafted sounding horns, buttons, rosary beads and lanterns (‘lamp horns’), which were lightweight, inexpensive, transparent and unbreakable. Horn spoons, and exactly how they were made—by simmering, moulding and rendering them sufficiently smooth to use for eating—became my focus. Some were made to imitate fashionably shaped silver, at less expense. About 120 horn spoons survive in Irish museums; one excavated in Dublin dates to back to Viking times.

Museum objects are central to my research, which is interdisciplinary and draws widely from texts, manuscripts, poetry, oral history, artworks and of course objects. Familiarity with collections throughout the island of Ireland allows me to see how little our Irish ancestors needed; they used and repaired what they owned or made themselves… Recycling was habitual.

My MA thesis, which involved extensive fieldwork, became my first book: Irish country furniture 1700–1950 (Yale University Press, 1993). My second book, Irish rural interiors in art (Yale University Press, 2006), instigated exhibitions in Cork, Dublin and Boston College. The latter’s MacMullen Museum of Art exhibited a full range of country furniture, alongside artworks showing things in context; genre painting, like vernacular furniture, was previously neglected. This research enhances appreciation of how the rural majority of Ireland lived, until the late twentieth century.

Women, who baked bread over the open fire, often bought flour in bulk. Saving the flour bags and scrubbing off the print produced textiles for curtains, bedclothes, aprons, babies’ nappies and dresses. People living in thatched homes assiduously lined their kitchen ceilings with flour bags, which, after whitewashing, created cleaner, brighter workspaces for lace making, sewing or making butter.

Chairs were made with legs that could be easily renewed once they became worn, or had seats that could be rewoven using home-made straw rope. Dressers had feet that could be replaced if they became rotten from a damp floor, and paint was imaginatively used to bring a new lease of life to kitchen furniture. A tiny, open-topped barrel known as a noggin, made entirely from wood, without metal or glue, was popularly used for eating or drinking out of. Each noggin held a pint or two. The ‘noggin weaver’ was a highly skilled specialist. Like those of the horner, the secrets of the noggin weaver’s craft were guarded; X-ray technology has allowed the noggin’s impressive hidden construction to be revealed. A table that folded up against the wall, with one hinged leg, saved space and material. A bed that folded down from a cupboard was discrete by day. Such designs retain relevance for today’s apartment dwellers. These attitudes of self-help, resourcefulness, frugality, re-use and recycling, are already inspiring to contemporary makers and woodworkers as we shift our attitudes towards a more sustainable future.

My recent book expands on my first, incorporating smaller objects and specific crafts: Irish country furniture and furnishings 1700–2000 (Cork University Press, 2020) won the Michael J. Durkan prize in 2020. Although my research delves deeply into subjects that can become academic papers, I also enjoy the contrast of presenting what I discover to general audiences, discussing things with schoolchildren, or talking on radio or television.

A man with short grey hair and a beard, wearing a light blue shirt — James O’Gara MRIA

James O’Gara MRIA, is professor of microbiology, investigating virulence and antimicrobial resistance mechanisms in staphylococci, at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway

I have always been intrigued by the capacity of bacteria to grow to incredible numbers at incredible speeds—a phenomenon that enables the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the growth of bacterial communities called biofilms attached to surfaces such as implanted medical devices or infected human and animal tissue. The global number of deaths associated with infections caused by pathogens that are resistant to drug treatments is estimated to be as high as 700,000. New drug development has not been able to keep pace with the emergence of so-called superbugs, and my research group is working to contribute solutions to this challenge.

I am originally from Monaghan, and after completing BSc and PhD degrees in microbiology at the University of Galway, I furthered my research training during two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston and at Trinity College Dublin. I held appointments as senior lecturer in microbiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and University College Dublin before returning to the University of Galway in 2012 as professor of infectious disease microbiology. I served as head of microbiology from 2013 to 2016 and was elected to the University of Galway governing authority in 2021. I lead the Infection and Immunology Research Cluster, and in my laboratory we are interested in infections that develop in patients with implanted medical devices (catheters, artificial joints, etc.) and in foot infections in patients with diabetes.

Our focus is on the staphylococci bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), which ranks as the sixth most common cause of bacterial infection and the first in terms of mortality. The 2016 UK-government-commissioned O’Neill report warned that, in the absence of intervention, infections caused by AMR pathogens will be responsible for more deaths than cancer by 2050. The AMR crisis is compounded by chronic biofilm-associated infections in healthcare settings, which have serious consequences for patient morbidity and mortality and for treatment costs.

New drug development has not been able to keep pace with the emergence of so-called superbugs, and my research group is working to contribute solutions to this challenge… in my laboratory we are interested in infections that develop in patients with implanted medical devices (catheters, artificial joints, etc.) and in foot infections in patients with diabetes.

Much of my current research is aimed at identifying new drug targets to renew the effectiveness of penicillin-type antibiotics against bacteria such as MRSA that have become resistant. Our investigations into the biological functions of these new drug targets, their mechanistic role in antibiotic resistance and possible therapeutic approaches arising from these discoveries are supported by funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council.

Notable scientific contributions from my research group include (i) the first description of the major transcriptional regulator of staphylococcal biofilm production (IcaR); (ii) the identification of novel biofilm mechanisms mediated by the fibronectin binding proteins, by the major autolysin, and by coagulase in S. aureus; (iii) elucidating the relationship between methicillin resistance, the occurrence of biofilm and virulence in S. aureus; and (iv) new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of chronic MRSA infections.

One of the most rewarding aspects of a career in academic research is the opportunity to train and work with hugely talented PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, without whom none of this work would be possible. To help achieve our research goals we also have the great privilege of collaborating with brilliant scientists in other Irish universities and internationally.

Deirdre Madden MRIA

Deirdre Madden MRIA, Professor of Law, University College Cork

My research interests in medical/healthcare law and ethics really began in the second year of my undergraduate law degree in University College Cork when our lecturer told us about the first reported legal case being heard at that time involving commercial surrogacy in the UK. I was fascinated by the complexities of this arrangement, the conflicting constitutional, human rights, family law, contractual and even property law principles and public policies, the overriding paramountcy of the best interests of the child, and (rightly or wrongly) how law, politics, public morality and the media can shape the kinds of families there should be.

After graduation, I further developed this interest by pursuing a Master’s and later a PhD in assisted reproduction, surrogacy, reproductive genetics and the appropriate role of law in regulating behaviour in this most intimate and personal area of life. From there my interests broadened further to other areas of health law and ethics, including healthcare decision-making, end of life care, reproductive autonomy, professional regulation, patient safety, protection of personal health information and addressing health inequities.

I have always held the view that law is no more than a system of rules agreed and enforced by society and therefore it should always strive to be clear and understandable to everyone in society, written in plain English, as simple as possible and fair and proportionate in its intrusion into the lives of citizens. My interest in communication of the law in all its forms—its rationale, principles and values, its potential to shape and be shaped by political and public mores—ultimately made my decision to become an academic an easy one. My research has also led me to work on the practical application, implementation and communication of the law through the translation of legislation provisions and judicial decisions into policies, guidelines and codes of practice for professionals that are aimed at making comprehension and compliance easier.

One of the aspects of my work that I enjoy the most is the endless diversity and topicality of the issues that arise in the intersection of law, medicine and ethics. A reading of the newspapers on any day of the week will spark a new avenue for reflection, research and student engagement. I was deeply influenced in my early research by the author John Robertson, who is said to have put the field of law and bioethics on the law school map. Through the lens of his so-called ‘principle of procreative liberty’—meaning both the freedom to decide whether to have children as well as the freedom to control one’s reproductive capacity—Robertson captured my imagination. His analysis of the ethical, legal and social controversies in reproductive technology raised fascinating questions such as: Do frozen embryos have the right to be born? Should parents be allowed to select the sex and traits of their children? Should a government be able to force social welfare recipients to take contraceptives? These and many other socio-legal and ethical dilemmas have generated endless questions, multidisciplinary debates and policy proposals in this country and elsewhere about the beginning and ending of human life, the individual choices that societies are prepared to support, the overriding values of society that may compete with our respect for individual choices and how we decide as individuals and societies what really matters in the end.

One of the aspects of my work that I enjoy the most is the endless diversity and topicality of the issues that arise in the intersection of law, medicine and ethics… I was deeply influenced in my early research by the author John Robertson, who is said to have put the field of law and bioethics on the law school map. Through the lens of his so-called ‘principle of procreative liberty’—meaning both the freedom to decide whether to have children as well as the freedom to control one’s reproductive capacity—Robertson captured my imagination.

Another area of huge interest for me is the role of law in patient safety, the discipline that aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care. How can the law influence, shape, control, regulate and support health care professionals and institutions in their efforts to keep people safe and provide them with the best possible care? We must recognise that healthcare is not a risk-free enterprise; as one of my favourite authors Atul Gawande (renowned surgeon, writer and public health leader in the US) puts it:

We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line.

At the same time, we must also adhere to the principle that those who avail of healthcare services are entitled to expect to be treated by competent professionals who are appropriately skilled and up to date with developments in their field, in facilities that are fit for purpose and subject to regulatory oversight to ensure that appropriate standards are complied with. We are all entitled to be partners in our own healthcare, kept informed about our treatment and treated with honesty and respect if something goes wrong. I consider myself very fortunate that the balancing of all these values, rights and interests continues to both motivate and perplex me on a daily basis.

M.A. Morris MRIA, professor of Surface and Interface Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and director of the AMBER Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research, TCD

In manufacturing, material science and the general economy we face disruptive changes akin to those precipitated by the industrial revolution, when manufacturing moved from being a cottage to a factory industry. This led to rapid economic growth, urbanisation and consumerism. It drove ‘linear’ economies based on a take (extract resources), make (manufacture products), dispose (waste production) model, centred on ‘pile them high, sell them cheap’ mass consumerism. It effectively disconnected the bulk of modern societies from resource use and waste production.

As we move into the twenty-first century this model is not sustainable. Mass manufacturing, built-in obsolescence, consumerism and the associated disconnections have led to environmental emergencies and caused damage to the world we live in. That we embrace new sustainable economic approaches that protect the planet for future generations is now accepted.

The solution to the current linear economy is conceptually facile: we need to decouple economic growth from resource extraction (be that minerals, petroleum or ‘renewable’ resources such as wood) and from waste production. This can be achieved by delivering materials, products, goods and services that can be used through many lifetimes (use cycles), such that their impacts are minimised. This is the circular economy. If conceptually simple, it is practically challenging, and it is difficult to imagine societies functioning where zero resource is used or zero waste produced. It is obvious, however, that materials and their manufacturing will undergo dramatic changes over the next 25 years if we are to meet ambitious climate and other goals.

Despite the incredible versatility, properties and performance of modern plastics, they have caused significant environmental impacts to air, land and ocean. By 2050, we are predicted to manufacture 500 million tonnes of plastic annually (around half of the global production of sugar cane, often quoted as an alternative source of chemicals and plastics) and are expected to contribute between 5% and 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. From the perspective of a materials chemist specialising in plastics and polymer coatings for many years, implementing a circular economy for plastics represents a very significant challenge, but one that must be met. This, and particularly how we can accelerate a circular plastics economy, is a focus of my research.

There is no accepted definition of the circular economy, but framing the issue helps define the challenges in implementing circular practices. My work with the ISO technical committee in introducing standards for a circular economy indicates that an effective definition can be suggested:

an economic system built on maintaining a circular flow of resources to eliminate waste and resource extraction by regenerating, retaining or adding to their value while contributing to sustainable development.

The first challenge is accepting the basis of the circular economy. It is fundamentally about manufacturing less not more; a seismic shift in industry, commerce and lifestyle. The circular economy involves strategies such as:

sharing, for example by carpooling; leasing; and even adopting simple strategies like buying second-hand clothing and goods;
companies sharing production infrastructure;
developing products with very extended lifetimes;
designing products that can be readily refurbished, disassembled or remanufactured;
developing products that are readily repaired or reused; and
reusing expensive components, including, for example, silicon chips, which currently are not recycled despite worldwide shortages.

The second challenge relates to technical issues, and a key focus of my work is in trying to innovate new technologies for repeated use of materials and how we maintain or add value through these processes. If we think about value in economic terms, strategies such as recycling are ineffective. Recycled polymers are generally more expensive than newly manufactured versions. Recycled materials generally perform worse because of property changes in less-than-perfect recycling methodologies. Developing new infrastructure and appropriate methods are critical.

The concept of value must also change. Recycled plastics reduce carbon emissions by a factor of 2 to 3 compared to new fossil fuel-based equivalents, and they must be advantaged. Policy, legislation and taxes must change dramatically to reflect values in a more holistic sense than just pricing.

As we move into the twenty-first century … Mass manufacturing, built-in obsolescence, consumerism and the associated disconnections have led to environmental emergencies and caused damage to the world we live in. That we embrace new sustainable economic approaches that protect the planet for future generations is now accepted.

A final critical challenge is how we measure circularity—a key part of my work. Circularity is not simply recycling rates. In Ireland we often view recycling as a waste mitigation strategy; it isn’t, it’s about waste avoidance. We need to provide methods to measure resources used and lost through the repetitive life cycles. We need to measure environmental impacts (emissions, embodied carbon, energy used, benefits to biodiversity, land reclamation, etc.) and social effects (availability of recreational spaces, personal well-being, employment and educational opportunities, amongst others). We critically need to assess profitability and the advantages of companies as they introduce circular strategies. Thus, circularity isn’t a number, a percentage or a box tick; it’s an array of multiple measurements and assessments. These measurements need to be standardised, so that they are verifiable and transparent. Standards need to evolve to ensure circularity reports are meaningful (that is, to avoid simply greenwashing).

Whilst a circular economy raises many challenges, the benefits are enormous. We must recognise, however, that it will impact everyone’s everyday lives. Like society in the 1780s, we have no idea today how the future will look, but we must be prepared for the dramatic changes that will occur.

Within the discipline of nutritional science, I have particular expertise in vitamin research. A key priority concerns folic acid (a B vitamin) and its role in early life. Nearly 30 years ago it was proved beyond doubt that folic acid supplementation of mothers in early pregnancy protects against neural tube defects (NTDs) in their babies… Neural Tube Defects are sometimes referred to as the ‘Curse of the Celts’, with rates of NTDs in Ireland among the highest in the world. A new policy to introduce mandatory folic acid fortification in Ireland is urgently needed.

Helene McNulty MRIA, professor of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Biomedical Sciences, and director of the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), Ulster University, Coleraine

I am a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BSc and PhD in Nutrition) and the Dublin Institute of Technology (Diploma in Dietetics), and a registered dietitian (RD) by professional training. After a short period in the food industry, I came to Ulster University as a lecturer in 1992 and was promoted to professor in 2001.

The most important and rewarding aspect of my research is that the outcomes can impact positively on people’s health throughout their lives: from pregnancy and early life through to middle and older age. I also enjoy bringing my research into the classroom, to deliver teaching that is based on the latest scientific evidence in the field of human nutrition and to ensure that my students can benefit.

My research is aimed at providing a better understanding how food, and the nutrients it contains, can influence health, and how improved nutrition can prevent disease. Poor diet can impact adversely on people’s health and contribute to an increased risk of disease throughout the lifecycle. A particular challenge of our time is that the global population is ageing; by 2025, 1.2 billion people globally will be aged over 60 years. Diet is particularly important in reducing diseases of ageing (such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, osteoporosis, dementia) and preventing the development of related risk factors, including, high blood pressure, poor immune health, weak bones and cognitive decline. Genetics also plays a crucial role in disease, thus an understanding of how genes and nutrients interact is key in nutrition research. Certain nutrients (for example, protein and specific vitamins) that have important functional roles for older people are, however, derived from food groups for which sustainability scores are low, and which therefore may not be favourable to the environment. Drawing on biological and behavioural sciences, my research comprehensively investigates the dietary needs of older people, and aims to develop sustainable food solutions that can be recommended both to maintain better health and to ensure no detrimental effects on the environment. This requires multidisciplinary research, using state-of-the-art approaches from a range of health and environmental sciences as well as from computing and engineering (including data analytics, machine learning and brain imaging techniques).

Within the discipline of nutritional science, I have particular expertise in vitamin research. A key priority concerns folic acid (a B vitamin) and its role in early life. Nearly 30 years ago it was proved beyond doubt that folic acid supplementation of mothers in early pregnancy protects against neural tube defects (NTDs) in their babies. These are major birth defects occurring as a result of failure of the neural tube to close properly in the first few weeks of pregnancy, leading to death of the foetus or newborn or to lifelong disabilities involving the spinal cord, the most common of which is spina bifida. The conclusive scientific evidence that folic acid could prevent NTDs has led to clear recommendations for women of reproductive age, which are in place worldwide: to prevent NTDs, women are recommended to take 400 micrograms per day of folic acid, from before conceiving until the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. Implementing this recommendation in practice (so that women and their babies can benefit) is, however, proving to be problematic.

There is now clear evidence showing that there has been no change in the incidence of NTDs over the 25-year period that the current strategy recommending women to take folic acid supplements before and in early pregnancy has been in place. The policy, implemented in Ireland and other European countries, is largely ineffective, primarily because most women start taking folic acid too late in pregnancy, after the time of neural tube closure between the third to fourth week post conception. A policy of folic acid fortification of food on a mandatory basis (in place in 85 countries worldwide) would be highly effective in preventing NTDs because it reaches all women, including those who have not planned their pregnancy. International evidence shows that wherever such a policy has been introduced, it has proved to be effective in reducing rates of NTD in that country.

Neural Tube Defects are sometimes referred to as the ‘Curse of the Celts’, with rates of NTDs in Ireland among the highest in the world. A new policy to introduce mandatory folic acid fortification in Ireland is urgently needed. Of particular concern is evidence from a comprehensive report by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland showing that the incidence of NTDs has been increasing in Ireland in recent years. Although voluntary folic acid fortification of foods such as breakfast cereals (whereby folic acid is added at the discretion of the manufacturer) is permitted in Ireland, and has been beneficial in terms of reducing NTDs to some extent, the benefit is limited only to consumers who choose to eat the fortified food products. Notably, in September 2021, the UK government announced that flour will be fortified with folic acid on a mandatory basis. The Irish government now needs to implement a similar policy, so that the benefit of folic acid fortification can be achieved for mothers and their babies throughout the island.

A man with short dark hair and a beard, wearing a blue shirt, is folding his arms, standing in front of a tree — Bashar Nuseibeh MRIA

Bashar Nuseibeh MRIA is professor of Software Engineering and Chief Scientist at Lero—the Irish Software Research Centre. He is also a professor of computing with The Open University, an honorary professor at University College London, and a visiting professor at the National Institute of Informatics, Japan

There is a common misconception that software engineering is a discipline for managing the production of programs that run on computers. It is true that a significant artefact that software engineers produce is code: descriptive instructions to machines that enable them to perform what we humans require. The ubiquity of software in society, however, means that we cannot, and should not, think of software purely as a way of mediating between humans and machines. Rather, it is also a reflector, enabler and disrupter of the very way we live our lives. It then follows that software engineering is about representing and extending the lived experience, supported by software but not bounded by it.

Such a framing means that the scope of the discipline—reflected in its various research agendas, its educational offerings and its industrial practice—must continue to extend beyond its traditional technical boundaries, to reflect the inherent socio-technical nature of its processes and outcomes. That is not to say that the foundations of software engineering such as mathematics, logic and analytical methods are less important, but simply to reflect what we have always known: that the human and social context in which people experience life must also be accounted for in the development of software-intensive systems. Such a context requires an engagement with societal concerns in ways that typical software engineering methods neither reflect nor facilitate.

This is not simply a call for inter-disciplinarity—talking to and engaging with social scientists, economists, and ‘end users’ of software is not enough. It is about radically re-thinking the discipline of software engineering itself so that the artefacts it produces are not only a precise set of technical specifications and instructions to a technological machine, but the very embodiment of the psycho-social experience. Representations of the essence of being human and being social, such as our how we see ourselves, our emotions and our values, must have a place in the software programs that we write and the software systems that we assemble.

We cannot, and should not, think of software purely as a way of mediating between humans and machines. Rather, it is also a reflector, enabler and disrupter of the very way we live our lives. It then follows that software engineering is about representing and extending the lived experience, supported by software but not bounded by it.

This is not necessarily a view that is accepted by all in the software engineering community, but it is one that I believe is needed to elevate the discipline to its rightful place as a hub of innovation, debate and influence in the post-digital world—a world in which it is difficult, even foolish, to determine where human activity stops and where technology starts. I don’t have a catchy name for such a world—‘cyber-physical-social’ is a mouthful—but I do have an aspiration that my discipline of software engineering lies at the heart of building it.

If we software engineers are to expand our role to include being leading actors on the societal stage, then we also need to play our part responsibly: we must be responsible in the way we conduct our research, responsible in the way we engineer our software, and responsible in the way we consider the impact of our software deployments. Responsible also means accountable. It is no longer acceptable simply to reflect on accidental or malicious software-related incidents after they occur. Security breaches, discriminatory algorithms and unusable, disruptive, or invasive systems are neither software failures nor social failures; they are failures to consider software issues as being socio-technical, requiring a deep engagement with the inevitable intertwining of technology and society and requiring a new discipline of responsible software engineering.