Alistair Fraser

My family, a military family, have lived on The Curragh Camp in Co Kildare since the 1940s. For years I have listened to stories of what a fantastic place it was, a thriving community with hundreds of families, great people, great spirit, and great sadness of what it has become – immense nostalgia. I myself grew up on The Curragh Camp. Not everyone gets to grow up with soldiers marching past their house on a daily basis, firing ranges at the bottom of their road and Christmas parties where Santa arrived in a tank! The only downside to living there is that one day you will have to leave, whether or not you would prefer to stay. The Curragh Camp is a ‘time-limited community’.

My thesis sets out to investigate the demise of this self contained community, and explore whether the nostalgia was driven by the displacement of a generation from their home place, reflecting back on times they can no longer create, or if in fact it really was a utopia. My YouTube channel containing some of my interviews can be seen here, and much of the content reflects both the positivity of the past and pessimism for the future. I am beginning to uncover a stark contrast between what was, and what is.

Minister Sean Barratt during the Rainbow Coalition of the mid-90s made a decision to phase out married quarters. There are presently just under 40 households who are classed as ‘Overholders’ on The Camp — encroaching, on departmental properties that they should have vacated within 15 days of retirement from the forces. (These Overholders have portions of their pension withheld with a penalty rent increase applied.)  Here is the latest departmental view on the situation regarding Overholders and here are some of the residents’ views.

In the past few days I have managed to interview an official from the Department of Defence, and I can honestly say, that despite my connection to The Camp, and therefore my conscientious attempt to maintain an objective stance, I am nothing short of appalled at the callous attitude and exercise of power over the remaining residents who for the majority, by the longevity of their residence within The Camp, could be classed as institutionalised. I was even advised that quarters were no longer being maintained and that hopefully dilapidation would drive these people out. Although it was obvious, it still came as a shock that the Department would so readily admit this, and plenty more too.

It is my opinion that the Department are displaying a blatant disregard and lack of understanding towards the intensity of people’s attachment to their homes. I am in agreement in principal, that yes, people were aware that they would have to leave and perhaps should have been better prepared to do so. However, circumstances — financial or otherwise — have prevented some people from being able to follow through. I believe the underlying issue is that these quarters were fundamentally mismanaged. People have been allowed to make long term homes here, grow roots over decades. They have established friends, neighbours and a deep connectedness to their home and place. Despite what they attempt to portray, the Department has failed to engage in mediation or an integrated approach involving other relevant bodies to assist people in moving forward. There has been no sympathetic approach. Eviction notices have been issued to terrify people, and have fostered an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ standpoint. An attempted blanket approach to rid quarters of its occupants was made by means of eviction notices in September 2002, giving people until October to leave, as in the words of Minister Michael Smith, “this boil had to be lanced”. These bullyboy tactics continue to this day and I have been assured the fight will escalate, as this Department which has housed people since 1922, rids itself of all responsibility. I have also noted that media spin has been coming out of the Department in attempts to portray these residents in a poor light and I will be investigating the matter further.

Given the sorry state of affairs at present, it really is no wonder that people are pining for the past.

Jayne Glavin

The importance of waste management in Ireland is often ignored. For many years Ireland’s solution to waste was to bury it in the ground. We have had an over-reliance on landfill as our only option for the treatment of waste. The collection and build-up of municipal solid waste from settings such as households and businesses was piled up with no form of segregation or recovery present. This process was becoming increasingly unsustainable as space in landfill was running out but also mainly due to negative environmental effects. Their visual impacts on the natural landscape are upsetting and are evidence of society’s over-consumption. Environmental impacts such as contamination of groundwater from leaching processes and impacts to the soil and air quality are cause for concern.

Accelerated economic growth experienced since the 1990’s has seen Ireland develop patterns of increased production and consumption. We are now more affluent than previous generations and this has catered for our tendencies to have the latest commodity. The quality of the food we eat has also improved including more variety and increased packaging, but what products and processes like these leave behind are incredible amounts of waste. With current global pressures of environmental sustainability and an ever increasing strain on natural resources the issue of sustainable waste management is of major importance in society. 

The most groundbreaking piece of legislation in the Irish context is the Waste Management Act 1996. This was the first legal act concerned with reducing the amounts of waste generated and tackling the over reliance on landfill. Each member state within the EU has to comply with directives set out in the Waste Framework Directive and this was achieved by the transposition of the waste management hierarchy into policy. This hierarchy is the foundations of the 1996 act which places landfill at the bottom as the least preferred option. The next preferred options are thermal treatment (recovery), re-use, recycling and prevention of waste respectively. There is a large body of research done on the implications of these new policies in Ireland. Much work has been done by Anna Davies of Trinity College where she examines the effects of waste management strategies and governance in Ireland.

My undergraduate research thesis centres on the move away from landfill as disposal of waste to new and sustainable waste management practices. I am focusing on Mullingar, Co. Westmeath as a location for study. The last census has seen population grow to 19,794 due to huge development of residential areas expanding from the outskirts of the town. My research will focus from the consumer perspective in residential settings and to see how people are responding to the need to change away from landfill options and towards recycling of waste. I aim to uncover some of the public attitudes towards recycling. How much of their waste to these households actually recycle? Do people see segregating their waste as a nuisance? Or are people even aware of the importance of recycling?

Gary Nolan

The west of Ireland underwent a large-scale inundation during November 2009, and although I was not directly affected by these events, I was affected by the total devastation to people’s lives due to the floods. For weeks after, media reports highlighted stories of families displaced and businesses destroyed from Co. Cork to Co. Galway. Furthermore, what was also clear was the level of public discontent with the emergency services attributed with prevention and protection during such events. As the story unfolded the complicated nature of disaster response within our borders became evident. I feel we should use these events to educate ourselves on the failings of disaster response in Ireland.

It was with this information in mind that I set out to formulate a thesis topic that would encompass human, physical and environmental issues and integrate as many branches of geographical knowledge as possible. I felt it was also important to look at a current topic that involved local issues. Furthermore future climate change projections by the ICARUS department in NUI Maynooth have highlighted the possibility of an increase in the frequency of flood events of similar magnitude to 2009.

In order to link environmental issues to the social world I used the concept of a social contract as a framing point for the evaluation of flood response. The concept of a social contract dates back 300 years and involves the dynamic that exists between a state and its citizens. In short, to live in a society, citizens behave in an appropriate manner: we pay taxes and abide by laws that allow us to function in a rational manner, in return the state is expected to provide protection of our property and general well-being whether from conflict or disasters.

My thesis aims to illuminate whether people affected by disasters feel that this contract has been compromised. To do this I plan to use the town of Ballinasloe, Co Galway as a case study. This will involve ciphering through various governmental policies dealing with flood events such as the Framework for Major Emergency Response (2006). I also intend to conduct a quantitative study, by way of a questionnaire to grasp the general feeling around the town towards the emergency response. My final research method will consist of two interviews, the first with a member of the public that has been affected by the floods and secondly with an elected representative who held office during the floods. Finally I will assemble the information gained through the research and critically answer the thesis research question.

Mark Mitchell

I will be looking at the spatial distribution of mobile phone masts in Kildare and asking if this pattern is environmentally just. Basically I will be checking if Kildare County council enforce their own mobile phone mast siting regulations, as these regulations may be the thin red line between these masts being environmentally “just” or not.

Human geographers argue that the right to a healthy living environment is a fundamental human right. If the benefits and burdens of the production and consumption of goods and services (in this case mobile phones services) are inequitably distributed than this would be contrary to the philosophy of environmental justice. The key terms in environmental justice are benefit and burden. Environmental justice is a framework with which to assess the benefit and burden of the provision of a service or good to determine if a certain segment of society is shouldering an unfair burden. The concept of burden in this case can also be described as negative externalities, which are spill-over effects that arise from production and consumption of goods and services for which no appropriate compensation is paid. Based on the above, I conceptualize the following benefits and burdens:

Benefits

Wireless communication, voice and data services.

Burdens -  living in very close proximity to a mobile phone mast.

1. Deflationary effect of property values.

2. Possible negative health effects.

3. Worry and stress caused by 1 & 2 above.

Critically, the burden in this scenario is a function of distance. Due to local concerns, Kildare county council have made a provision for this, and stipulate that mobile phone masts cannot be erected within 500 meters of a house, school or hospital. In order to examine the spatial distribution of the masts I will need to map them. I will produce a series of maps using GIS softare, e.g. ArcGIS. I will create a GIS dataset by downloading the coordinates of the mobile phone masts, which are available from this website. In addition, I will produce a map showing the mast exclusion zones, as per county councils 500 meter rule. I will use the geodirectory dataset which has the coordinates of every house in Kildare in it in order to plot out a 500m boundary around each house. I will superimpose these two maps in order to highlight if mobile phone masts fall within these zones or are outside of them (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Maps

The findings from Map 3 will clearly show if the spatial distribution of mobile phone masts is breaching the council’s own regulations, thus indicating if spatial distribution is equitable, and adhering to principles of environmental justice. I will examine the outcome using David Harvey’s assertion (2001: 31) that the survival of the corporate state is the primary purpose of western society. I will critically assess this statement using the concept of an “economic space” (space containing a mobile phone mast) in competition with an environmentally just space (a space free of a disproportionate environmental “burden”) See Figure 2. If it turns out that mobile phone masts are showing up consistently in spaces where they should not be, using Harvey’s assertion as a lens with which to view this phenomenon may yield some answers.

Figure 2: Competing spaces: Geo-economic versus geo-political

Mobile communications provide a huge benefit to society; however, no segment of the population should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate burden of potential negative health effects. This project will examine whether or not this is the case in Kildare.

Dave McChesney

My name is Pat Reid and I’m a third year student at NUIM majoring in geography and with Celtic studies as my minor subject. As part of third year I have to complete a thesis consisting of ten to fifteen thousand words. The topic I’ve chosen for my project is probably going to be called something like ‘Can the basis of deepmapping be used following large-scale development projects to both, promote public awareness of, and further scientific understanding of, a place?’ The plan is to produce a form of ‘deepmap’, a word, map and art based report, on a section of the Kildare town bypass. The ‘deepmap’ will attempt to show the progression of the history of the subject area, from the prehistoric to present historic events, using all available media to compile it. It will draw upon written archives, including archaeological reports and historical journals, available images, including photographs, paintings and maps and other varied sources including local knowledge, folklore and poetry when available. This ‘deepmap’ will hopefully provide an in-depth view of the area’s historic development, an almost three-dimensional sense of how the place has progressed through time in light of its recorded history.

The purpose of the project is two-fold. Firstly, to assess the viability and usefulness of producing such a ‘deepmap’ in regard to raising the local public’s awareness of the history of a place. Secondly, to establish if new knowledge can be gleaned as a result of compiling such a ‘deepmap’ – to further the social, political, economic and cultural understanding of the area involved and its context in the history of the larger area. I would also like to ascertain if this information could be useful to both historians and geographers.

The completed report will be submitted to ten people for review. This will include five professionals with an interest in various aspects of the ‘deepmap’. These will include a historian, an archaeologist, a heritage officer, a coucillor and a geographer. It will also be given to five locals with an interest in the history of their area. The participants will then be interviewed and/or surveyed to obtain their feedback on the report. The main objective is to ascertain if such ‘deepmapping’ would be beneficial to, and could be included in, the remit for proposed large infrastructural and construction projects. Such ‘deepmaps’ could be displayed in local heritage centres, museums or libraries following completion. The feedback will be analysed to decide if this proposed style of post-excavation, historic document could be a viable and useful addition to the construction development process.

My interest in the area stems from a decade spent working as an archaeologist on road-building projects of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era. Most of the information uncovered during the archaeological process is again reburied in museum cabinets and academic journals and the proposed ‘deepmaps’ could aid in presenting this information to the public in a fresh and accessible manner.

Happy new year everybody!

Pat Reid

The issue of emigration has been ever present in the media since the downturn of the Irish economy. Documentaries such as ‘Departure day’ and ‘Arrivals’ on RTÉ have presented the viewer with the harsh reality of emigration. There are many side-effects to emigration such as an economy losing its most educated and most talented people, but it also has to be said that many organisations lose members and struggle to cope with the deficit.

Saint Finians GAA club of Newcastle Co Dublin have a proud tradition of producing strong and talented GAA teams in various age levels. Although the club has a small population of members, the club has had championship success in the past. As a club member it pains me to see the friends who I have grown up with and players who I admired in the club when I was young, emigrating to find work in other destinations in the world. When you see your own team struggling to find players and pulling out of games and even championships, it leaves you with a feeling of disgust and wondering what is the future of the GAA but more importantly what is the future of your own club?

The issue of emigration is affecting the GAA at both club and county level. When you see stars of the game, leaving the country to find employment elsewhere when they have so much to offer in the game, it is depressing. Take the example of the Louth GAA: they had great success in 2010 with reaching the Leinster final, the first time in 50 years, only to be robbed of victory by Meath. However, despite the loss, being in the championship nearing the end of July was an achievement in itself for a team like Louth. Just like GAA clubs throughout Ireland, the Louth GAA team suffered at the hands of emigration with key players such as John O’Brien and Brian White. This makes it harder for Louth to repeat the success they had in 2010.

Having observed the process of emigration and reading up on the issue I have decided to study the effects emigration is having on other GAA clubs in my area. Emigration has greatly affected the rural and the peripheral regions in Ireland. I would like to see if the process of emigration is a big issue in urban areas such as south Dublin. Through case studies of randomly-selected clubs I hope to find this information through interviews of emigrating players and their managers. I hope to find that although emigration is happening, there is light at the end of the tunnel with figures declining.

Ciaran Murphy

The future of turf cutting in Ireland looks bleak as numerous bogs are being shut down every year and what was once a way of life in Ireland, is now rapidly becoming obsolete. Generations of turf cutters are fighting a losing battle not just because of governmental control but because this is becoming an issue with the European Union. The Habitats Directive “forms the cornerstone of Europe’s nature conservation policy” see here. This directive protects over 200 “habitat types” (e.g. special types of forests, meadows, wetlands, etc.), which are of European importance” and this includes a portion of Ireland’s bog lands.

The Irish Peatlands Conservation Council (IPCC) was set up in 1982 and have done a vast amount of work in trying to conserve Irish peatlands see here. They run the Bog of Allen Nature Centre, Lullymore, Rathangan, Co. Kildare where the public can go and see the work that they have done. The semi-state company Bord na Móna are also part of the discussions because of their huge involvement in the Irish peatlands since the mid-1900s. You can read all about it here.

The main reason why I want to delve into this area is because these issues affect my own family as I come from a generation of turf cutters. By making this my thesis topic, I can really explore every aspect of Ireland’s bog lands starting from the beginning of turf cutting to the point where we are now and beyond into the future.

I am going to do this by holding interviews with some of the key players to find out what their plans are to solve these issues. In relation to Bord na Móna I want to know what they plan to do with the peatlands when they have finished with them. I will also use a questionnaire about turf cutting in Ireland and distribute it to people who are use turf as fuel to get a general sense of how they feel about the Habitats Directive and ban on turf cutting. I want to find out where Ireland sits in relation to other countries in similar situations and if we are in a better position or not and what policies do these countries have in place fro their natural landscapes.

Claire Redmond

The 17^th of September was a day of personal as well as national significance. That Saturday Ireland defeated Australia in the rugby world cup. While watching this momentous event an idea for a thesis finally came to me. I flicked through notes on old readings searching for inspiration while I kept one eye on the game. An article by Munro (2003) on Foucault and feminism caught my eye. What if I could apply Foucault’s ideas on power to a particular situation, to see if those theories worked in practice? However, I needed something relevant on which to examine his theories. Global injustices have been of interest to me ever since I took part in GY124 People and Places in first year. People and Places had forced us to confront the fact that this world is organised to benefit the few at the expense of others. This interest continued into second year with Geographies of Globalization where my understanding of global issues was developed. Based on such interests, I have decided to apply the theories of Foucault to Fairtrade in Ireland.

My research question is: Do the power structures that Fairtrade engage with resemble those of Foucault? Michel Foucault was one of the leading theorists on power. He elaborated on simplistic understandings of the concept, for example power as the means by which actor A can force actor B to do something which he would not otherwise do. Foucault said that if power only worked in this overt manner it would be extremely fragile. Power operates in numerous ways. It persuades, seduces and even claims common sense as its own so that subordination seems natural. Other theorists have critiqued and elaborated on this. I want to complement this rich body of work with theorists such as Harvey, Gramsci and Lefebvre. The objective will be to develop a nuanced conceptualization of power.

I will then apply this conceptualization as a framework to study the politics of trade justice in Ireland. To do this I will focus on Fairtrade. Their pursuit of global trade equality is fraught with difficulty. Fairtrade have to compete with larger and more powerful multinational corporations. The current economic and financial crisis has not helped, with the Kantar Worldpanel report on Irish consumerism this year showing that shoppers are often favouring cheaper ‘own brand’ products.

To answer my research question I’m hoping to carry out a series of interviews with people who are involved in different ways with Fairtrade. This organisation instigates strategies and initiatives to challenge dominant modes of consumerism in Ireland. An example of such an initiative is Fairtrade Towns. Cities and towns can claim this status if they meet certain criteria, for instance a certain amount of the shops in the town offering Fairtrade certified products. I would like to interview volunteer committee members from some of these towns to gain an insight into Fairtrade’s challenges, strategies and tactics. Interviews with some of the organisation’s professional staff could provide insight into the general strategies and challenges that are faced in Ireland.

Steven Lucas

It’s about the impact of floods in the low-lying areas around Bangkok and how many of the area’s most important factories, run by electronics companies such as Western Digital and auto-mobile producers such as Toyota, are now under water — accessible only by jet ski and inundated with fish.

The article tells us that, a ‘large share of the industrial growth in Thailand has occurred on the flood plain north of Bangkok. Rice paddies were paved over to make way for factories, suburban housing and shopping malls, blocking the natural path and absorption of water during the monsoon season.’  Looking from above, you can see for yourself here what some of this development looks like. Note the golf courses close to the industrial areas; the juxtaposition of high-tech factory with rice paddy; what look like new housing projects within shouting distance of what look like river-side corrugated-iron shacks; etc.

These developments reflect Thailand’s new place in the world. As the article notes, the ‘image of Thailand as a land of temples, beaches and smiles’ needs to be seen in the light of ‘Thailand’s industrialization and the extent to which two global industries, computers and cars, rely on components made here.’  There has been a sizeable wave of foreign direct investment, especially after 1997 when ‘hot money’ in property speculation helped create the Asian financial crisis [click here for a table showing Thailand's FDI growth since the mid-1980s] [see discussion on Thailand from an earlier post on this blog].

Thailand has become a player in the globalized world and this means that, when it rains in Thailand, people across the world need to take note.  As the report points out, the floods are causing supply-chain problems. It has ‘forced Toyota to slow production in factories in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, North America, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam.’ Workers in the wider region (and beyond) are facing up to losing some wages. And if you’re looking to buy a new computer, you might also notice the Thai floods because your purchase might be just that tiny wee bit more expensive given that hard disk supplies are now limited, which means computer assemblers such as Dell or Lenovo will be paying higher prices.

Of course, just as the article points out, the flooding  is ‘the second reminder this year of the vulnerability of global supply chains, coming just a few months after the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan and shut down facilities that produce crucial car electronic components’. The Thai flooding therefore demonstrates how oddly interconnected, and in some senses dangerously interdependent, the world has become.

Will the Thai state work out a way to militate against future floods; will it play its (essential) part in reducing the dangers associated with global interconnectedness? It’s certainly down to them to improve the infrastructure — after all, this is one of the reasons globalization ‘works’ for footloose producers:  they can threaten to leave if the state doesn’t  upgrade drainage systems or build new canals [note the reference to investors looking at Indonesia and then the quote towards the end of the article: 'Thailand will be able to get away with this once — but not twice']. Will the Thai state be up to the task?  Can floods such as these be prevented? If they are a result of climate change, as claimed by Thailand’s science and technology minister, can the state ever do enough?

Alistair Fraser