CORA
Cork Open Research Archive (CORA) is UCC’s Open Access institutional repository which enables UCC researchers to make their research outputs freely available and accessible.
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Criminology on the fringes of war
(Springer Science + Business Media, 2025-08-27) Kaucz, Błażej; Kaucz, Błażej
This chapter offers a criminological perspective on the peripheral effects of war. The idea behind this chapter is not to take away attention from important subjects, like genocide, but rather to highlight other impactful matters related to war and its consequences (i.e., the misplacement of people). Some of these might potentially apply to other countries bordering conflict zones. Of importance was the examination of both the direct and indirect impacts of the war on society. This chapter focuses on the complex and often ambiguous nature of crime and security issues that arise in the broader context of war beyond direct combat activities. This highlights the need to understand and address these issues to fully grasp the impact of war on societies and individuals. To this end, it offers real-world scenarios rooted in Poland to illustrate how conflicts spill over into neighbouring regions while especially considering human and citizen rights violations, hybrid warfare, global surveillance, the infosphere, domestic and foreign interferences, shadow economies, surveillance architecture, safeguarding rights, new war geographies, financial tactics, cyber warfare, new warfare means, and grey zones.
Associations between ultra-processed food and drink consumption and mental health: A cross-sectional study of middle- to older-aged adults
(Elsevier Ireland Ltd, 2026-10-13) Hockin, Joshua D.; Millar, Seán R.; Perry, Ivan J.; Phillips, Catherine M.; Irish Health Research Board, HRC/2007/13
Background: Greater intake of ultra-processed foods and drinks (UPFDs) has been associated with increased risk of non-communicable diseases, yet associations with mental health outcomes, aside from depression, are unclear. Addressing this gap, we investigated UPFD relationships with depressive symptoms, well-being and anxiety among adults. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 1949 middle- to older-aged adults. Dietary data were collected using a validated food frequency questionnaire and UPFD weight ratios were determined using the NOVA classification. Depressive symptoms, well-being and anxiety were assessed using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Linear and logistic regression analyses assessed UPFD intake associations with mental health scores. Results: In crude and partially adjusted linear regression models, positive associations were found between UPFD intake and depression scores, and a negative association with well-being scores. The association with depression scores persisted after full adjustment (B = 0.059, p = 0.009). Results from logistic regression analyses also demonstrated higher intake of UPFDs to be associated with higher odds of mild to severe depressive symptoms (OR = 1.562, 95% CI: 1.057, 2.308. No associations with anxiety scores were observed. Sensitivity analyses suggested the ultra-processed meat/fish/poultry NOVA subgroup to be the main driver of observed associations between UPFD consumption and poorer mental health. Conclusions: This study demonstrates an association between UPFD intake and mental health, in particular with depressive symptoms. Further research which examines individual UPFD subgroup associations with mental health outcomes is warranted.
Prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2020–2022
(Health Research Board, 2025) Hanrahan, Michael T; Millar, Seán R.; Mongan, Deirdre; Lyons, Suzi; Galvin, Brian
Executive summary Overview of the study: This report presents the findings from a study that aimed to estimate the prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland from 2020 to 2022 utilising a four-source capture-recapture methodology. The analysis incorporated three data sources from opioid substitution treatment (OST) records obtained from the Central Treatment List (CTL), which includes clinics, general practitioners (GPs), and prisons. The fourth data source was provided by the Probation Service. Key findings: Table 1 presents a summary of the study’s main results, stratified by County Dublin versus the rest of Ireland, as well as by age group and sex. In 2022, it was estimated that there were approximately 19,460 individuals in Ireland with problematic opioid use (95% confidence interval (CI): 19,348–23,158), which equates to a prevalence rate of 5.79 per 1,000 population (95% CI: 5.76–6.89). A significant majority of these individuals were male (67.9%), and more than twothirds (75.3%) fell within the older age group of 35–64-year-olds. There were an estimated 11,100 problematic opioid users (95% CI: 10,684–13,761) in County Dublin in 2022, reflecting a rate more than three times higher than that in the rest of Ireland (11.17 per 1,000 population (95% CI: 10.75–13.85) compared with 3.53 per 1,000 population (95% CI: 3.46–4.37)). Additional insights: This report also includes estimates for prevalence rates across Regional Health Areas (RHAs), Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) areas, Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force (RDATF) areas, and selected cities. Data on the prevalence of problematic opioid use for the years 2020 and 2021 are also presented to illustrate trends over time. Although there was a slight decrease in the overall number of problematic opioid users between 2020 and 2022, this decrease was not statistically significant. Notably, however, the prevalence of problematic opioid use among 15–24-year-olds appears to be decreasing.
Burnout in infection control practitioners during extended public health crisis events: A mixed methods systematic review: Conference abstract and Poster
(2026) Creedon, Sinéad; O'Reilly-Trace, Anna; Arensman, Ella; Smiddy, Maura
Infection prevention and control roles are complex and closely associated with pandemics and extended public health crises. During the COVID 19 pandemic, rapid expansion of infection control practitioners’ responsibilities intensified emotional demands, contributing to anxiety, moral distress, role strain, and increased risk of burnout. Burnout, characterised by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy, arising from sustained exposure to emotionally demanding work, is well supported by the Job Demands-Resources model, which highlights the interaction between escalating job demands and protective resources. The aim is to synthesise qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods evidence on burnout and associated factors among infection control practitioners during prolonged public health crisis events in upper middle, and high income countries. This review includes qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies examining burnout among infection control practitioners working in acute and non acute healthcare settings during public health crises. Eligible studies conducted in upper middle and high income countries, as defined by World Bank income classifications, were included. A mixed methods systematic review was conducted in accordance with Johanna Briggs Institute methodology using a convergent integrated approach. A comprehensive search of relevant databases was undertaken from November 2002 to August 2024. Methodological quality was appraised using Johanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools. Quantitative data were transformed into qualitised data and integrated with qualitative findings during synthesis. Eight studies were included: three qualitative studies, one mixed methods study (qualitative component), and six analytical cross sectional surveys conducted in the United States, South Korea and Thailand. All studies focused on infection control nurses / preventionists working during the pandemic. Overall methodological quality ranged from moderate to high. Integration of qualitative data and qualitised quantitative findings generated four interdependent synthesised findings: fluctuating emotions and frustration within workplaces perceived as demanding, deficient, and unsafe; proliferating job demands resulting in psychological burden, burnout, and attrition; role strain accompanied by opportunistic growth in professional role and identity; and the protective role of formal and informal supports in mitigating burnout. Collectively, the findings highlight substantial emotional and organisational challenges alongside adaptive and protective factors influencing wellbeing during extended public health crises. Infection control practitioners experience substantial emotional and organisational pressures, placing them at increased risk of burnout. Although professional and role growth were evident, sustained organisational and leadership support is essential to balance escalating job demands and reducing burnout. System level interventions, including clear role delineation, adequate staffing, and embedded wellbeing supports, are critical to sustaining this workforce during future crises.
Ten theses on the politics of psychedelics
(2026-12) Davis, Oliver
This article liberates discussion of the politics of psychedelics from its present impasse. Across ten theses, it asserts that psychedelics are interruptive deautomating political technologies, which makes them conducive to democratic politics, in the radical sense: rather than consolidating liberal-democratic systems of representative or managed democracy, psychedelic experience tends to open such regimes up to the ferment of radical democracy. To conceptualise the political ramifications of psychedelics requires that psychedelic mysticism and the phenomenology of psychedelic experience be reconceived in ways which give due recognition to their embodied, agential and politically potentiating dimensions, which involves correcting restrictively neuro-centric conceptions of psychedelic mysticism and expanding incomplete phenomenologies. It further requires that the “deautomating” dimensions of psychedelic experience be conceptualised alongside an analysis of the prevailing anti-democratic forces of automation, administrative reason and computationalist abstraction.