College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences - Masters by Research Theses
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Item Exploring Cork City's tourist scene: sites, facilities and mobility(University College Cork, 2023) Ikani, Lucky Sunday; Holloway, Paul; Coakley, LiamTourism is a significant contributor to the global economy and a vital source of revenue for many countries. As a multifaceted industry, it encompasses components such as tourist sites, hospitality facilities, and mobility, which all play a crucial role in shaping a destination's appeal and success. This study was aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of the tourist scene in Cork city, with a focus on tourist sites, hospitality facilities and mobility. The factors that influence tourists' experiences in the city was examined by a conducting field survey. The spatial pattern and density of tourist sites and hospitality facilities in area, as well as the accessibility of the sites and facilities were investigated using spatial techniques such as nearest neighbor analysis, kernel density estimation, Origin-Destination matrix, and least cost path analysis. The research offered valuable insights on the current state of tourism in Cork city and potential avenues for improvement. The findings from the study revealed a random distribution of tourist sites, while the majority of hospitality facilities, such as bars, cafés, and restaurants, exhibited a clustered pattern, particularly around the city centre. The study also highlighted the importance of public transportation and wayfinding information in facilitating tourist mobility. This is especially true for the tourist sites located on the outskirts of the city centre, where most of the facilities were found. The study recommended improving public transportation options to the sites located outside the city centre, enhancing wayfinding alongside directional information, and investing in the quality of services provided by the hospitality facilities to enhance the tourist experience, improve accessibility to tourist sites, and promote tourism development in the study area.Item Performative feedback filmmaking: participatory documentary and creative self-representation in the community(University College Cork, 2023) Holly, Michael; Rascaroli, Laura; Irish Research CouncilBetween 2019 and 2022 I documented and observed various activities at a rural Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club using video and sound as part of my PhD in Film and Screen Media through Creative Practice at University College Cork. The result of this long- term fieldwork became an exhibition of video, sound, installation and discussion at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre in 2022. My method, which I call “Performative Feedback Filmmaking”, developed a unique, creative, socially-engaged form of nonfiction filmmaking by drawing from a combination of specific disciplines and techniques, including participatory art, ethnographic filmmaking, sensory ethnography, and video installation. The development of this methodology was informed by extended research into historical and contemporary overlaps between ethnographic filmmaking and contemporary art practices. The subjects of my creative film project are also participants, whose input was vital to the development of the methodology and the final creative work. After three years of participatory filmmaking with the GAA community, I assembled the results as an exhibition of video, sound and installation at a regional public art gallery. This exhibition became a space for dialogue, discussion and talks for four weeks between April and May of 2022, revealing the possibility for this innovative combination of documentary filmmaking, participatory art and video installation as a toolbox for reflexivity and inter-community mediation.Item Ireland's geospatial distribution of border controls: a macro study of Ireland's migration system(University College Cork, 2023) Manley Coughlan, Matthew James; Coakley, Liam; Maceinri, PiarasThis Master’s research project investigates the scalar principle of control that operates between organisations, agencies and departments from the local, to the regional, to the national and international level to underpin the Irish migration system. At each scale, the assemblage of departments, state actors and territorial state structures work in unison, simultaneously, across these scales to enforce control on migrants through bordering procedures. The Irish migration system has evolved through policy and technological advancements which have helped enforce control beyond the territorial land border of the state. Surveillance information systems and various other newly developed virtual bordering processes such as visas (external process), Irish Residence Permit cards(internal process) and passports (at the ports of entry) add to the level of control the state can exert on a migrant. Through these bordering processes, a hierarchical system of rights develops as the migrant’s nationality (EEA/non-EEA) or specific migrant categorisation (e.g. international protection applicant, programme refugee) lead to specific bordering procedures being applied to these individuals at distinct bordering moments. The research is based on interviews with members of An Garda Síochána, a Lieutenant Commander of the Irish Navy, Advocacy Service Manager of Nasc, a national NGO, Chief of Operations for IOM Ireland, the International Organisation for Migration, a spokesperson for the Transparency Section of the Department of Justice as well as Catherine Day, ex-Secretary General of the European Commission (who has also had other functions relevant to this question). Government legislation and policy documents were used in a blended approach to support the claims made in these interviews and to provide my research with a solid structural base.Item Cín lae an bhailitheoir béaloideasa, Michael J. Murphy: staidéar cartlainne agus eitneagrafaíoch ar an méid a chuir Michael J. Murphy le Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann, le béim faoi leith ar a chín lae i gcaitheamh na mblianta 1949-1952 agus 1969-1977(University College Cork, 2022) Ní Neachtain, Áine; O'Carroll, Clíona; O Gealbhain, CiaranBuilding on the work of Michael Briody in his 2007 publication The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970 History, ideology, methodology, in which he proffered the opinion that the journals of the field collectors may be the jewel in the crown of the National Folklore Collection, I put forward the thesis that Michael J. Murphy’s field journal is an important archival resource that merits in-depth study across a wide range of academic disciplines. Over the course of more than 40 years’ service as a professional Folklore Collector, Michael J. Murphy contributed more than 30,000 pages of folklore material, Building on the work of Michael Briody in his 2007 publication The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970 History, ideology, methodology, in which he proffered the opinion that the journals of the field collectors may be the jewel in the crown of the National Folklore Collection, I put forward the thesis that Michael J. Murphy’s field journal is an important archival resource that merits in-depth study across a wide range of academic disciplines. Over the course of more than 40 years’ service as a professional Folklore Collector, Michael J. Murphy contributed more than 30,000 pages of folklore material, including some 4,000 pages of field journal, and 1,100 photographs to the collection now known as the National Folklore Collection, housed in University College Dublin. Murphy collected folklore throughout the nine counties of Ulster, from a broad range of communities that not only had a rich store of folklore material, but were also troubled by political strife. Michael J. Murphy’s accounts of his life and work in these communities provide a unique insight into their everyday lives. This study of Murphy’s field journal seeks to keep important developments in the area of folklore archives in view throughout. It can be said that some scholars have turned their backs somewhat on archival study of pre-modern culture, in favour of the study of contemporary culture, as well as the role of archival structures and practices in the generation of knowledge, resulting in a paradigm shift which changed how folklore archives are viewed in the research community. In tandem with that, the way general archives are viewed has been evolving, thereby generating openness for the type of material stored in folklore archives. Michael J. Murphy had a strong belief in the potential of the material deposited in the archive of the Irish Folklore Commission to provide a valuable archival resource for those seeking a better understanding of who we are as people, and the ongoing provision of digital access to the National Folklore Collection creates a context that supports such a use of this material. In this context, Murphy’s thoughts on the confidential trust relationship between collector and storyteller, brought to light in this study of his field journal, provide valuable food for thought for those making difficult decisions in their efforts to balance the provision of access with the need to respect the intentions of those whose words populate the archives. This thesis posits that Michael J. Murphy fulfils several key research requirements in his field journal, in so far as he supplies a wide-ranging context for his folklore collection, with clear insights into the methodology, ethics and function of the work. As well as that, he supplies a wide-ranging, contemporary, authoritative, unedited account of his life and his work, in an area overshadowed by conflict, and about which so much has been written by reporters and historians, during the second half of the twentieth century. Michael J. Murphy was strongly of the opinion that it is on the word of the insider we should depend for an insight in people’s everyday lives. It is the word of the insider that is presented in his own field journal, brought to light in this thesis. Coimriú Ag tógaint ar shaothar Mícheál Briody ina leabhar The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970 History, ideology, methodology (2007), ina chuir sé cíona lae na mbailitheoirí lán-aimseartha chun tosaigh mar sheodra na corónach de Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann, arbh fhiú tuilleadh taighde a dhéanamh orthu, áitím go bhfuil cín lae Michael J. Murphy ar cheann dóibh siúd gur chóir taighde domhain a dhéanamh uirthi. Chaith Michael J. Murphy breis agus daichead bliain mar bhailitheoir proifisiúnta, agus chnuasaigh sé níos mó ná 30,000 leathanach de bhéaloideas, le 4,000 leathanach de chín lae agus 1,100 grianghraf san áireamh, atá i dtaisce anois sa chartlann ar a nglaotar Cnuasach Bhéaloidis Éireann in Ollscoil Bhaile Átha Cliath. Bhailigh Murphy ar fud na naoi gcontaetha d’Uladh, agus ní amháin go raibh stór béaloidis ríshaibhir le cnuasach ann, ach bhí na pobail sin ciapaithe ag coimhlint pholaitíochta chomh maith. Sholáthar Murphy tuairisc ar a shaol agus a shaothar a thugann radharc faoi leith dúinn ar an saol laethúil a chaith pobal na Teorann le linn an ama a bhí seisean gníomhach mar bhailitheoir. Tá athruithe in earnáil an bhéaloidis maidir le cartlann comeádta in aigne le linn an tráchtais seo. Le roinnt blianta anuas, thug scoláirí áirithe cúl láimhe don taighde cartlainne a bhain le hábhar réamh-nua-aimseartha. Chas siad ar an mbéaloideas comhaimseartha, chomh maith le structúirí agus modhanna oibre cartlainne, mar ábhar taighde, agus d’athraíodh dearcadh scoláirí áirithe i dtaobh na gcartlann. Chomh maith leis sin, d’athraíodh dearcadh scoláirí ar an gcartlann thipiciúil, athrú a d’oscail doras don saghas ábhair atá caomhnaithe i gcartlann béaloidis. Bhí muinín ag Michael J. Murphy go raibh fiúntas tábhachtach ina chnuasach mar ábhar taighde dóibh siúd a bhí ar thóir tuiscintí maidir le cé muid féin mar dhaoine, agus is iontach an rud é go bhfuil obair ar siúl ag Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann chun go mbeadh teacht ag scoláirí ar ábhar na cartlainne ar bhonn digiteach. Tá tuairimí Murphy nochtaithe sa tráchtas seo maidir leis an gcaidreamh agus iontaoibh idir bailitheoir agus faisnéiseoir, agus ba cheart an méid atá le rá aige a chur san áireamh nuair a bhíonn cartlannaithe ag machnamh ar an gcaoi agus ar an méid agus ar an saghas ábhair cartlainne gur chóir a chur ar fáil go digiteach agus ar líne, gan feall a dhéanamh orthu siúd a sholáthar an t-ábhar ar an gcéad dul síos. D’áitigh Michael J. Murphy gurb ar fhocal na ndaoine ar an taobh istigh den phobal gur chóir dúinn brath chun fíorscéal na ndaoine a chloisint, agus is é sin atá i gceist lena chín lae féin. Léiróidh an tráchtas seo go gcomhlíonann a chín lae réimhse riachtannais taighde tábhachtacha sa mhéid is go soláthríonn sé comhthéacs fairsing dá chnuasach béaloidis, le lánléargas maidir le cur chuige, eiticí, agus feidhm na hoibre. Chomh maith leis sin, soláthríonn sé tuairisc fhairsing, chomhaimseartha, shainiúil agus ionraic dá shaol is dá chuid oibre, i gceantar a bhí fé scáth coimhlinte, agus ar a bhfuil an oiread sin scríte ag iriseoirí agus staraithe acadúla, i gcaitheamh an dara leath den fichiú aois.Item A study of the outcome of Irish agriculture policy on Ireland’s climate change obligations compared to other countries with similar agriculture sectors(University College Cork, 2022-12-14) Corbett, James G.; Duggan, NiallThe Kyoto Protocol, while not successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, established the main actions required to control emissions. Its successor the Paris Agreement sets a target of climate neutrality by 2050. The EU has adopted a climate leadership position with an interim target of a 40% (or 55%) reduction by 2030. This thesis examines the evolution of Irish GHG emissions over the period of the Kyoto Protocol compared to a selected group of countries with comparable agriculture sectors. It demonstrates that Ireland’s overall emissions increased over the period from 1990 to 2020, with agricultural emissions remaining flat during the same period. Other EU countries have largely complied with their emission reduction commitments and look set to meet future targets. Government policy is shown to be the main causal factor for emission outcomes. An increase in climate and environmental concerns is leading to new, more comprehensive environmental policies to reduce emissions. An aware public, backed by legal precedent, is forcing governments to act. In pursuing a policy of continued growth for the current agricultural model, it is difficult to see how Irish agriculture can avoid forced cuts in GHG emissions with so little progress made in its other emitting sectors.