| Title | Author | Pages | Abs | |
| Dublin’s changing tourism geography | Ruth McManus | 103-123 |  |
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| Ireland’s water budget— model validation and a greenhouse experiment | Gerald Mills | 124-134 | |
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| Symbolising the State— the iconography of O’Connell Street and environs after Independence (1922) | Yvonne Whelan | 135-156 | |
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| The western suburb of medieval Dublin: its first century | Cathal Duddy OFM | 157-175 | |
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| Local partnerships for rural development: Ireland’s experience in context | Malcolm J. Moseley, Trevor Cherrett and Mary Cawley | 176-193 | |
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| Seabed mapping and seafloor processes in the Kish, Burford, Bray and Fraser Banks area, south-western Irish Sea | Andrew J. Wheeler, Jim Walshe and Gerry D. Sutton | 194-211 | |
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Ireland’s water budget— model validation and a
greenhouse experiment
Gerald Mills
Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Dublin (UCD)
In a previous paper (Mills, 2000) the author described a simple water budget model that was applied to Ireland for the period 1961-90. The budget stated the relationship between precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff and change in water storage for a regular set of grid cells (each 25km2 in area) that cover Ireland. The results of the model appeared to conform to the known climate of the period but no formal attempt at model validation was attempted. In this paper the author examines the relationship between the estimated ‘surplus’ water calculated for the catchment of the Shannon River with the measured discharge for that river. The close correspondence between these values suggests that the model is capable of estimating water budget components at this scale. A simple climate change experiment is presented that evaluates the impact of Greenhouse warming on the water budget of this catchment. The results indicate that although increased winter precipitation is predicted, increased rates of evapotranspiration results in drier summers.
Symbolising the State— the iconography of O’Connell Street and environs after Independence (1922)
Yvonne Whelan
Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages,
University of Ulster, Magee Campus Derry
This paper explores the iconography of Dublin’s central thoroughfare, O’Connell Street and its immediate environs in the decades following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. It follows an earlier paper which examined the iconography of Sackville Street before Independence and turns the focus towards an analysis of the ways in which the street became a significant site for the cultural inscription of post-colonial national identity. It is argued that the erection of new monuments dedicated to the commemoration of the 1916 Rising, as well as the destruction of older imperial symbols, rendered visible the emergence of the newly independent Irish Free State. The paper charts this process of iconographical inscription but also argues that O’Connell Street as a totality has taken on greater symbolic significance than any of the monuments that line its centre. In conclusion the paper examines the contemporary iconography of the street and addresses the apparent transition from political sculpture to public art which has taken place in recent decades throughout the city.
The western suburb of medieval Dublin: its first century
Cathal Duddy OFM
St Isidore’s College, Rome
Situated to the west of the walled city, the western suburb of medieval Dublin was in its embryonic stages of development during the last decades of the twelfth and throughout the thirteenth century. The first signs of westward expansion were the laying out of burgage plots in the area immediately outside the western mural-gate, a response to growing pressure on space within the walled city. This new portal suburb experienced subdivision of plots soon afterwards. In contrast to the organic or piecemeal development of the portal suburb close to the city walls, an altogether more deliberate, systematic rural-to-urban colonization was envisioned for the whole western area perhaps as far as Kilmainham. The first move toward this planned development of a western suburb was to found St Thomas’s Priory in this western area in 1177. Development was characterised by the granting of long narrow burgage plots on both sides of the central artery that ran westwards through the western area forming a linear suburb, the creation of parishes encompassing the newly laid-out plots and the appearance of urban traders who held these plots. Using a primary documentary source, the paper outlines the layout and character of the western suburb in this early developmental stage, and attempts to clarify the role of St Thomas’ in this development.
Local partnerships for rural development: Ireland’s experience in context
Malcolm J. Moseley1, Trevor Cherrett1 and Mary
Cawley2
1 University of Gloucestershire
2 National University of Ireland, Galway
Ireland has one of the strongest records in Europe of using local partnerships to address the challenges of rural development. These include County Enterprise Boards, LEADER companies and Local Area Partnerships. This paper presents the results of recent survey research which compares the different types of Irish partnerships in terms of their origins, growth, activities and impacts, and assesses the Irish partnership experience within the context of research in seven other EU countries. Such a comparative approach provides insights which assume particular interest at a time when the Irish Government has adopted new initiatives to promote greater co-ordination of partnership activities at a county level.
Seabed mapping and seafloor processes in the Kish, Burford, Bray and Fraser Banks area, south-western Irish Sea
Andrew J. Wheeler12, Jim Walshe3 and Gerry D.
Sutton1
1 Coastal Resources Centre, Environment Research Unit University College Cork
2Department of Geology, University College Cork
3 Irish Hydrodata Ltd
Mapping of the seabed and sub-seabed strata in an area comprising offshore banks and intervening sediments in outer Dublin Bay is presented. Bathymetric comparisons suggest that the offshore banks are quasi-stable over time probably maintaining their position due to the interaction between wave and current regimes. Seven acoustic seabed facies are defined on the basis of side-scan sonar characteristics reflecting differences in bedforms and bottom types. Sediment waves indicative of a mobile substrate are common both on and between banks. Maximum sediment wave development occurs on bank flanks and outer limits. The effects of wave action on seabed morphology are clearly discernible in the structure and appearance of the bank crests. Grain-size data and bedform interpretations suggest a northerly sediment transport system with gravel dominant in the south of the area (Bray Bank) grading to sands in the north (Kish and Burford Banks). Sub-bottom profiling reveals a consistent upper unit overlying a hard reflector allowing unit thickness (isopachs) to be defined. No internal structures or ‘hard’ cores were revealed within banks. Two shipwrecks were also imaged. Relationships are drawn with models of offshore bank evolution suggesting that the Irish examples are quasi-stable dependent on a relatively consistent input of sediment and metocean variables. Banks genesis, however, may relate more to former conditions of post-glacial rapid sea-level rise and high sediment input.
