Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Islands – ireland'

Mestrado em Economia Internacional e Estudos Europeus
A Islândia e a Irlanda, segundo a escola austríaca, vivenciaram todas as etapas de um ciclo económico. O crédito mal parado e os investimentos de alto risco trouxeram grandes euforias e expansões artificiais que culminaram no colapso do setor bancário destes dois países. A crise financeira internacional de 2008 foi só o apertar do gatilho para as consequências devastadoras do impacto da exposição bancária na Islândia e na Irlanda. Contudo, o contexto geopolítico de cada país fez com que trilhassem caminhos opostos no que diz respeito à contenção e à estabilização da crise. Nesta dissertação, foi feito um estudo descritivo e comparativo entre estes dois países para identificarmos as causas da crise e em particular, salientar as diferenças e denominadores comuns dos caminhos trilhados pelos seus governos para fazer face aos seus problemas. Com isto, pretende-se dar resposta à hipótese central desta dissertação: Quem se saiu melhor no pós-crise 2008?
Iceland and Ireland, according the Austrian school, experienced all the steps of an economic cycle. Bad loans and high-risk investments lead to a great euphoria and artificial expansions that ended into the collapse of the banking sector of both countries. The international financial crisis of 2008 was just the trigger to the devastating consequences of the impact from the banking exposure in Iceland and Ireland. However, the geopolitical contexts of each country lead them to follow opposite directions about the contention and stabilization of the crisis. In this dissertation, a descriptive and comparative study was carried out between these experiences of Iceland and Ireland in order to identify the causes of the crisis and particularly to stress the differences and the common denominators of the ways followed by their governments to face the problems raised by the crisis. So, we intend to respond to the central hypothesis of this dissertation: Who did better after the crisis of 2008?

Widespread flooding throughout the island of Ireland during Winter 2015/2016 demonstrated the substantial financial and social consequences for communities, resulting in the temporary displacement of numerous residents and extended disruption to business trading. Following a flood event, a series of persistent problems often emerge, such as difficulties associated with renewing flood insurance policies. These persevering problems are secondary stressors, which are ongoing implications indirectly linked to a defined prior event, potentially contributing to psychological stress among affected individuals and hindering continuation of normal daily activities. As yet insubstantial quantification of flood-related secondary stressors has been conducted, hence it is challenging to establish where government resources are best employed. Furthermore, despite the existence of various studies examining the psychological health consequences of flooding on residents, limited research has assessed the implications for persons in charge of businesses. This research investigates the secondary stressors experienced by flood-affected residents and businesses within the island of Ireland, appraising the psychological health implications. Evaluation of preparedness and community resilience is undertaken, as well as consideration of the current effectiveness of flood-related social media communication by organisations in Northern Ireland. A mixed-method research design consisting of questionnaire surveys, interviews and social media data extraction was used to collect the empirical data. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using NVivo, whereas quantitative data analysis was undertaken using SPSS. Quantitative data analysis included the conduction of Principal Component Analysis and the calculation of Relative Importance Indices. A number of key findings emerged from the data analysis. Residents and persons in charge of businesses are affected by a wide range of secondary stressors, many of which have the potential to result in the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Nevertheless, business owners and managers are at a lower risk of developing PTSD in comparison to residents. Significantly, perception of future flood risk is low among residents and businesses and current flood warning mechanisms are insufficient, with the potential to intensify the impact of secondary stressors. Furthermore, the limited uptake of flood resilience and resistance measures and the inadequacy of community flood resilience within flood risk areas increases vulnerability to future flood events. Additionally, analysis concluded that the full potential of social media as a communication tool in relation to flooding is not being met in Northern Ireland. The findings have substantial implications for policy makers; prompting recommendations concerning development of specific flood guidance in Northern Ireland, official records detailing flood-affected businesses and clear guidelines for organisational use of social media in relation to flooding. Furthermore, practical recommendations are outlined including developing community consultation, increasing understanding of flood insurance policies, reviewing current post-flood financial assistance schemes, improving flood risk awareness and enhancing community resilience via social media.

Regulatory accountability is central to democratic governance. As regulatory institutions and their associated governance arrangements have become more complex, and decision-making ever more distant from the citizen, it is imperative that such institutions and the actors within them are accountable for their actions. This research explores, through the lens of historical institutionalism, the issue of regulatory accountability in the case of the cross-jurisdictional energy market on the island of Ireland which has evolved to implement European and domestic energy policy goals. The research considers the issue of institutional design, persistence and change with a specific focus on accountability within the existing governance framework of the all-island energy market. After mapping and assessing regulatory accountability, the research considers how the issue of accountability should be addressed in terms of institutional design for regulatory governance in a cross-jurisdictional market. Drawing on extensive document analysis and twenty-two in-depth semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers, this research demonstrates, firstly, that the institutional form of non-majoritarian institutions needs to be aligned; that is, that the nature of the institution as a decision-making authority and as a legal entity must be fully coupled. Secondly, there is a need to embed accountability mechanisms (in all three directions: upwards, horizontally and downwards) into the institutional design. This is particularly important as regulatory institutions evolve from being state-centred non-majoritarian institutions into cross-jurisdictional, even regional, institutions for regulatory governance, operating in a decentred, multi-level governance context such as the European Union. Thirdly, the accountability mechanisms need to be periodically assessed and adjusted over time as the institution evolves. This serves to strengthen the institution’s formal and informal accountability arrangements. The research concludes that adopting an institutional perspective provides a useful lens for considering the best means of securing adequate levelsof accountability in regulatory institutions, particularly when these operate in a cross-jurisdictional, multi-level governance context.

The main objective of my thesis is to analyze and compare reactions of Iceland and Ireland to financial and economic crisis as well as the aftermath of the crisis and the process of recovery as direct consequence of these reactions. Both states had financial sector couple of times bigger than their GDP before the crisis and after the fall of Lehman Brothers they ran into some serious difficulties. However, states chose very different approaches to deal with a situation. Ireland decided to bailout its banks despite the huge increase in public debt and cost of taxpayers' money. Iceland allowed its banks to default and backed only domestic deposits. In my thesis I also analyze the fact that Ireland is a member of euro area and therefore does not possess independent monetary policy and Iceland has independent floating currency and implications that these facts had during and after the crisis on development of countries. In the last chapter I am analyzing possibilities of future development of economies and potential risks and challenges that lie ahead of them.

Background: This study explored the differences between the seasonal mortality rates (by age and gender) between the two jurisdictions (the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI)). The study assessed the relationship between cold temperatures and daily mortality, and assessed for effect modification of the cold weather-mortality relationship by age and gender. Methods: Mortality rates were calculated for each cause-specific mortality group during various seasons in both jurisdictions. A time-stratified case-crossover approach was applied to examine the cold weather-mortality relationship, 1984-2007. The daily mortality risk was explored in association with exposure to daily maximum temperatures on the same day and up to 6 weeks preceding death, during the winter months and extended cold period (October-March), using distributed lag models. Model stratification by age and gender assessed for modification of the cold weather-mortality relationship. Results: The winter mortality rates were significantly greater than the summer rates. NI experienced higher mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and stroke. The impact of cold weather in the winter months persisted up to 35 days in the RoI, with a cumulative mortality increase for all-cause of 6.4% (95%CI: 4.8%-7.9%) with regards to every 1oC drop in the daily maximum temperature with similar associations for cardiovascular disease and stroke with twice as much for respiratory diseases. The associations were less pronounced and less persistent in NI. Conclusions: The study observed excess winter mortality. The cold weather-mortality associations increased with age with some suggestion of gender differences. There were strong cold weather-mortality associations in both jurisdictions, with suggestive differences in associations by age and gender. The findings suggest the potential contribution of societal differences, and require further exploration. These findings will hopefully contribute to the current efforts to modify fuel policy and reduce winter mortality in both jurisdictions.

This thesis is an exploration of ancestral narratives in the fiction of Thomas Keneally and Christopher Koch. Initially, ancestry in literature creates an historical relationship which articulates the link between the past and the present. In this sense ancestry functions as a type of cultural memory where various issues of inheritance can be negotiated. However, the real value of ancestral narratives lies in their power to aid in the construction of both personal and communal identities. They have the potential to transform these identities, to transgress “natural” boundaries and to reshape conventional identities in the light of historical experience. For Keneally, ancestral narratives depict national forbears who “narrate the nation” into being. His earlier fictions present ancestors of the nation within a mythic and symbolic framework to outline Australian national identity. This identity is static, oppositional, and characterized by the delineation of boundaries which set nations apart from one another. However, Keneally’s more recent work transforms this conventional construction of national identity. It depicts an Irish-Australian diasporic identity which is hyphenated and transgressive: it transcends the conventional notion of nations as separate entities pitted against one another. In this way Keneally’s ancestral narratives enact the potential for transforming identity through ancestral narrative. On the other hand, Koch’s work is primarily concerned with the intergenerational trauma causes by losing or forgetting one’s ancestral narrative. His novels are concerned with male gender identity and the fragmentation which characterizes a self-destructive idea of maleness. While Keneally’s characters recover their lost ancestries in an effort to reshape their idea of what it is to be Australian, Koch’s main protagonist lives in ignorance of his ancestor’s life. He is thus unable to take the opportunity to transform his masculinity due to the pervasive cultural amnesia surrounding his family history and its role in Tasmania’s past. While Keneally and Koch depict different outcomes in their fictional ancestral narratives they are both deeply concerned with the potential to transform national and gender identities through ancestry.

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Identifying people of exotic origins with isotopes depends upon finding isotopic attributes that are inconsistent with the indigenous population. This task is seldom straightforward and may vary with physical geography, through time, and with cultural practices. Isotopes and trace elements were measured in four Viking Age (8th to 10th centuries A.D.) skeletons from Dublin, Ireland, and three from Westness, Orkney. These were compared with other data from these locations and contemporaneous skeletons from Britain. We conclude that the male skeletons from Dublin have disparate origins, two originating beyond the shores of Ireland, and that the female and two male skeletons from Westness are not indigenous to Orkney. However, the homeland of the female, in contrast to the males, is unlikely to be in Scandinavia.