Theses - School of Tourism & Arts, ATU Galway Cityhttps://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/1482024-03-29T06:54:05Z2024-03-29T06:54:05ZThe Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) in County Galway: Local Histories, Memories & Post-Conflict Heritage InitiativesKavanagh, Eilishhttps://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/43742023-02-01T03:00:54Z2022-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) in County Galway: Local Histories, Memories & Post-Conflict Heritage Initiatives
Kavanagh, Eilish
The Government of Ireland's Decade of Centenaries programme has aroused much interest of late in the revolutionary events that preceded the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. This thesis explores local histories, memories and heritages of the Irish War of Independence (or Anglo-Irish War) in County Galway. In the process of compiling local histories, information is furnished about the people and places affected by the conflict. Lasting from 21 January 1919–11 July 1921, this was a guerrilla war fought by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the forces of the British Government. By utilising a broad range of sources, including witness statements, pension files, newspapers and literature, this study investigates key events,
such as the Ballyturin and Merlin Park ambushes, the killing of combatants and the impact of reprisals on civilians. New insights are provided about the controversial deaths of individuals such as Louis D’Arcy, Fr Michael Griffin, brothers Pat and Harry Loughnane, Eileen Quinn, and Michael Walsh. These deaths commanded considerable national and international attention. The thesis proceeds by asking how, why and in what ways has memory of the conflict transmitted in County Galway by means of anniversary commemorations and built/cultural heritages? Initially, the focus centres on recovering the lost memories of the women of the revolutionary period, whose contributions and experiences were ignored and forgotten for many years. This section also shows how traumatic legacies of the conflict prompted a series of intergenerational remembrances. Over the course of century, these included the anniversary commemorations of Michael Walsh, the Loughnane brothers, Fr Griffin, and Eileen Quinn. Whilst a more cautious approach to memorialisation unfolded during the Northern Ireland Troubles, opportunities for remembrance still presented in County Galway, albeit through the death of a veteran or a close relative. From the late 1990s onward, the success of the Peace Process led to a revival of interest in the revolutionary period. Notable here was the reinterment of Galway-born Volunteer Thomas Whelan and nine others, including Kevin Barry, who were exhumed from graves in Mountjoy Prison and given a full state funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery in 2001. Buoyed on by the centenary anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016, there was major public interest in the centenary of the War of Independence in 2019–2021. Whilst restrictions imposed in response to the outbreak
of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of many public events, local communities were still able to mark the centenary through online platforms.
This thesis ends by outlining post-conflict heritage initiatives that have been developed by the ATU Heritage Research Group, in partnership with Galway County Council. The first of these is the Galway County War of Independence Heritage Inventory, which includes listings for historic sites, artefacts and manuscripts, memorials, and memorabilia. A second legacy initiative is The Loughnane Brothers Heritage Trail: Explore Historic Sites & Memorials of Ireland’s War of Independence. This will be disseminated to the public in two formats in December 2022, namely an ArcGIS ESRI StoryMap and a 79-page bilingual guide book. Both versions furnish details about eleven sites related to the capture, killing and memorialisation of Pat and Harry Loughnane. By striving to illuminate connections between the past and present, it is hoped to leave behind a worthwhile cultural legacy for current and future generations
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZBlended learning and motivation; an examination of student perceptionsMorrissey, Brianhttps://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/22612019-04-03T14:24:46Z2017-05-01T00:00:00ZBlended learning and motivation; an examination of student perceptions
Morrissey, Brian
Blended learning (BL) continues to evolve in pedagogy as theorists conceptualise pathways for students to engage with course materials. It is important to establish theories to inform future developments in BL to facilitate learning styles and learning objects. However, implementing theories into effective teaching and learning practice is a constant challenge for stakeholders, as students face many barriers while they adapt to higher education. Multiple influences propel or deter student participation with the learning process. Therefore, motivating students to participate in BL requires analysis and discussion. This Mixed Method research study explores first year undergraduate students’ perception of BL and investigates the positive and negative influences impacting their motivation to engage with learning. The sample population of 1,764 first year students at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) were surveyed, returning a response rate of 29%. The questionnaire was formatted through Survey Monkey, communicated through college emails, and analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. The survey involved ranking and rating questions on student perception of BL over a thirteen week period. The survey included an open question seeking student recommendations on how to enhance motivation to learn during their programme of study. Findings highlight the fact BL does impact motivation to engage with learning. However, barriers to engage with learning remain as students continue to face many challenges. Many students suffer in silence and this research gives these students a voice. Students call for collaboration between management, teachers, and students alike to advance the teaching and learning process. The study confirms that students have different learning styles, are responsive to appropriate learning objects, and require training to adapt to BL environments.
2017-05-01T00:00:00ZThe transformation of Galway: an urban history of a port town 1600-1700Towler, Johnhttps://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/5342020-05-20T15:53:26Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThe transformation of Galway: an urban history of a port town 1600-1700
Towler, John
Galway’s wealth and position as a major Irish trading port at the beginning of the seventeenth century stemmed from a mixture of geography and politics. Its staunch support of the Crown, since its foundation in the early thirteenth century, enabled it to secure a range of special privileges. This situation allowed it to evolve as a settlement akin to a ‘city state’, exempt in the main from much of the fiscal duties imposed on commerce and trade within the English mercantile system. This special relationship began to fall apart as the Reformation and Protestant interests began to impact on what was an almost exclusively Catholic community, with power residing in the hands of a monopolistic clique of powerful and wealthy merchant families. Until the Gaelic uprising of 1641, there was little visible evidence of a conflict of interest between Catholics and Protestants in terms of their political affiliations, and even during the early stages of the formation of the Confederacy, the Galway community was reluctant to join forces with the other Old English communities. However, the siege and subsequent surrender of Galway to the Cromwellian forces in 1652, resulted in the town being left in a state of stagnation by the time of the Restoration of Charles II in1660. During the closing decades of the seventeenth century, Galway’s trading activity dwindled as the town struggled to regain its former markets. For a brief period in the late 1680s, Catholics regained control of Galway’s municipal affairs. They subsequently supported James II in the Williamite Wars, only to lose control once more following the surrender of the town to General Ginckle on 21 July 1691. To date, no published work has closely researched the significant transformations, from 1600-1700, in Galway’s economy, morphology, politics and society. This study seeks to address this lacuna by assembling and interpreting a vast range of historical evidence, so as to produce an original, integrated, meticulous and far-reaching narrative and analysis that reconstructs the urban history of seventeenth-century Galway. As well as making extensive use of the primary and secondary historical sources relating to aspects of Galway’s urban history, this study is also informed by recent scholarship on the seventeenth-century colonial policies that England adopted in its conquest of Ireland, particularly those which contributed to the outbreak of the Confederate Wars, the subsequent Cromwellian settlement of Ireland and the economic changes brought about by the Cattle Acts and the Navigation Acts after the Restoration. As a whole, this study relies not only on the perspective of the historian, but upon interdisciplinary perspectives drawn from cognate disciplines such as geography and archaeology.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZGeneration 'why'?: contested concepts of ultimacy in contemporary western European cultureCammeraat, Pieterhttps://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/5262017-06-20T15:11:05Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZGeneration 'why'?: contested concepts of ultimacy in contemporary western European culture
Cammeraat, Pieter
The thesis proposes that the scientistic-technologicalist-consumerist meaning structures communicated via the mass-media, and pervasive in contemporary Western European culture, are limited in scope and function. In order to substantively identify, examine, and critique these limitations, the thesis explores and posits the role of the Christian Weltanschauung in providing wider horizons of significance and Ultimacy. In pursuing these objectives, the thesis engages with authors from an extensive range of disciplines, through a series of dialectical exchanges which interrogate dominant cultural currents in contemporary Western European culture. The consideration of key concepts is ‘nested’ through the thesis such that, as the thesis progresses, these key concepts are explored and re-explored in differing conceptual contexts, in order to draw out their richest subtleties and nuances. The findings of the thesis conclude that a radical re-evaluation and recalibration of contemporary Western European cultural meaning-structures can enable the disclosure of transcendent horizons of meaning – in particular, through re-engagement with Christian symbolic ‘language’ and its capacity to communicate Ultimate meanings. The outcome would be the (re-)expansion of available theo-cultural meaning-structures and meanings, enabling reflection on the nature of contemporary Western European culture and the reinvigoration of human cultural agency within it.
2012-01-01T00:00:00Z