research

What if some of our personal data could actually help save lives?

Karen Mooney on January 9, 2022, 8:55 am | Readers 355

“It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.” ― Oscar Wilde Information is valuable; it’s theft and misuse, a nightmare that we all fear these days. And yet so often, in this online world, we regularly sleepwalk into parting with information that can be used or even weaponised into targeted mail relating to our consumer preferences. We become suspicious when more personal information is sought, and rightly so. But what if some of our personal …

Northern Ireland at 100: Unionism failing; Nationalism stuck; Moderates thriving…

Philip McGuinness on April 27, 2021, 8:00 am | Readers 3991

One hundred years after Partition, Northern Ireland is still in existence. It would surely come as a big surprise to many who thronged the streets of Belfast on June 22nd 1921 – the date King George V opened the first NI Parliament in City Hall – that unionism is now a minority in Stormont. It would also surely come as a big surprise to many nationalists in 1972 that the state set up to guarantee unionist rule in north-east Ireland …

Wanted: NI artefacts and memorabilia from 1998 onwards

Soapbox on February 14, 2018, 10:00 am | Readers 389

James Ashe is a final year Graphic Communication student at Norwich University of the Arts. He’s a freelance designer and photographer with an interest in brands, print and visual identity projects. This year is the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which changed the landscape of Northern Ireland. As I approach the conclusion of my studies in Norwich, I am putting together a book that is a reflection of growing up in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It’s entitled You Can’t …

SOAPBOX: Tackling use of selective evidence by governments – free seminar on 15 June #A4UEevents

Soapbox on June 10, 2017, 11:15 am | Readers 366

SOAPBOX Peter O’Neill argues that government must make the best use of evidence to be effective in policy-making. He’s organising a seminar in Belfast next week to look at the local perspective and how government can make the best use of evidence.

How connected are our politicians? Can you find them online? In real life?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 21, 2016, 9:26 am | Readers 785

CONNECTED POLITICIANS report examines the digital footprint of MLAs departing at the end of the last mandate, assessing their website and social media presence, and how well they update constituents with information about the political and constituency activity, as well how easily you can locate their offices and surgeries.

Burying bad news: the defeat of People’s Democracy

Turgon on May 7, 2016, 1:21 pm | Readers 1267

The elections have proved a good day to bury bad news. Not the minor issue of a government U turn on the decision to make all English schools become academies but rather the scandalous decision to defy the democratically expressed will of the British people. I refer of course to the scandal of the naming of the new Polar Research Ship. This is going to be named RRS (Royal Research Ship) Sir David Attenborough. Previous ships have been named after …

The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power #dupbook launch

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 18, 2014, 12:31 am | Readers 313

After much trailing in the Belfast Telegraph, five academics launched their book based around two years of research with DUP members and interviews with DUP elected representatives and staff. The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power looks at the origins of the DUP and its rise to power, the changing discourses that shifted the party from being anti-agreement to in government post St Andrews, as well as slicing and dicing the membership, the role of religion, faith and women …

Book launches: Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict and Belfast 400

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 24, 2013, 9:00 pm | Readers 54

Two books were launched tonight in Belfast. A reception was held at the City Hall to mark the book commissioned to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the city’s charter. I reviewed Belfast 400: People, Place and History (edited by Sean Connolly) back in December. It tells the story of the city that “emerged as the capital of Irish Unionism” yet was also “the birthplace of a United Irish movement committed to the establishment of an independent Irish republic”. Industrialisation, …

Why (and how) smart people can prove thicker than the rest of us…

Mick Fealty on November 19, 2012, 4:02 pm | Readers 54

[Cough] Not looking at anyone in particular, but I’ve just come across this nice piece of research on the YouGov-Cambridge site. It’s just one reason why most of us are more than just a little suspicious of smart people. On the whole, it seems, they are thicker than the rest of us. Over to Stefan Shakespeare: Psychologists use the term ‘the bias blind spot’ to describe our ability to see the thinking errors of other people while not recognizing the …

Northern Ireland youth and the critical importance of mobility…

Mick Fealty on November 24, 2011, 2:35 pm | Readers 19

There’s an interesting longitudinal research just published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the problems faced by 18 young people growing up in Northern Ireland. Each were interviewed up to seven times since the research began back in 1997. They’re all now aged 25 to 33. It tells a series of stories (without pretending it is the real and definitive story) about the first generation to grow up in a largely trouble free society. But it’s work in trying to …

In terms of post-recession employment, the young and the vulnerable are suffering the most – but what will we do about it?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 28, 2010, 6:30 am | Readers 62

In many ways the Equality Commission’s 115 report confirmed my shallow understanding of the recession. People who’ve never worked – eg, the young – are struggling to get jobs. People who have lost jobs are struggling to regain employment. Vulnerable groups are finding it tough. And blue collar has so far been worse than white collar.