Author: Hilary Hooks, Project Manager, Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity in EU Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING) Project
The DANCING project, led by Principal Investigator (PI) Professor Delia Ferri, aims to investigate participation in culture by persons with disabilities. Access is a critical issue in all areas of life for people with disabilities. This includes the area of culture, and concerns people with disabilities who are (or who wish to be) involved at all levels, including as artists, arts-professionals, and audiences.
Author: Dr Oliver Bartlett, : Assistant Professor of Law, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University
Research Stream: Social Lives
In October 2022 the Department of Justice published the Sale of Alcohol Bill. The publicly announced purpose of this legislation was to reform Ireland’s sprawling and disparate alcohol licensing rules and to bring Ireland’s nighttime economy closer to that of other major European cities. However, it emerged that the potential public health problems raised by a liberalisation of alcohol licensing were ignored at the highest political level. Based on a report launched on 20th October 2023 at Maynooth University, this post will summarise and contextualise the children’s rights impacts of the reform, which also appear to have been neglected.
Author: Eamon Callanis a second-year psychological studies student (Maynooth University) and was a SPUR intern on the GoGreenRoutes project during the Summer of 2023.
Our Green Campus hosted excellent researchers and practitioners once again, for this the fourth GoGreenRoutes H2020 project event held at Maynooth University, this time held in partnership with Mental Health Ireland. This week was most apt for the launch of our Autumn School, with World Mental Health Day (10th Oct.), marked by the launch of the EU Comprehensive Action Plan for Mental Health, and budget day in Ireland (Oct. 11th), (with an investment of €3.1 Billon in the new climate action fund).
Author:Eva Krolla, Research Assistant in the ERC-funded DANCING Project at the School of Law and Criminology and Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference speakers
The European Research Council (ERC) funded research project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity in EU Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’ based at the ALL Institute and the School of Law and Criminology under the lead of Principal Investigator Prof. Delia Ferri marked its halfway point by hosting the DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference on Monday, 4 September 2023 at Maynooth University.
Author: Rachel Brown is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES project
Rachel Brown
Like many of you, I recently watched Christopher Nolan’s biographic film documenting theoretical psychist Robert Oppenheimer’s involvement in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the first nuclear weapons. Although I enjoyed the film, I was left with a strange sense of unease about scientific knowledge and the power that knowledge has to change the world, and not always for the better. As I drove home, I considered my own responsibilities regarding the knowledge my research will produce. Needless to say, the 20-minute car journey home from the cinema felt very long that day.
Shortly after seeing the film, I came across Oppenheimer’s 1956 address to the American Psychological Association (APA) entitled Analogy in Science. It was an engaging and eloquently written speech and I assure you it is well worth the read. Intriguingly, he gives a stern warning to the field of psychology, while given at the height of behaviourism with widespread fear of mind control over individuals and society, 68 years on Oppenheimer’s warning seems just as relevant now as it did then.
On 20th April 2023, the PatentsInHumans team were delighted to host the public launch event for the European Research Council (ERC) funded PatentsInHumans project in Maynooth University. The event was attended by over 45 individuals, including, members of the public, students and academics working in a range of disciplines (including law, biology, political science and business), practising lawyers, and technology transfer specialists.
The PatentsInHumans project, based in the School of Law and Criminology and ALL Institute at Maynooth University, commenced on the 1st November 2022 and is a large interdisciplinary five-year project. It is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant and led by Professor Aisling McMahon. Alongside Professor McMahon, the PatentsInHumans team includes project manager, Sinéad Masterson, and postdoctoral researcher, Dr Opeyemi Kolawole. As the project develops, we will be recruiting more researchers to join the team in the coming months and years ahead.
Authors: Ann Leahy, Post-doctoral Researcher, and Delia Ferri, Professor of Law, ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University
DANCING: Researching Disability and Diversity in Culture
On 24th February 2023, Stopgap shared their work-in-progress in a pre-staging fashion, and without costumes or lighting at DanceHouse in a dedicated event organised in collaboration with Dance Ireland. ‘Lived Fiction’ – the title of the work being created by Lucy Bennett and collaborators from Stopgap – is an original piece of choreography that is performed by a group of disabled and non-disabled dancers and endeavours to be accessible to all. Stopgap’s devising process is based on key inclusive methods that the company has collectively developed and is a living example of how society should and could be, valuing the richness that comes from diversity. Experimenting and working on accessibility for both dancers and audience allows for a deep understanding of what accessibility really means. However, this choreographic work is also meant to be a “tool for change” by raising awareness on inclusive cultural participation.
Authors: GoGreenRoutes Academy Cluster Members – Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, PhD Researcher in the School of Business; Maynooth University, Cassandra Murphy, PhD Researcher in the Psychology Department of Maynooth University, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL); and Alan Scarry, PhD Researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick. All authors are funded by the H2020 project GoGreenRoutes.
The GoGreenRoutes Academy
Conference on Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice
Maynooth University, and ALL Institute project GoGreenRoutes (GGR) has a unique component referred to as an ‘Academy Cluster.’ Scientific Coordinator Professor Tadhg Macintyre established the academy at the start of the GGR project, and it has thrived over the past three years. Currently, Cassie Murphy, Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, and Alan Scarry, all PhD Researchers within the project, oversee the GGR academy. The Academy is a meeting forum for PhD Researchers and other Early Career Researchers to discuss progress and gaps in their individual learning. It was developed to give the researchers an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and develop new abilities from a range of outstanding speakers in a variety of sectors. The researchers themselves then took on the role of teachers, imparting their knowledge to any incoming academy members. Since the academy’s inception, each member has been given two distinct skill profiles: one for skills they seek to learn, the other for skills they wish to teach. Then, at this forum, each academy member has the chance to speak and acquire new abilities. Based on a method implemented by Professor John Gallagher, who works on the GGR project, researchers are urged to evaluate their own development. By assessing their own skills and identifying knowledge or education gaps that can be filled for professional advancement and personal growth, the researchers are also able to monitor the progress of their own research projects through participation in academy activities.
Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)
Matthew McKenna
The 24th of January 2023 was the UN International Day of Education, whilst today, the 24th of February, represents the first anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began a year ago as of this morning. This blogpost will address the unfathomable human rights crisis and tragedy that has befallen the Ukrainian people and the subsequent denial of access to education in wartime.
“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war” – Dr Maria Montessori.
Montessori, was an Italian medical doctor who pioneered the philosophy of education through her work with children with disabilities, starting in 1896. She delivered the above quote in the late 1930s while working on the ‘Education for Peace’ movement during her exile from Italy due to the anti-fascist ethos of her humanitarian work. Montessori believed that a lasting unity between nations and peoples could be achieved when the education of children was underpinned with the values of international peace and humanitarianism. Moreover, her work has had a profound impact on the gradual educational reforms that have slowly enabled persons with disabilities to enter education and has helped, albeit over time, to reduce the traditionally punitive and penal institutional approach to children experiencing learning difficulties. And as we marked the UN International Day of Education a month ago on 24th January 2023, her words sound just as relevant in today’s context as they were in the agitated pre-war climate of the late 1930s.
Author: Emma Smith, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute Member and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the prestigious Marie Sklowdowska Curie Actions Individual Fellowship
Emma Smith
On Wednesday, October 12th, the ALL Institute was pleased to welcome Dr. Natasha Layton to our first ALL Brown Bag Lunch. Dr. Layton is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Rehabilitation, Ageing, and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre in Australia. Dr. Layton drew from her experiences as an assistive technology provider, researcher, and consultant to key global organizations to share ‘what works’ in assistive technology provision on both a global and national scale.
While Dr. Layton spoke broadly about her experiences in assistive technology policy both nationally and internationally, I would like to highlight three key ideas which Dr. Layton talked about, which stood out as requiring further consideration and thought for us in Ireland, but also for those of us working globally.
Author: Ellen Staeglin Tucker, 3rd year BSc psychology intern of Dr Tadhg MacIntyre at Maynooth University
Autumn School on Our Future in Forestry
World Mental Health Day takes place on the 10th of October every year and has been running since 1992. The month of October is also World Mental Health Month. Every year a theme is highlighted around the topic of mental health today, as well as a general aim to spread awareness and gain support. The theme for 2022 is “Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority”. There are two important factors being highlighted this year; 1. the need for everyone, regardless of their circumstances, to have easy access to mental health services, and 2. the prioritisation of mental health and mental health services. For some, professional healthcare is vital to find ways of improvement and recovery, for a lot of people mental health services could go a long way in improving mental health. This is where a lot of the disparity in access lies. However, there are daily activities that nearly everyone can do at home to help improve their mental health.
Author: Ann Leahy, Post-doctoral Researcher, ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University. Author of, ‘Disability and Ageing: Towards a Critical Perspective’, with Policy Press.
Disability and Ageing: Towards a Critical Perspective
The celebration of the United Nations (UN) International Day of Older Persons on 1 October 2022, may make some reflections on issues relating to disability and ageing appropriate. I suggest that looking at ageing and disability together is valuable, despite the fact that the fields of ageing and of disability usually tend to remain quite separate. At a most fundamental level, understandings of what ‘disability’ is may differ depending on when disability is first experienced across the lifespan. Older people experiencing impairments are not always considered ‘disabled’ and there are a range of consequences that flow from this. Specifically, ‘disability’ is approached separately from ageing within public policies, scholarship and activism, depending on whether it is first experienced early or late in life. Despite the ageing of our populations and how some 46% of older people worldwide have an impairment, it tends to be under-recognised that older people represent the majority of the overall population of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the strict separation between ‘ageing’ and ‘disability’ is paradoxical, given that people with disabilities age and that most people will experience disability if they live long enough.
Author: Jack Hilliard, undergraduate, B.A. Psychology student at Maynooth University, working as an Intern under Dr Tadhg MacIntyre and Ph.D. researcher Cassandra Murphy as part of the SPUR (Summer Undergraduate Experimental Research) Programme.
Team Phoenix posing in the Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, Malta.
The Go Green Routes Summer School Malta was an exciting three-day showcase of the consortium’s recent successes, which further integrated the transdisciplinary researchers from across Europe towards the common goal of nature connectedness through 360-health. This broadly aligns with the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute’s goals of developing appropriate technologies, person-centred systems and evidence-based policies which will empower people towards a greener future. Situated in the historic capital, it was hoped the setting would act as a microcosm for future nature-based solutions (NBS) across the Mediterranean as referred to by the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins.
Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher at the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, and Senior Occupational Therapist at Stewartscare
Mohamed Maalim
Persons with disabilities, people with functional limitations resulting from chronic conditions, and older adults often experience physical, psychological, and social challenges restricting their participation in society. Moreover, individuals with disabilities often experience direct and indirect societal discrimination, as mentioned in the report Disability and Discrimination in Ireland. The right of the person with disabilities to the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as to the protection and promotion of their inherent dignity and respect, is enshrined in Article 1 (Purpose) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
Authors: Cassandra Dinius, Carmen Pocknell, Richard Roche, Department of Psychology & Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
L to R Carmen Pocknell, Richard Roche, Cassandra Dinius
Remember those life moments that you think are unforgettable and yet, are already blurred one year later. Our precious memories are fragile and can evaporate as rapidly as a blink of an eye. Memory loss has taken so many dreams away.
Keeping our brains active – especially our memories – can be life changing, and is comparable to revisiting our favourite, faded old book: by reading it again and again, we keep the moments alive…
Author: Emma Smith, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute Member and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the prestigious Marie Sklowdowska Curie Actions Individual Fellowship
Author: Léa Urzel, PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University
DANCING Logo
The Social Justice Week is currently taking place at Maynooth University. Thanks to the collaboration of staff, students and other agencies, an array of events has been organised to promote social justice and human rights. This year’s edition is dedicated to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established ‘an action plan for people, planet and prosperity’ and introduced 17 SDGs to guide decisions of a wide range of stakeholders at State, regional and global level. Under this UN initiative, world leaders have committed to taking joint action to achieve the SDGs and the 169 associated targets over the next 15 years. Integrated and indivisible, the SDGs and its related targets address global challenges ranging from poverty, health, education, gender equality to clean water, sanitation, or climate action.
Author: Dr. Katja Seidel, Senior Post-Doc Researcher in SHAPES (Horizon 2020); Department of Anthropology and Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute at Maynooth University
Katja Seidel
We all learn. Every day we live we experience something new, acquire novel skills or engage with a new person or activity for the first time. Learning thus never ends, not even when we leave formal educational pathways or retire. The Horizon 2020 Innovation Action research project SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems) led by Maynooth University and ALL Institute members, starts from the assumption that people of all ages are capable of learning and integrating new tools and behaviours into their lives, especially when assisted in an appropriate manner. This four-year research project looks at ways in which integrated care and governance models as well as smart technologies can support community dwelling older adults to live healthy and active lives, and investigates different pathways for change and innovation that will have a beneficial impact on our societies in Europe.
Author: Eliona Gjecaj is an early-stage researcher in the DARE project (Disability Advocacy Research Europe) based at the University of Iceland. Her PhD research focuses on ‘Violence against Disabled Women: Access to Justice’ in Iceland and the UK.
Eliona Gjecaj
Today, on International Women’s Day, I would like to celebrate all the survivors of gender-based violence, especially disabled women, and encourage others to come forward and tell someone. Gender-based violence is not and should not be taboo. Much like the saying ‘talk the talk, walk the walk’, we must have the experience talk. We must access the justice walk.
Let’s first highlight that there are so many unheard experiences of gender-based violence of disabled women that we need to hear, to believe, to recognise as breaches of law, and thus, provide support and access to reporting and prosecuting such violence. Lack of disability-rights-based knowledge, awareness, and training should not be the defence, but rather acknowledged and addressed. Not just in Ireland, but in many countries across Europe.
Author: Dr Rebecca Maguire, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University
Rebecca Maguire
International Women’s Day is a great time to celebrate the numerous achievements of women across the world. However, it is also an important time to reflect on the struggles and inequalities that persist for many. Unfortunately, despite significant strides towards gender* equality in recent years, as a group, women remain disadvantaged in the world of work relative to their male counterparts. This includes the oft-cited gender pay gap – the difference in median earnings between men and women – that persists in many sectors. Academia is no exception to this, with a recent report from the HEA showing that, in 2020, men made up 73% of Professors in Ireland, compared to women who made up just 27%. This is despite the fact that women make up a greater proportion of early career researchers and lecturers in academia – an effect often referred to as the “leaky pipeline”.
