Winter issue of Studies launched in RIA
The winter 2024 issue of Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review » was launched at the end of the annual lecture of the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) » in the Royal Irish Academy, on 5 December. This year’s lecture was delivered by Mary Murphy, Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University, who was also co-curator with Dr Peadar Kirby of the special issue of Studies.
The title of the winter issue of Studies is ‘Ireland’s development model: Has it run its course?’ The specific matter that is addressed in different ways in the six contributing essays is Ireland’s failure to convert its success as a modern economy into improved social provision and services. Apart from co-curating the issue, Dr Murphy also co-authored an article in it on how to build up an ‘Ecosocial careful political economy’ – a model of development, that is, that aligns equality, care, and climate justice. Her NERI lecture covered similar ground. It was titled ”A new all-island social settlement: An eco-social future of care and equality’. In it she traced the ways in which climate issues and social inequality are intimately linked, proposed care-based economic and welfare systems, and identified concrete measures to address Ireland’s chronic problem of inequality and insecurity. Dr Murphy referenced the winter issue of Studies a number of times during her paper.
The response to Dr Murphy’s paper came from Dr Larry O’Connell, Director of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC). Afterwards, it was he who formally launched the winter issue of Studies. Dr Dermot Roantree, current editor of Studies, spoke first. He looked back over the history of the journal from its founding in 1912, noting some of the more illustrious contributors over the years, including four taoisigh and three presidents. The purpose and objective of Studies, he noted, was to bridge the gap between the specialist research of the universities and the general cultured public so as to enrich public discourse in the country, and it had fulfilled that function throughout its 112 years. The winter issue, he concluded, contributed admirably to this tradition. Then, in his brief words to launch the issue, Dr O’Connell praised the excellent curation and the calibre of the articles, much needed at the present juncture, both in Ireland and in the world at large.
