Faculty Fellowships, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

The Faculty Fellowship is an annual scheme that awards a number of staff members in Humanities and Social Sciences a semester free of teaching and administrative duties so as complete an existing research project and to bring this research to publication. Applicants set out specific publications to be completed and submitted during their period as Faculty Fellow. The review panel for this scheme comprises three non-Faculty figures including one non-DCU academic. The Humanities and Social Sciences Associate Dean for Research acts an independent chair of the Panel.

FELLOWS:

2022/2023 - Fellowships Awarded

Michael Breen, School of Law & Government

The faculty fellowship enabled me to complete a research project that I had been working on for several years. The project examines how international organisations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank make decisions. A few years ago, internal records from these organisations became publicly accessible, allowing me to gather and analyse a massive dataset that tracks these decisions over a twenty-year period. The work was slow but rewarding. It has allowed me to address fundamental questions about world politics: How do powerful states cooperate to make billion-euro decisions? When do experts get a say? Do weaker states ever have a voice in decision-making? Thanks to the fellowship, I completed a monograph that provides answers to these questions. I am now looking forward to sharing my findings in peer-reviewed papers and books. Looking back, I am immensely grateful for the fellowship and DCU’s ongoing support for original research.

Most relevant recent publications:

• Michael Breen and Elliott Doak. 2023. The IMF as a global monitor: surveillance, information, and financial markets. Review of International Political Economy, 30 (1):307-331. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2021.2004441. (ranked in the top 2.5% of journals in Political Science and International Relations according to Scopus).
• Michael Breen. Forthcoming, 2024. Capital Controls and Financial Regulations. In The Oxford Handbook of the International Monetary Fund, edited by Bessma Momani and Mark Hibben.

 

Marina Carr, School of English

The Faculty Fellowship allowed me to write 2 operas, OLD GHOSTS for INO which was performed at MOLI Museum and a new opera called THE OTHER HUSBAND which will be produced by INO in their 2025/2026 season.

I also wrote a first draft of a new play for The Abbey Theatre. (Untitled so far)

I completed a final draft of a play called AUDREY or SORROW which will premiere at the Abbey Theatre in Spring 2024.

My play GILGAMESH was published by The Gallery Press.

My play GIRL on an ALTAR was published in its second edition by Faber & Faber for the Abbey where it ran for six weeks in July and August 2023.

My play PORTIA COUGHLAN will be performed at the ALMEIDA Theatre in London in October 2023. Faber & Faber are bringing out a new edition of the play to coincide with the production.

I attended the EFCAIS conference in Valencia in May 2023 and gave a paper on Greek Tragedy.

I spent three weeks at the Centre Culturel Irlandais working with various Artists on forthcoming projects and overall spent three months in Paris writing.

I spent 2 weeks in Italy working with Italian translators who are translating my plays for publication and production in Italy.

Overall the  Faculty Fellowship afforded me peace and time to write new work and to finish drafts that had been lying around the place. It was a productive year for me.

 

Ryoko Sasamoto, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies

During my participation in the Faculty Fellowship program, my primary goal was to complete a monograph that consolidates a decade of my work focused on the pragmatics of creative subtitling, with a specific emphasis on pop-up captions and text-on-screen. The contemporary landscape has witnessed a surge in the use of text-on-screen, leading to what is sometimes termed the "era of textual intensity," spanning TV, VoD, and social media. This shift has transformed text-on-screen from a tool solely in the hands of professionals to a medium for viewers to interact with each other and express their attitude towards media products. Throughout the fellowship, I spent the initial months updating my existing research and literature review, followed by a rewarding experience in Japan, where I conducted in-situ research at Rikkyo University, connected with scholars, and observed current TV practices. I also engaged in various talks to disseminate my findings. This Faculty Fellowship program has been instrumental in advancing my research on the pragmatics of creative subtitling. Publication and talks related to this fellowship include:

Sasamoto, Ryoko (forthcoming). Text on Screen’ in Audiovisual Translation: The Pragmatics of Creative Text Use in Multimodal Discourse. London: Routledge

Sasamoto, Ryoko.  'Pragmatics and Translation' Université de Fribourg, Switzerland. 5th April 2023

Sasamoto, Ryoko. 'Pragmatics Approach to Social Media, Viewer Community and Translation Function on Screen'. Graduate School of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. 19th April 2023

Sasamoto, Ryoko. Future and Sustainability of Translation Studies. Rikkyo University, Tokyo. 22nd April 2023.

Sasamoto, Ryoko. 'Onomatopoeia and Translation' College of Intercultural Studies, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. 26th April 2023

Sasamoto, Ryoko. Language in Media. Faculty of Policy Science, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan. 9th May 2023

Sasamoto, Ryoko. Pragmatics of Emoji and GIF. College of Intercultural Studies, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. 10th May 2023.

Sasamoto, Ryoko. Telop, Subtitles and Text-on-Screen. Translation Cafe, Tokyo. 15th May 2023

Sasamoto, Ryoko. Pragmatics and Translation Studies. Graduate School of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. 17th May 2023.

I am currently engaged in co-editing Cambridge Companion (CUP), as well as co-authoring Linguistics in Multilingual World with Dr Jennifer Martyn (Routledge).

 

2018/2019 - Fellowships Awarded

• CIARÁN MAC AN BHAIRD, FIONTAR & SCOIL NA GAEILGE 
• ALEX BATURO, SCHOOL OF LAW & GOVERNMENT

 

2017/2018 - Fellowships Awarded

• DECLAN FAHY, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS 
• JANE SUITER, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

 

2016/2017 - Fellowships Awarded

JOHN O'SULLIVAN, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

Following a prolonged period devoted to intensive teaching, especially since the awarding of my PhD, the Faculty fellowship allowed me to refocus my work toward research, conversely to widen my area of interest beyond the strict limitations of journalism studies, and to engage in rich international collaborations. I found the experience liberating and stimulating. I believe that it has contributed enormously to my academic development: it has re-established my research activity in a way that will determine the future direction of my work.

The core subject matter of the research, which is ongoing, is the use and perception of print and digital media platforms. Although it is unfunded, I believe that this topic opens up an important wider avenue of socially-oriented work regarding media platforms that will provide knowledge and insights beyond dominant techno-centric and psychology-led approaches.

The outputs from the research so far reflect its collaborative nature:

●       a book chapter on smartphone use typifies the socio-technical approach that characterises the work more widely

●       a sole-authored journal article (in review) addresses Irish students’ preferences in and use of media platforms for academic and personal use, using qualitative analysis

●       I have agreed to collaborate on a jointly-authored journal article, based on the survey data, with an Italian colleague

I had hoped that an edited or jointly-edited book could be produced using the dataset from the 10 countries involved in the research. The dynamics of the group, however, have proven complex, with varying degrees of commitment from some participants and, perhaps more significantly, an inconsistent quality of data gathering and presentation from several others frustrating attempts to achieve a wider joint approach. Achieving consensus for a joint approach on an overarching publication has not been possible, though some possibility remains that a Europe-wide statistical analysis, to which I would contribute significantly, may yet be realised.

Nevertheless, the work has been productive and has opened up new avenues. The European project connects with a USA-led international study, and it is likely that further opportunities for perhaps more solidly-based partnerships will emerge around the continuing exploration of reading and writing. This emerging cluster of work represents an important shift in emphasis in the understanding of reading and writing, and is likely to continue to be high in impact.

The research on reading connects closely with my other continuing research interest, which concerns the materiality of news media formats, and in particular the role of print and innovation around print newspapers. More widely, the fellowship activity has afforded me entry into a wider arena of research connecting social concerns and technological development. Encompassing developments such as artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, and democratic participation, it will offer further opportunities for research, collaboration and funding bids in the medium to longer term.

In summary, my fellowship has provided me with an opportunity to pursue original research, grow collaborative connections, learn valuable lessons on joint international research, and widen research horizons both for myself and for the School and Faculty.

 

2015/2016

DEBBIE GING, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

I applied to the Faculty Fellowship programme with a view to publishing journal articles arising from the report The Sexualisation and Commercialisation of Children in Ireland: an exploratory study. This study was commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and funded by the Irish Research Council (RDI Strand 2, Theme 5). Due to unforeseen delays with the publication of the report, I spent the first few months of the fellowship working a number of other research projects into journal publications. I was also able to devote more time to my ongoing research into online misogyny and men’s rights politics online. This work resulted in the following publications:

•       Ross, Karen, Ging, Debbie and Barlow, Charlotte (2016, forthcoming) ‘UK and Ireland’ in Ross, Karen and Padovani, Clauia (Eds.) Gender Equality and the Media: A Challenge for Europe. Routledge.

•       Ross, Karen, Boyle, Karen, Carter, Cindy and Ging, Debbie (2016) ‘Women, men and news: it’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.’ Journalism Studies (Scopus Q1)

•       Ging, Debbie and O’Higgins-Norman, James (2016) ‘Cyberbullying, conflict management or just messing? Teenage girls’ understandings and experiences of gender, friendship and conflict on Facebook in an Irish second-level school.’ Feminist Media Studies 16(5)(Scopus Q1)

•       Ging, Debbie and Garvey, Sarah (2017) '‘Written in these scars are the stories I can’t explain’: A content analysis of pro-ana and thinspiration image sharing on Instagram' New Media + Society (Scopus Q1)

•       Ging, Debbie (2017) 'Memes, Masculinity and Mancession: Love/Hate's Online Metatexts'. Irish Studies Review 25(1) (Scopus Q2)

•       Ging, Debbie (2017) ‘Alphas, Betas and Incels: theorizing the masculinities of the Manosphere’, Men and Masculinities (Scopus Q1)

The Sexualisation and Commercialisation of Children in Ireland report was published toward the end of 2015, and has resulted in a further publication in Feminist Media Studies, currently undergoing final revisions.

The Fellowship gave me an opportunity to deepen and expand my work on gender and social media and to significantly enhance my international reputation in this field. In addition to publishing 6 journal articles and a book chapter, the work on anti-feminist men’s rights and online misogyny led to two major subsequent projects in which I am currently engaged: guest editing a special issue of Feminist Media Studies on Online Misogyny with Eugenia Siapera and co-editing a book (Palgrave Macmillan), also with Eugenia Siapera, entitled Gender Hate Online: Understanding the New Anti-feminism.

JAMES O’HIGGINS NORMAN, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION STUDIES

The fellowship came at a very significant time for me starting my work as Director of the National Anti-Bullying Research Centre. During the time of the fellowship I successfully undertook the process to have the Centre recognised as a University Designated Research Centre. The Award also allowed me to concentrate on co-ordinating a number of research projects that I was able to bring to fulfilment during the fellowship. These included a research report undertaken in co-operation with the Health and Safety Authority on bullying in the workplace and another on parents and their capacities in relation to cyberbullying which was undertaken in conjunction with an EU Erasmus+ project.  Furthermore, I used the fellowship to build a network of international researchers in the field of bullying studies and to host a conference on bullying in June 2016 at DCU. This conference will lead to the publication of an international handbook on bullying prevention and we are also in the process of establishing a new scholarly journal on the same topic.

Publications related to the fellowship include:

Book Chapters

O’Higgins Norman, J. and Sullivan, K. (2017). Reducing school bullying: a whole-school approach. In H. Cowie and C.A. Meyers (eds). Bullying in Schools. Intervention and Prevention. Oxfordshire:  Routledge.

O’Higgins Norman, J. and Sullivan, K. (2017). Bullying. In L. Meyer (eds). Oxford Bibliographies in Education. Oxford University Press.

McGuire, L. and O’Higgins Norman, J. (2017). Parents Coping with Cyberbullying: An Ecological Analysis. In S. Bauman and C.A.  Meyers. (eds). Preventing Cyberbullying in Schools. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Journals

Ging, D. and O’Higgins Norman, J. (2016). Cyberbullying, conflict management or just messing? Teenage Girls’ understanding and experiences of gender, friendship and conflict on Facebook in an Irish Girls Second-level school. Feminist Media Studies, 1-17.

Farrelly, G, O’Higgins Norman, J. and O’Leary, M. (2016). Custodians of Silences? School Principal     Perspectives on the Incidence and Nature of Homophobic Bullying in Primary Schools in Ireland. Irish Educational Studies, 35:3. 

Research Reports

O’Higgins Norman, J. and McGuire, L. (2016). Cyberbullying in Ireland: A Survey of Parents Internet Use and Knowledge: Research Report. Dublin City University. Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre.

O’Higgins Norman, J. and Kiernan, G. (2015).  Bullying in the Workplace: An Analysis of Cases in the Employment Appeals Tribunal under the Unfair Dismissals Acts (1997-2007):  Research Report. Dublin City University. Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre.

 

2014/2015

MARK O’BRIEN, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

The Faculty Fellowship afforded me time and resources to complete a monograph entitled The Fourth Estate: Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland (Manchester University Press). While many media institutions have been subjected to historical scrutiny, the professional and organisational development of journalists, the changing practices of journalism, and the contribution of journalists and journalism to the evolution of modern Ireland have not. This book rectifies this deficit by mapping the development of journalism in Ireland from the late 1880s to today. Beginning with the premise that the position of journalists and the power of journalism are products of their time and are shaped by ever-shifting political, economic, technological and cultural forces it examines the background and values of those who worked as journalists, how they viewed and understood their role over the decades, how they organised and what they stood for as a professional body, how the prevailing political and social atmosphere facilitated or constrained their work, and, crucially, how their work impacted on social change and contributed to the development of modern Ireland. Placing the experiences of journalists and the practice of journalism at the heart of its analysis it examines, for the first time, the work of journalists within the ever-changing context of Irish society.

IAIN MCMENAMIN, SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT

I spent most of my time working on the relationship between elections and financial markets during the euro crisis.  This is a complex project involving opinion polling and financial data for 18 elections in 11 countries and the content analysis of thousands of news reports from the Bloomberg agency.  The main paper from this work is almost ready for submission and I also hope to use it as the basis of a monograph.  I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to the European University Institute in Florence for two months during my Fellowship, where I presented to a seminar including three Harvard full professors and four European Research Council grantees.  I also presented work done during the Fellowship at a workshop in DCU and at Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference in Cork and my colleagues have presented it the American Political Science Association, European Political Science Association, Council for European Studies, and twice at UCD. 

Most relevant recent publication:

Iain McMenamin, Michael Breen, and Juan Muñoz Portillo. 2015. Austerity and Credibility in the Eurozone. EUROPEAN UNION POLITICS, 16, 1: 45-66 (ranked in the top 1.2% of journals in social science according to Scopus).

2013/2014

EILEEN CONNOLLY,  SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT

The Faculty Fellowship, Autumn Semester 2013-14, supported the completion of a number of activities which otherwise would not have been possible in this timeframe. In particular it gave me the space to publish with my research students while maintaining a high level of commitment to on going PhD supervision and continuing grant applications. I brought two PhDs to completion during the fellowship, ‘Transnationalism, power and change: three decades of debt campaigning’ (Jean Somers) and 'Global Civil Society' and ‘Hegemonic Global Governance: A Gramscian Analysis of the NGO Campaigns to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions’ (Diana O Dwyer).

I was involved in the establishment of a Marie Curie PhD Initial Training Network on ‘Tension in the Post Soviet Space’ (DCU receives €1.2m) this was awarded in Summer 2013 and started in September 2013. From September 2013 I was also involved in the writing and submission of a second Marie Curie ITN on the Caspian Region (with colleague Dr Donnacha O Beachain) this is also coordinated by DCU, and was subsequently awarded €3.8m funding in September 2014, €1.2m to be spent in DCU.

With the support of the fellowship during this time I also published:

• “Gender and the Allocation of Political Portfolios in Ireland: Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and Parliamentary Committee Chairs”, Irish Political Studies, 2013
• ‘The Role of Political Ideas in Multi-Party Elections in Tanzania: Refuting Essentialist Explanations of African Political Systems’, (with David Nyaluke), Irish Studies in International Affairs, 24, 2013. 

I have also submitted two other articles which are currently under review (December 2014).

2012/2013

EOIN O’MALLEY, SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT

The Faculty Fellowship afforded me time and space to finish off a number of papers on several projects including an analysis of the 2011 general election coverage. This project has produced four publications and the Fellowship gave me time to complete this work (see below). I also started work on a new project on the Irish party system, which I expect to publish as a book.

Main publications from Fellowship: 

• 'When do deliberative citizens change their opinions? Evidence from the Irish Citizens' Assembly' International Political Science Review, 2014 (with Jane Suiter & David Farrell)
• ‘Civil Compliance versus 'Political Luddism': Explaining variance in social unrest during crisis in Ireland and Greece’ American Behavioral Scientist, 2014, (with Takis S. Pappas, EUI Florence)
• Eoin O'Malley & John FitzGibbon. 2015. Everywhere and Nowhere: Populism and the puzzling non-reaction to Ireland's crises. European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession , ECPR Press
• 'Does commercial orientation matter for policy-game framing? A content analysis of television and radio news programmes on public and private stations’ European Journal of Communication 2014 (with Kevin Rafter, Roddy Flynn &Iain McMenamin)
• ‘The impact of the economic crisis on media framing: Evidence from three elections in Ireland.’ European Political Science Review (print), 2014, (with Heinz Brandenburg, Roddy Flynn, Iain McMenamin & Kevin Rafter)
• Eoin O'Malley, Kevin Rafter, Roddy Flynn &Iain McMenamin . 2014. Mediating elections in Ireland: evidence from the 2011 general election.Political Communication in the Republic of Ireland, Liverpool University Press

DONNACHA Ó BEACHÁIN, SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT

During the HSS Fellowship one book was completed, another progressed and another launched. Research was conducted at Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Linen Hall Library for The Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Conflict: The Politics of Partition (Manchester University Press, forthcoming). Political Communication in the Republic of Ireland (edited Mark O’Brien; published by Liverpool University Press) was completed. Life in Post-Communist Europe after EU Membership (edited with Vera Sheridan and Sabina Stan; published by Routledge), which was published with a foreword by former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski and launched by Ambassador of Estonia at European Commission HQ, February 2013. One journal article was published and six more were composed/finalised during the period of Fellowship. A book chapter was also composed and another published.

The Fellowship also gave me the opportunity to present research conducted as a result of awards received from IRCHSS and the Department of Foreign Affairs Conflict Resolution Unit. I made presentations in the United States, Georgia and also in Dublin. I also organised a major international research conference, which took place in DCU (15-16 March 2013). The conference – entitled ‘Communism and Post-Communism: Transition, Transformation, Stagnation’ – brought over 100 participants from over 20 countries to DCU.

MIRIAM JUDGE, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

The HSS faculty fellowship for the academic year 2012/2013 enabled me to develop the IPod Touch project further exploring how handheld mobile devices such as the I-Pod Touch could be used to enhance effective teaching and learning.  The main period of the fellowship (Semester two, 2013) provided an invaluable opportunity to spend time on site with participating schools initially familiarising teachers with the pedagogical and technical capabilities of the I-Pod Touch Kart system and then observing their use and deployment in the classroom to research and document how teachers used the devices to support classroom learning and creativity.

A number of presentations and workshops on the project were conducted during 2013 and 2014. These included: 

1. Conference Presentation on the project at the AUCEi (The association of Ubiquitous and Collaborative Educators International), Trinity College Dublin, July 2014.
2. Presentation on the organisational and technical challenges of the I-Pod Touch project at inaugural meeting of the MiCool (Mobile Intercultural and Cooperative Learning) network, Lisbon, March 2014. I have since joined the network and recently led a bid, comprising 6 European partners for an EU Erasmus Plus project on the use of mobile technologies in European classrooms.
3. Show case/demonstration of the I-Pod devices as mobile learning tools as part of CESI contributions to the Feilte Festival of Education in Teaching and Learning Excellence, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, October 2013.
4. A CPD workshop for 20 teachers at the Marino Institute for Education (July 2013) where the IPod Touch system was used throughout the week to demonstrate how the use of apps on the IPod Touch device could be used to support literacy and numeracy as well as creative activities such as story creation through stop motion animation and movie making apps downloaded to the device.

One journal article entitled “The Medium is the Message: An Assessment of the impact of the IPod Touch on classroom practices and creativity in Irish primary and post-primary schools” is currently underway and the targeted journal is Irish Education Studies.

A second journal article entitled “Fixed or Mobile – IPods or Interactive Whiteboards – A frontline perspective on Classroom Technologies” is planned for the targeted journal in Media Learning and Technology.

A peer reviewed conference presentation is also planned for the Mobile technology in Initial Teacher Education: (MITE) Conference in Galway at the end of January 2015.

2011/2012

FRANCESCO CAVATORA, SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT

The HSS Fellowship was crucial in allowing me to bring to fruition a number of research projects I was involved in. I had three collaborative research programmes at the time. The first dealt with civil society dynamics in authoritarian states. The second one examined the rise of Islamism in Tunisia and its role in the ongoing process of democratization after the Arab Spring. The third one looked at the way in which authoritarian Arab states were able to reconfigure their institutional structures to avoid revolutionary challenges. The Fellowship gave me the time to focus on publishing the findings of these three research streams and I enjoyed the benefits of the Fellowship until early 2014 when the last piece of research from that period was published. *Now a professor at Université Laval, Québec, Canada.

Main publications from Fellowship:

Books

• (with Paul Aarts) (eds.) Civil society in Syria and Iran: activism in authoritarian contexts, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2013
• (ed.) State-society relations under authoritarian constraints, forthcoming, London: Routledge, 2013.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• (with Paola Rivetti) ‘Student activism under authoritarian constraints. The case of Iran’, Democratization, Vol. 21, no. 2, 2014, pp. 289-310.
• (with Paola Rivetti) ‘The importance of being civil society: student politics and the reformist movement in Khatami’s Iran’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol.49, no. 4, 2013, pp. 645-660.
• (with Rikke Haugbølle) ‘Dégage! The end of authoritarianism in Tunisia ?’, Der Burger im Staat,
• (with Rikke Haugbølle) ‘Vive la grande famille des media tunisiens! Media reform and authoritarian resilience in Tunisia’, Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2012, 97-11.
• (with Rikke Haugbølle) ‘Beyond Ghannouchi: Islamism and social change in Tunisia’, Middle East Report, no. 262, Spring 2012, pp. 20-25.
• ‘The war on terror and the transformation of Political Islam’, Religion Compass, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2012, pp. 185-194.
• ‘La reconfiguration des structures de pouvoir en Algérie. Entre le national et l’international’, Revue Tiers Monde, No. 210, Avril-Juin 2012, pp. 13-29. (In French)
• (with Emanuela Dalmasso) ‘Political Islam in Morocco: negotiating the Kingdom’s liberal space’, Contemporary Arab Affairs, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2011, pp. 484-500.
• (with Rikke Haugbølle) ‘Will the real Tunisian opposition please stand up?! Opposition coordination failures under authoritarian constraints’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2011, pp. 323-341.

RODDY FLYNN, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS

My original intention with the Fellowship was (1) to focus on completing interviews with individuals involved in screen policy formation since 1970 who were now retired and/or based outside Dublin (and in two cases outside Ireland); and (2) to complete drafts of the last four chapters of the book with a view to submitting the completed text to the publisher (Irish Academic Press).

The first task was facilitated by the Fellowship in so far as it allowed me to spend some 20 days away from the university during what would otherwise be a teaching term. These interviews included meetings with two former Chief Executives and one former Chairman of the Irish Film Board, two former Ministers for Industry and Commerce, a number of retired senior Civil Servants from the Department of the Taoiseach , Industry and Commerce/Enterprise and Employment, Foreign Affairs and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

The completion of the drafts went less smoothly due to the unexpected release of two sets of papers to the Irish Film Archive. (I had assumed that the archival element of my research was complete.) However, in Autumn 2011 the Chief Executive of the first Irish Film Board (1982 – 1987) Michael Algar deposited the complete paper record of the first Board’s existence. This is a huge collection of material but offered an incredibly rich insight into the relationship between the IFB and the state. This was followed within six months by the release of papers from the Irish Film and Television Workers Guild (relating to the period from 1975 to 1984). The Guild papers proved less useful but I cumulatively spent two months in the library of the IFI writing up the findings: again such a concentrated research focus would not have been possible in the absence of the support from the Fellowship.

In terms of outputs, the unexpected release of the Algar/IFTWG papers delayed the completion of the book. A draft of the book has gone to the publisher. However, with the announcement in May 2012 that the Department of Finance was re-assessing the operation Section 481 tax break (which is the focus on the penultimate chapter in the book) and the subsequent – December 2012 - decision to end its operation, I did ask that they allow me to resubmit that chapter to take account of that decision. The next six months (from March 2013) should see publications begin to emerge including a paper on Section 481 in Vol. 8 of Estudios Irlandeses.