This chapter provides empirical evidence to inform how special educational needs (SEN) can be best resourced in Ireland. By focusing on the nature and scale of the SEN population across primary and post-primary schools, it examines the extent to which the criteria for SEN funding match the distribution of the SEN population across schools. The chapter also examines the ways in which different countries approach SEN financing within the climate of inclusive education policy. It outlines findings from a National Census of Mainstream Schools to examine the profile and characteristics of students with SEN across Irish primary and post-primary schools. The language of special education and use of categorical systems for resource allocation appears to run counter to the notion of inclusion, which undoubtedly has implications for the systems in place for securing extra provision.

Based on a research study involving observation of over 370 LEP cases and detailed interviews with interpreters and legal professionals, chapter 4 looks at the operation of the District Court in cases involving LEP defendants. It considers how and when interpreters are provided, evaluates the interpreter’s role in court, and creates an original typology of District Court interpreters, which classifies how and the extent to which interpreters variously interact in and with the interpreted case.

This chapter presents revised and up-to-date estimates of the direct private economic costs of adult disability in Ireland using the standard of living (SoL) approach. It considers the different methodological approaches available for estimating the economic costs of disability. The methodological approaches include three 'bottom-up' approaches and the SoL approach. The three 'bottom-up' approaches are direct survey approach (DSA), expenditure diary approach (EDA) and budget standard approach (BSA). A study by Indecon for the National Disability Authority used DSA, EDA and SoL approaches is conducted to estimate the economic cost of disability. Survey of Income and Living Conditions Research Microdata File (SILC) is an annual survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to obtain information on the income and living conditions of households. It also collects information on poverty and social exclusion.

Chapter 3 describes the changing context of the District Court resulting from immigration. Here, a discussion of how the need for language services in the Irish courts system grew, and was responded to, moves into a more theoretical dialogue on the role of interpreters in the criminal process and the basis on which LEP defendants have recourse to interpreters in that process, including the right to an interpreter. Consideration is given to how the need for interpreters is balanced against other demands of justice and procedure; and consideration is also given to how the developing interpreting system in Ireland has been evaluated in terms of quality and satisfaction.

The 2001 launch of Indymedia Ireland marked a radically different model of media: internet-based, non-profit, run on a shoestring, democratically produced, open to many different voices, and telling the stories that were firmly kept out of the nation's living room. This chapter discusses its significance, with reference to the context of media politics in Ireland. N. Chomsky and N. S. Herman's propaganda model discusses how ownership, funding, sourcing, flak and anti-communism are used to mould the media to ruling class interests. The longest-established among many kinds of alternative media is radical media, usually associated with political organisations (socialist, republican, feminist) and tied to their campaigning activity. Indymedia Centre Ireland came out of the wave of Irish protests against neo-liberalism around the turn of the twenty-first century. Indymedia activists approached two protest organiser groupings around setting up an independent media centre to cover the Mayday events, Dublin Grassroots Network, and CMN.

This chapter discusses the role of local food systems in environmental sustainability. Distinctions between local, sustainable, regional and global food systems are provided. Social, economic and environmental considerations are presented. The components of each are discussed within the context of Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. Northland has a rich history of sustainable initiatives. The roles of community, environment and engagement play are explored.

Dónal Óg Cusack, goalkeeper for the Cork Senior hurling team, publicly announced that he was gay in the Irish Mail on Sunday, shortly before the release of his auto biography, Come What May. This chapter asks whether, to what extent and why Dónal Óg Cusack's coming out was a significant milestone in Ireland's very recent history. It explores the ways in which it represented change and/or continuity in a small island nation in which both traditional and (post)modern concepts of gender and sexuality coexist and compete. The historical and current-day significance of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in the construction of both Irish and masculine identity cannot be underestimated. The tone and tenor of media coverage of Cusack's revelation similarly illustrate the book's (Come What May) significant but partially limited impact in undoing hegemonic assumptions of sexual orientation and of gender identity and behaviour in sport.

The events in Donegal were the final catalyst in the reform of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board (GSCB) and the establishment of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). This chapter explores that change and analyses its significance. Its establishment is contextualised with critical discussion of police governance and accountability, paying particular attention to complaints systems and their role in police oversight. The chapter provides a review of police complaints systems in Ireland. It argues that the reforms to the complaints mechanism are predominantly procedural in nature. The GSOC's annual reports provide information based on which its contribution to police accountability and the state of police accountability more broadly in Ireland can be critically analysed. Analysis based on complaints per 1,000 gardaí, which can account for changing garda numbers since the recession, reveals that despite the increase, complaints against the gardaí remain low compared with police forces in England and Wales.

This chapter looks at various aspects of inclusion and exclusion for people with disabilities in Ireland. It looks at various aspects using available data from key statistical sources and studies based on them and by focusing on education, poverty and deprivation, and social life and social participation. The impact of disability on broader aspects of participation in the life of the community is also of central relevance to its effects on social inclusion broadly conceived. Social inclusion can be seen as the focus of disability-related policies covering such areas as building standards and the built environment, transport, access to public services and access to health services and education. The chapter discusses the policy issues that arise in seeking to address poverty, notably the level and structuring of income support which plays a central role in Ireland, as in other rich countries.

The abandonment of regional geography in the mid 20th century through pressures of globalization, urbanization and corporatization lost two generations of local knowledge and engagement. Studying place, finding the genius of loci, helping communities to articulate the uniqueness and relevance of place has been left to poets, activists and guerrilla geographers. The chapter looks at the role of guerrilla geography in the renaissance of place, community mapping and naming of place, and ultimately the protection and restoration of place through the word and illustrations of one practitioner from Canada’s rarest ecosystem—the Garry oak meadows overlooking the Salish Sea. Up until 1991, this drought‐adapted ecosystem, now the focus of research on ecosystem resilience in climate change, had no name, no map, no cultural identity beyond Little England, no recognition from academia and no protection. With the return to localism and demand for regional solutions, what is the role for young guerrilla geographers in their respective places across Canada? This discussion will chart a course of meaningful work as we pick up the lost stories of place and weave them with the new. It suggests ways for the academic community to support, educate and legitimize the next generation of guerrilla geographers.