This chapter sketches the trajectory of Irish musical difference and suggests why it is that the generally homogenizing forces of modernisation produced a peculiar outcome for Irish musical culture. The trajectory of Irish modernity runs simultaneously with the trajectory of the formation of 'Irish traditional music' as a constellation of forms and practices. Political defeat, the trauma of the Great Famine, the failure to industrialise and Ireland's off-the-chart demographic profile, all helped to produce a unique musical culture which continued to develop in the nineteenth century. The chapter provides the context for one of the key ingredients of Irish musical difference: the complete failure of its art music culture beyond the baroque and classical periods. Whatever the potential may have been generated by the vigorous musical culture of Georgian Dublin, the nineteenth century saw the collapse of this elite musical culture and the isolation of plebeian culture from its influence.

This chapter suggests that the network of Britain's post-punk world between 1976 and 1980 involved elements of network structures. It begins by looking to complexity science, a branch of academic inquiry which precisely addresses the question of coordination in very large systems, from insect swarms to neural networks. The chapter discusses two theories of network structure which show how very large networks are sometimes characterised by relatively short average path lengths, a property which, in turn, makes effective, efficient coordination and diffusion possible. One of these theories, posited by Duncan Watts, hypothesises a structure involving numerous dense clusters, connected by 'weak ties'. Watts's model envisages small world networks as tightly integrated clusters. The other, posited by Albert-Lászlo Barabási, suggests a structure centred upon a small number of hubs, each with a huge number of connections to other nodes in the network.

The search for democratic renewal has been taking place at the regional level. This chapter focuses on two cases of innovative attempts to reconnect the state with the citizen at the regional level in Australia. They are the Victorian Labor government headed by former Premier Steve Bracks and the case of South Australia led by former Premier Mike Rann. Although the focus of the chapter is efforts by Australian Labor states to enhance civic engagement and new forms of citizen-centred policy-making, there have been similar efforts in the UK. The new Victorian Labor government was caught off guard when it won the 1999 state election and was put under pressure to formulate a clear policy direction, the establishment of the Growing Victoria Together process being a direct outcome. The centrepiece of Rann's policy agenda was to be South Australia's Strategic Plan, originally called the State Strategic Plan.

The Labour Party showed little understanding of how the City was bereft of policies for dealing with British financial institutions until after the collapse of the second minority Labour government in 1931. Planning was Labour's central economic idea and it remained so until the 1960s, resurfacing again in the 1970s and early 1980s. As D. Ritschel pointed out, 'the new concept was suddenly embraced by nearly the entire Labour movement as the missing collectivist key to the transition from capitalism to socialism'. New Labour clearly believed that Britain's comparative economic advantage lay in flexible markets, an open economy, low taxes and light regulation of business. The golden age saw an unprecedented period of full employment. It was not a time of social democratic success in government for most of Western Europe and welfare reforms in the period, including some of the more generous, were often introduced by centre-right parties.

Emily Wilding Davison, by now a paid WSPU organizer, was already experienced with prison & forcible feeding. And she had already familiarized herself with the nooks and crannies of the Palace of Westminster. Probably on Saturday 1 April, Emily wriggled an entrance into the building, making her way down to the ornately Victorian Crypt Chapel. Here she found an inconspicuous broom cupboard ~ where she hid till Monday morning, so entering the history books. Nearby in central London, Emmeline Pankhurst evaded in her Holborn hotel (though was recorded by the enumerator). Her appearance on the census is an example of where evidence of the time (suffragette press, her autobiography) is now challenged by the newly-released census schedules themselves.

Edith Thompson in many ways was thought to epitomise the modern woman-cum-flapper. The modern woman-cum-flapper represented both modernity and immorality, engendering deep ambivalence. Such ambivalence was apparent in relation to press reportage of Edith Thompson. By 'immorality' Barrister Curtis-Bennett meant adultery, a 'crime' magnified further by the age difference between the two culprits. Frederick Bywaters was characterised as an innocent young 'boy' led astray by an older, predatory, sexual seductress. Edith's behaviour was deemed triply inappropriate and unacceptable: initiating, adulterous and cross-generational. If part of Edith's vilification involved ambivalence towards her suburban lower-middle classness, another contributor to this vilification, one inherently interlinked, was her love of romantic fiction. But out of wartime, romantic fiction, the main staple of Edith's literary taste, was singled out by the middle-class intelligentsia as especially undesirable. The literature was characterised as 'cheap' in more senses than one: inexpensive to buy, and worthless in its content.

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.

In considering whether the Irish family is different or not, it is useful to consider the meanings of difference separately and offer thoughts on how they apply to the Irish family system, both now and as evolved over time. While looking at the real difference, patterns of family life in Ireland since the pre-Famine period can be interpreted as having veered into and out of conformity with broad European trends, sometimes diverging but then swerving back into convergence. The analysis of Irish family patterns from the perspective of real difference is complex enough, but it is simpler than trying to pin down perceptions of difference and assess what role they play in shaping identity. The family patterns associated with the small farm system thus lost their economic base at the same time as the cultural tide was turning against the austere, patriarchal traditions that had characterised rural family behaviour.

This chapter takes a look at Jack Kerouac, who provided the understanding of ‘Beat’ as ‘beatific’, and who also gave the fullest sense of what literature as spiritual quest might involve – although this aspect of his achievements is often neglected. It identifies the connotations of the word ‘Beat’ and tries to consider three aspects of Kerouac's work.

This chapter considers the emergence of the apology in politics since approximately the mid 1980s. It argues that this is best explained by a combination of cultural changes, the political opportunities given by democratization and the intervention of particular political actors.

In October 1909, the first Census Committee meeting was held, to lay careful plans over the coming 18 months. It was attended by the four professional civil servants, answerable to John Burns, President of the Local Government Board (LGB). Just two days later, the Women's Tax Resistance League held its inaugural meeting. It drew together pioneer women doctors, Margaret Nevinson, writer Cicely Hamilton, and Clemence Housman of the Suffrage Atelier. But how could quiet Clemence resist paying tax? She took a daring step, renting a modest house of her own in Swanage on the Dorset coast, so making her liable for Inhabited House Duty. The Tax Resistance League staged resisters’ ‘spectacles’ around the London area, turning local auction rooms into political theatre. Meanwhile, the Census Committee continued its discreet planning, and Lloyd George's budget triggered a General Election, set for January 1910.