The use of public houses as a collective representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland

Pubs have served as a collective representation through which the collective identity of ‘Irish society’ has been articulated during the crisis of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As such they offer a case study of how meaning making occurs in contemporary periods of social crisis. While the neoliberal era is widely interpreted as period involving a process of desymbolisation in which meaning giving traditions are undermined, in this period of social crisis long-established and authoritative narratives drawn from collective memory circulated to articulate the meaning of the pandemic for the collective identity in the sense of its nature, character, boundaries, ‘others’, and moral duties and sacrifices that membership implied. Highly stereotyped images of the sacred moral core of the collective as represented by publicans who embodied qualities of age and maturity, rural, cultural-nationalist identity and a post Land War ideal of community-oriented owner-proprieters appeared. Similarly conventional representations of the immoral enemies within, who threaten to morally and literally infect the community, can be seen in representations of venues and drinkers who embody youth, the urban crowd and mixing. The ‘other’ through which identity is articulated against was represented through Britishness, which was shown as the source of the undesirable aspects of modernity.

Akteneinsichten: Die deutsche Außenpolitik und der Völkermord in Ruanda

Mit etwa 800.000 Toten in einhundert Tagen war der Völkermord in Ruanda eine weltpolitische Zäsur, die grundsätzliche Fragen zur internationalen Verantwortung bei Genozid aufwarf und die Handlungsfähigkeit sowohl der Vereinten Nationen (VN) als auch einzelner Mitgliedsstaaten bei Völkermord und Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit grundlegend in Zweifel zog. Viele Fragen zur deutschen Außenpolitik vor und während des Völkermords sind bis heute offen. Das vorliegende Papier zeigt, dass deutsche Diplomat/innen 1993 und 1994 besser über die Lage vor Ort unterrichtet waren als bisher bekannt. Allerdings unterschätzten sie vor dem Völkermord die ethnische Dimension des Konflikts sowie den Organisationsgrad der Gewalt gegen Tutsi und übersahen wichtige Warnzeichen wie die Aktivitäten ruandischer Hetzmedien.Zwar debattierte die Bundesregierung, ihre Entwicklungszusammenarbeit mit Ruanda anzupassen und eine Bundeswehrberatergruppe, die seit 1978 im Land war, im Laufe des Jahres 1993 abzuziehen – doch fehlte es an ganz grundsätzlicher Koordinierung zwischen den relevanten Ministerien sowie einer Anpassung der deutschen außenpolitischen Strategie in Ruanda. Eine frühzeitige Reaktion auf die sich verschlechternde Lage durch die deutsche Außenpolitik blieb dementsprechend aus: Trotz der Selbsteinschätzung Deutschlands, in Ruanda und der Region als ein besonders glaubwürdiger Akteur auf allen Seiten zu gelten, unternahm die damalige Bundesregierung nicht einmal den Versuch, bei den Friedensverhandlungen eine stärkere Rolle zu spielen oder eigene politische Initiativen anzustoßen. Bereits im Sommer und Herbst 1993, im Jahr vor dem Völkermord, baten die Vereinten Nationen, die ruandischen Bürgerkriegsparteien und internationale Partner die Bundesregierung wiederholt um Soldaten und Ausstattung für die VN-Friedensmission in Ruanda. Obwohl das Auswärtige Amt einen solchen Beitrag befürwortete, lehnte die Bundesregierung eine Beteiligung auf Grund von Bedenken im Verteidigungsministerium ab. Auch eine Entsendung von Sanitätssoldaten zur VN-Mission in Ruanda während des Völkermords scheiterte an der Ablehnung des Verteidigungsministeriums.Ein Vierteljahrhundert nach dem Völkermord hat das Politische Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes erstmals den Zugang zu einer Auswahl an relevanten Akten ermöglicht, die vorwiegend das Jahr 1993 und die Monate ab April 1994 abdecken. Auf Grundlage einer Analyse dieser Dokumente sowie ergänzenden Interviews fasst das vorliegende Papier neue Erkenntnisse zur deutschen Außenpolitik vor und während des Völkermords in drei Themenbereichen zusammen, die es auch heute in der deutschen Außenpolitik noch deutlich stärker zu diskutieren gilt: (1) Früherkennung und politische Analyse für die Krisenprävention («Early Warning»), (2) Koordinierung zwischen einschlägigen Ressorts und Strategiefähigkeit der Bundesregierung in der Krisenprävention und Friedensförderung, (3) die Bedingungen für eine rechtzeitige Reaktion auf Warnzeichen («Early Action»).Brockmeier, Sarah & Peez, Anton (2021): Akteneinsichten: Die deutsche Außenpolitik und der Völkermord in Ruanda. Berlin: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Online unter: https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2021-03/Deutsche_Außenpolitik_und_der_Voelkermord_in_Ruanda.pdf.

Participation of front-line soldiers in the pogroms of landlord estates in the Tambov Governorate in the first months of 1918

On the basis of various materials, we describe the process of pogroming landlord estates in the Tambov Governorate in the first months of 1918, the role of front-line soldiers in this process. The collapse of the army, the withdrawal of Russia from the First World War, the weakening and collapse of the old state, the unresolved agrarian issue, pushed the peasants to solve the problem of land shortages by force. The agrarian riots of 1917, often instigated by deserters, were a very serious problem for the Provisional Government. In addition, the very phenomenon of the revolution, partly provoked by the lack of land, war and poor living conditions for servicemen, forced them to resort to violent actions. The events in the Tambov village in the first months of 1918 were a continuation of the next stage of the agrarian revolution, which began in 1917. Another surge in the pogrom movement was associated with the massive return from the front of soldiers called up from the ranks of the peasants. The “democratic organs” of the province, which remained in the leadership of the region until March 1918, tried to resist the pogroms, but did not have the strength to do so. The Bolsheviks who came to power in early 1918 could not resolutely suppress the pogroms, for they had to rely on former soldiers as allies in the struggle for Soviet power in the countryside.

STRATEGY OF STATE SUPPORT OF AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES

The purpose of agricultural enterprises is to improve the quality of domestic products, their competitiveness, food security, development of genetics and breeding, reproduction of land fertility, digitalization, which is impossible without economic transformation, management decisions, the introduction of technological processes for the long-term development of agriculture. The agro-industrial complex plays an important role in the development of the economy as a whole and performs a social function, ensures food security of regions and employment of people living in rural areas, so the quality of life depends on the formation of economic development of agriculture. Methodology. A scientific approach to solving problems allows to model possible situations and avoid negative consequences due to incorrect strategic policy of the organization. Construction of a matrix of strategic qualitative analysis based on methodological approaches to assessing the characteristics, properties of enterprise development strategy and implementation of economic development strategies for agricultural enterprises based on the use of analysis, which provides priority identification of strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities and threats, languages that can be used to formulate the strategy of agricultural enterprises, is an important step in building a strategy. Results. In a competitive market, it is impossible to succeed by providing low-quality services or offering low-quality goods. Before developing business management processes, it is necessary to develop a functional strategy. Strategic analysis, which gives a realistic assessment of their own resources and capabilities in relation to the state and needs of the environment for agricultural enterprises and helps to make a rational choice of strategies from a variety of options. Practical implications. Strategies at any level usually do not have the resources or ability to use resources in a way that provides full confidence in success. Therefore, during the qualitative strategic analysis, in our case, we have determined that the miscalculations in the opening of the land market (no restrictions for buyers, price formation, protection mechanisms against speculative resale of land), war, political and economic crisis in Ukraine, miscalculations in the regulation of the industry, deterioration of land quality, loss of land value due to the development of alternative production, further decline in margins, degradation of the sector, loss of yield potential due to soil degradation resulting from intensive production, raiding, high cash turnover, fraudulent schemes, counterfeiting products, pressure from law enforcement agencies are threats to building an effective strategy for agricultural enterprises, it is necessary to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of agricultural enterprises and on the basis of opportunities to achieve economic growth.

Coercion and Resistance: Vera … or the Land War

In the first act of Wilde’s 1880 play, Vera; or, the Nihilists, as Russian radicals discuss the gruesome merits of political violence, a conspirator declares that “(o)ne dagger will do more than a hundred epigrams.” Centred on Wilde’s opposition to the “bloody work” of state repression, his first play represented the contemporary land crisis in Ireland and criticised the anachronistic class system that prevailed there. Wilde’s radical proposal is that terrorism is not the mindless work of apolitical criminals, but a product of political despair. Although ostensibly portraying the more distant phenomenon of Russian state repression, the ongoing deployment of coercion in Ireland is barely encoded in Vera; or the Nihilists. Wilde’s first play veiled the contemporary politics of the Irish Land War.

Michael McCarthy’s Campaigns against Clerical Authority

The career and writings of the Unionist polemicist and Catholic convert to Protestantism Michael McCarthy (1862-1928) are surveyed in the context of the conflict between declining Irish Protestant elite-professional social networks and their burgeoning Catholic “Whig” and nationalist rivals. McCarthy is seen as combining often-insightful sociological analysis of his native East Cork (his father was a farmer and shopkeeper in Midleton) and of his family’s experience of the 1880s Land War, with paranoid depictions of clerical rapacity drawing on established anti-Catholic tropes and on early twentieth-century fears among British and Irish Protestant populists that a decadent aristocratic ruling class was coquetting with superstition, undermining national efficiency and re-establishing clerical tyranny. McCarthy’s only novel, Gallowglass, is analysed as an exercise in sociology, an analysis of the tensions between Catholic clerics and lay nationalist elites during the 1880s Land War, and a parodic response to the apologetic Catholic stories of the East Cork priest, Canon Patrick Sheehan (1852-1913).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN THE ХІХ CENTURY

The article is devoted to the history of the emergence and formation of international humanitarian law («laws and customs of war»). The author notes that decisive steps were taken here in the nineteenth century, as rapid progress in the development of weapons and martial arts led to a sharp increase in the number of casualties. In this regard, much attention is paid to the figure of Swiss businessman and public figure Henri Dunan. It is stated in the article that it was the activity of the latter that became the basis for the adoption of the famous Geneva Convention (1864) «On improving the fate of wounded and sick warriors in the land war».Key words: international humanitarian law, Society of Red Cross, Henri Dunan, Geneva Convention, help to aid to sick and wounded patients, public charities.

Os soldados-fotógrafos da paz

The peacekeepers took part in the first UN-created peacekeeping mission from 1957 to 1967 on the Arab-Israeli border, more precisely in the conflicted Gaza Strip territory. Military personnel from ten nations made up the so-called UNEF and participated in the mission of a moment of relative peace in the region. Among the many tasks, the military armed themselves with cameras and toured the desert and various cities of the Middle East and presented us with a beautiful collection of vivid and powerful images of the land, war and culture that fascinating world in front of them. This book is not about the images themselves, but about their producers, the soldiers-photographers of peace

To Be a Christ

As assistant editor, then editor of the Pall Mall Gazette from 1880 to 1888, W. T. Stead pioneered what became known as the ‘New Journalism’, or journalism with a mission. The chapter considers Stead’s three major newspaper campaigns of the 1880s—for improved working-class housing, for sending General Gordon to the Sudan to achieve a just peace, and for exposing and ending child prostitution—with the latter ‘Maiden Tribute’ campaign leading to the ‘martyrdom’ of his trial and imprisonment. It also explores Stead’s involvement in the Irish land war and the ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots at London’s Trafalgar Square, and his friendship with Annie Besant. Underlying his crusading journalism were Stead’s religious beliefs, his sense of the editor’s desk as his pulpit, and of the editor as preacher and prophet, calling on people to follow the example of Christ in sacrificing self-interest and actively working for social reform and social justice.