The treatment of mental health problems has had limited success in both England and Ireland. Since the Percy Commission in 1957 in England, and the Commission of Inquiry into Mental Illness in 1966...Show moreThe treatment of mental health problems has had limited success in both England and Ireland. Since the Percy Commission in 1957 in England, and the Commission of Inquiry into Mental Illness in 1966 in Ireland, both countries have strived to modernise and improve the quality of their mental healthcare systems. Despite this, they have experienced several shortfalls surrounding funding, staffing and community care amongst other issues. As a result of these problems, both countries have some of the highest rates of mental illness in Europe, with 18.5 percent of Irish people and 17.7 percent of English people experiencing at least one mental illness. While both England and Ireland inherited a similar system based around asylums and a focus on long-term institutionalisation the outcomes for the respective countries were vastly different. Additionally, both countries have moved towards a community-based approach in the hope to rehabilitate and reintegrate patients into the community. Though, England has seen lower rates of hospitalisation and shorter hospital stays for mental illness than in Ireland, as well as historically having lower rates of mental illness. However, since the 1990s, English rates of mental illness have been increasing gradually. As a result, English rates of mental illness are nearly that of Ireland. By discussing the historic developments in mental healthcare in the two countries and issues around welfare and healthcare, the causes for this discrepancy as well as the recent increases in the rate of mental illness can hopefully be explained.Show less
On 21 January 1919 Sinn Féin sent out a message to the free nations of the world. The message showed that Irish Republicans realised that they were not fighting their battle in a political vacuum....Show moreOn 21 January 1919 Sinn Féin sent out a message to the free nations of the world. The message showed that Irish Republicans realised that they were not fighting their battle in a political vacuum. Meanwhile, the Paris Peace Conference had just started and the United States, Great Britain, France, and to a lesser extent Italy, were busy in the French capital redrawing the map of Europe and the world. Therefore, Sinn Féin selected Sean T. O’Kelly to go to Paris, to obtain a hearing for the Irish before the Conference, and to promote the Irish claim for independence. While the Irish claim in Paris has been amply studied, the same cannot be said for its reception. This thesis, therefore, analyses how the Irish claim for independence during the Paris Peace Conference was received by the British and French press. For France, the newspapers Le Temps, La Croix, Le Petit Parisien, La Presse, and L’Humanité are considered, while for Britain the Manchester Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily news, and the Daily Herald are studied. The analysis incorporates to what extent these newspapers were influenced by the Irish Wilsonian moment. The Wilsonian Moment, as defined by historian Erez Manela, was a moment between the final stages of the war and beginning of the Paris Peace Conference, during which US President Woodrow Wilson's wartime principles seemed destined to shape the coming new world order. The main principle was that of the right of nations to self-determination. Nationalists from multiple countries, those of Ireland among them, capitalised on these principles, trying to obtain self-determination for their nation in Paris. This created the Wilsonian moment. However, the Irish, like the Egyptians, Indians and Koreans, were confronted in the French capital with the Realpolitik of the victor nations. Like many other nationalists, the Irish resorted to violence when they found out that Wilson’s “imperative principles of action” did not seem to apply to them. In short, rhetoric met reality, and disillusionment and violence ensued. 2 In general, the reaction to of the majority of the French press to the Irish claims in Paris was indifferent. Le Temps, Le Petit Parisien and La Presse all sticked to short, factual reporting from an English perspective. Being a catholic newspaper La Croix was more friendly towards Ireland, publishing more in-depth articles. It favoured Dominion Home Rule, but never pleaded for the Irish to get a hearing. Lastly, L’Humanité was the only paper to fully support Irish independence. Although it was no fan of Sinn Féin, it agreed with the Wilsonian principles as presented by the Republicans. L'Humanité was the only French paper to use Irish Wilsonian rhetoric, but since these principles were already strongly grounded in socialism it is difficult to conclude the influence that the Irish Wilsonian moment had on the paper. What can be concluded is that the Irish Wilsonian moment did not significantly alter any pre-held notions of the different sections of the French press on Ireland, nor did it manage to break the Anglo-French war-time alliance. The reaction of the English press to the Irish claims varied greatly. It ran from extremely negative by the Daily Telegraph to immensely positive by the Daily Herald, with the Manchester Guardian and Daily Mail in between as respectively rather positive and rather negative. The Daily Telegraph was strongly opposed to the Irish getting a hearing or any form of self-government in the near future. It viewed the Irish question from a territorial integrity perspective and put the security of Britain high above principles like self-determination. The Daily Mail mostly focussed on the British government and their handling of the situation. It was more anti-government policy than it was pro-Irish. It neither opposed, nor pleaded for the Irish getting a hearing, supported moderate nationalism and pleaded for Dominion Home Rule. The Manchester Guardian reacted positively and expressed the wish that Ireland should be granted a hearing before the Conference. It was increasingly critical of the government. In practice the paper pleaded for Dominion Home Rule. The Daily Herald was the only paper to openly argue for self-determination for Ireland, and seems to have been 3 influenced by the Irish Wilsonian moment. While it had already adhered to principles similar to those of the Wilsonian moment, the amount of exact overlap is fascinating. It truly believed Wilson’s and England’s war-time principles should have shaped a new world order. The Manchester Guardian was the other paper that seems to have been influenced by the Irish Wilsonian moment, albeit to a significantly lesser extent. Interestingly, the Guardian’s interpretation of self-determination laid bare the crucial difference between what historian Bill Kissane has called the internal and external interpretations of the term. It followed the internal interpretation, meaning the right for people to choose their own form of government, but not the sovereignty under which they live. This shows that while the vagueness of the term self-determination led to its mass appeal, it also meant that different interpretations led to clashing expectations. In a broader sense this does align with Kissane’s idea that the use of nationalist ideas is shaped by the geo-political context. In other words: the same nationalist principle could be interpreted completely different, depending on the geo-political context. In turn, this shows how the Wilsonian moment must not be seen as one coherent entity but rather as a myriad of interpretations of the same ideal-type doctrine. In England the Irish Wilsonian moment did also not significantly alter any pre-conceived notions about Ireland and its right to independence. Instead the influence of the Irish Wilsonian moment on the British press must be seen as an extra layer added to old beliefs. In general, it has to be concluded that the majority of newspaper readers in France and England were not significantly influenced by the Wilsonian moment in Ireland.Show less
