Governments must report on the conservation status of species designated as protected. We assessed changes in the Near Threatened Eurasian otter Lutra lutra population throughout Ireland (the whole island) from the 1980s to the 2020s using four National Otter Surveys (6,060 sites surveyed) and citizen science data (10,980 records). In 2023–2024, otters were recorded at 65% (95% CI 62–68%) of sites in the Republic of Ireland and 66% (95% CI 58–74%) of sites in Northern Ireland. Rivers, lakes and coasts were included in the surveys. Long-term trends in the population estimate indicate a decline of 24−27% (or 3−18% after correction for negative methodological biases). Short-term trends indicated changes of −7% to +2% in the Republic of Ireland and −26% to −27% in Northern Ireland. Otters remain widespread, having been recorded in 95% of hectads (10 × 10 km squares), with no range reduction. They prefer wide, fast-flowing rivers with rocky substrates, unmaintained banks, and riparian woodlands (trees and shrubs), and are positively associated with angling (probably because of salmonid prey) but negatively with peatlands. Eleven pressures were identified, notably site disturbance, including agricultural pollution, siltation and water abstraction, which increased over time. No single pressure threatens otters nationally, but cumulative effects on water quality and ecosystems likely contributed to the decline. Future research should account for potential negative methodological biases, disaggregating detection from occupancy probability to capture the magnitude of any change more accurately, and future surveys should adopt techniques less vulnerable to biases (e.g. environmental DNA detection in water samples).

Archaeologists investigating large, stratified sites face a persistent problem of scale: research questions that demand diachronic, site-wide understanding are constrained by the cost, logistics, and ethics of extensive excavation. Near-surface geophysical techniques offer a powerful alternative for subsurface mapping, and a growing body of work has demonstrated the value of integrating these methods with targeted subsurface interventions in iterative, collaborative workflows. Yet such approaches have remained underused in practice, are unevenly documented, and lack a shared vocabulary or a set of guiding principles. This article synthesizes these threads into a framework dubbed para-excavation: a methodology that pairs geophysical survey with minimally invasive interventions in a recursive analytical cycle. We demonstrate para-excavation through nearly a decade of research at a buried medieval village in Ballintober, County Roscommon, Ireland, where magnetometry, ground-penetrating radar, targeted excavation, and soil coring informed and refined one another across multiple field seasons. We then generalize from this experience to propose four interpretive roles—compositional prospection, stratigraphic prospection, block exposure, and targeted sampling—that define the methodological space of para-excavation and can be adapted to different sites and tool kits. The result is a scalable, replicable, and ethically minded approach to investigating extensive buried sites.

Sexual violence is common in Ireland and can have important psychological and psychiatric consequences. This paper examines sexual assault in Ireland, the role of Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs), evidence on mental health outcomes following sexual violence, and current psychological and psychiatric supports. Ireland has a mature national SATU network providing acute medical and forensic care, with links to Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs), Sexual Violence Centres (SVCs), and other supports. However, sexual assault is also a potentially life-altering psychological trauma, associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance misuse, and deterioration in pre-existing mental illness. We argue that care should be understood as a coordinated, trauma-informed pathway. We propose brief early psychological intervention at first SATU contact, better funding for allied support services, and an integrated national pathway for continuing trauma-informed psychological and psychiatric care.

This article examines whether and how national media in Portugal, Spain, and Ireland converged in their interpretation of European economic issues during the Eurozone crisis. Building on research on the European Public Sphere, it analyses how national media located political authority, responsibility, and problem-solving capacity under conditions of intensified EU involvement in domestic economic governance. Conceptually, the article distinguishes between relational convergence, referring to cross-national similarity in media narratives, and directional convergence, capturing within-country shifts in narrative orientation along the national–EU axis. Empirically, the analysis draws on a comparative framing study of 6,070 economic news articles published in six quality newspapers between 2002 and 2015. Narrative interpretation across five framing dimensions—Problem, Cause, Responsibility, Consequences, and Solution—is operationalised through an original Convergence Index capturing the balance between EU-centred and nationally centred narratives. The findings show no generalised relational convergence following the onset of the crisis. Instead, cross-national dispersion in narrative orientation increases in the post-crisis period. Directional convergence towards EU-centred narratives occurs selectively: Spanish and Irish media display modest centripetal shifts, whereas Portuguese coverage follows a contrasting trajectory of systematic re-nationalisation. Overall, these results qualify crisis-driven expectations of communicative integration. While the Eurozone crisis intensified diagnostic and accountability-oriented framing across national media, it did not generate stable or cumulative convergence in narrative interpretation. Media convergence thus emerges as a differentiated and non-linear process, with important implications for how the communicative foundations of a European Public Sphere should be assessed under conditions of systemic stress.

Population displacement is a current, accelerating global trend and countries have legal obligations to offer asylum seekers refuge and timely rehabilitation. The mental health of this population is shaped by traumatic experiences, making access to specialist mental health services a critical part of meeting responsibilities. This perspective paper explores Ireland’s mental health services for refugees and asylum seekers and finds it insufficiently equipped due to underfunding, workforce shortages, lack of specialist units and insufficient numbers of specialist trained psychotherapists. Comparative European examples indicate that targeted policies, coordinated investment, and specialist workforce are essential to support legal obligations and meaningful integration. These findings aim to prompt Irish policymakers and healthcare providers to consider strategic reform.

Before Navan Fort became the mythological capital of the Irish province of Ulster, construction of the monumental Haughey’s Fort around 1200 BC marked the foundation of an important prehistoric centre. Here, the authors report on research integrating remote sensing, excavation and archival reassessment in the exploration of this Bronze Age landscape. Indicators of long-distance exchange and craft production of high-status artefacts, together with the presence of 204 possible structures and a ceremonial avenue leading towards a unique ritual pool, help elucidate the site’s social, economic and ritual importance, while identification of a 109ha enclosure underlines the exceptional scale of activities.

This article assesses whether recent Irish activation reforms for lone parents’ function as capacitating elements of a social investment (SI) strategy. Although activation is presented as evidence of Ireland’s shift towards SI, our analysis questions this claim using the concept of agentic capacity – the structured conditions enabling individuals to balance care, employment, and education. Drawing on two small-scale studies, we centre lived experiences of activation requirements and income supports and find that while access to education and training can strengthen autonomy and future planning, these benefits are constrained by conditionality, administrative burdens, childcare shortages, and age-based thresholds. The reforms thus represent a model in which coercive activation logics persist within SI rhetoric. By advancing agentic capacity as an evaluative criterion, the article contributes to debates on activation and SI, highlighting how institutional design, childcare provision, temporal alignment, and conditionality shape meaningful choice for lone parents.