Dr. Peter Murray

Dr. Peter Murray

 

1. Professional Career to Date

I have been lecturing in this department since 1996. Before coming to Maynooth I worked for several years in the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) where I was attached to the Health Policy Research Centre. Prior to that, while finishing my PhD, I saw out most of our last major recession - the 1980s - in a variety of contract research and lecturing posts at Trinity College Dublin, NIHE Dublin (now Dublin City University) and at the ESRI. The highlight of this period was a series of studies of work in Irish electronics factories that I undertook with James Wickham at Trinity College Dublin. I also worked as a freelance researcher (undertaking projects for bodies like the Combat Poverty Agency) and as a freelance writer of course materials for the National Distance Education Centre, which is based in Dublin City University. Between getting my B.A. and starting my PhD I lived in Scotland for two years, working for the Scottish Consumer Council .There I did research for reports published by an agency with a remit to promote the welfare of low-income consumers.

 

2. Research Interests

 My principal research interests and publications fall under five headings:

• Interaction between external and internal forces in the changing of Irish ideas, institution and policies between Marshall Aid and EEC Entry (1940s-1970s)

• Late 19th and early 20th century Irish political and social movements

• The sociology of work, industry and technology

• The sociology of health with a focus on heart disease prevention and on aging

• Distance Education course materials

 

3. Teaching and other Activities

 

The Modules I teach or have recently taught include:

PO102 Political Institutions and Civil Society in Ireland, North and South

PO302 Irish Public Policy

SO209 Sociology of Health

SO306 Documentary Research Methods

SO314 Sociology of Industry and Work

SO604 Social Movements: Old and New

4. Publications

 

Refereed Journal Articles

 “`Can I Write To You About Ireland?’ John Vaizey, the Ford Foundation and Irish Educational Policy Change, 1959-62” Irish Educational Studies forthcoming

 “The Market for Sociological Ideas in Early 1960s Ireland: Civil Service Departments and the Limerick Rural Survey, 1961-64” Administration Vol. 59, No. 1, 2011, pp. 111-131 (with M. Feeney)

“Educational Developmentalists Divided? Patrick Cannon, Patrick Hillery and the Economics of Education in the early 1960s” Economic and Social Review Vol. 41, No. 3, 2010, pp. 325-348

“Radical Way Forward or Sectarian Cul-de-Sac? Lindsay Crawford and Independent Orangeism Reassessed” Saothar (Journal of the Irish Labour History Society) 27, 2002, pp. 31-42

“Health Services Review 1998” Administration 47 (2), 1999, pp.257-281

"Care Provision and Dependency in Long-Stay Institutions" Economic and Social Review 28 (1), 1997, pp. 43-61 (with E. O'Shea)

 "A Militant Among the Magdalens? Mary Ellen Murphy's Incarceration in High Park Convent During the 1913 Lockout" Saothar 20, 1995, pp. 41-54.

"Target Audience Penetration By A Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Programme: Results from the Kilkenny Health Project" Economic and Social Review 26 (3), 1995, pp. 261-282 (with E. Shelley and others on behalf of the Scientific Committee of the Kilkenny Health Project)

 "Cardiovascular Risk Factor Changes in the Kilkenny Health Project, A Community Health Promotion Programme" European Heart Journal 16, 1995, pp. 752-760 (with E. Shelley and others on behalf of the Scientific Committee of the Kilkenny Health Project)

 "Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle Through Public Communication: Experiences and Results of the Kilkenny Health Project" Irish Communications Review 4, 1994, pp. 30-40 (with E. Shelley and others on behalf of the Scientific Committee of the Kilkenny Health Project)

 "Irish History as a Testing Ground for Sociological Theory: Hechter's Internal Colonialism and Hutchinson's Cultural Nationalism" Irish Journal of Sociology 4, 1994, pp. 128-159.

"Irish Cultural Nationalism in the United Kingdom State: Politics and the Gaelic League 1900-18" Irish Political Studies 8, 1993, pp. 55-72.

"Evaluation Research Methods and Community Health Promotion: The Case of Heart Disease Prevention" Administration 40 (3), 1992, pp. 177-99.

"The First World War and a Dublin Distillery Workforce: Recruiting and Redundancy at John Power & Son, 1915-1917" Saothar 15, 1990, pp. 48-56.

"Cities, Sects and Classes" [Review Article] Saothar 10, 1984, pp. 81-87.

"Electoral Politics and the Dublin Working Class Before the First World War" Saothar 6, 1980, pp. 8-25.

 

Books

Facilitating the Future? US Aid, European Integration and Irish Industrial Viability, 1948-73 Dublin: UCD Press, 2009

Community Intervention to Promote Heart Health: International Comparison of Experiences, Outcomes and Legacies Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 2009

Work, Technology and Employment Dublin: National Distance Education Centre, 1996.

 Health and Autonomy among the Over-65s in Ireland Dublin: National Council for the Elderly Report No. 39, 1994 (with T. Fahey)

Care Provision and Cost Measurement: Dependent Elderly People at Home and in Geriatric Hospitals Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute General Research Series Paper No. 157, 1992 (with J. Blackwell, E. O'Shea and G. Moane)

The Social Context of Information Technology Dublin: National Distance Education Centre, 1989

Women in the Irish Electronics Industry: A Summary Report Dublin: Employment Equality Agency, 1987 (with J. Wickham)

 

Book Chapters

“Work Transformed: Two Faces of the New Irish Workplace” in S. O’Sullivan (Ed.) Contemporary Ireland: A Sociological Map Dublin: UCD Press, 2007, pp. 248-264 (with S. O’Riain)

“The Evolution of Irish Health Policy: A Sociological Analysis” in D. McCluskey (ed.) Health Policy and Practice in Ireland Dublin: UCD Press, 2006, pp. 44-60

“Ireland and the Productivity Drive of Post-War Europe” in B. Girvin and G. Murphy (eds.) The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Sean Lemass Dublin: UCD Press, 2005, pp. 66-81

"Care Provision for the Dependent Elderly: Implications of Recent Research for Policy Development" in F. J. Convery and A. McCashin (Eds) Reason & Reform: Studies in Social Policy Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1995, pp. 139-151 (with J. Blackwell, E. O'Shea and G. Moane)

"Women Workers and Bureaucratic Control in Irish Electronics Factories" in H. Newby et al (Eds.) Restructuring Capital. Recession and Reorganisation in Industrial Society London: Macmillan, 1985, pp. 179-99 (with J. Wickham)

"Technical Knowledge and Technical Training in an Irish Electronics Factory" in G. Winch (Ed.) Information Technology in Manufacturing Processes: Case Studies in Technological Change London: Rossendale, 1983, pp. 94-111 (with J. Wickham)

"Technocratic Ideology and the Reproduction of Inequality. The Case of the Electronics Industry in the Republic of Ireland" in G. Day et al (Eds.) Diversity and Decomposition in the Labour Market Aldershot: Gower Press, 1982, pp. 179-210 (with J. Wickham)

 

Articles in journals that are not refereed

“A Colporteur Kicked by a Priest on a Westport Street: the MacAskill Assault Case of 1905” Cathair na Mart (Journal of the Westport Historical Society) 21, 2001, pp. 127-145.

"A Sectarian Skeleton in the Gaelic League's Cupboard ? Roy Foster, Brian Murphy and the Case of George A. Birmingham" Studies 82 (318), Winter 1993, pp. 481-486.

"First Novels and Fierce Controversies: George A. Birmingham, The Seething Pot and Hyacinth" Cathair na Mart 12, 1992, pp. 113-127

"Irish Graduate Emigration and the New European Labour Market" Studies 79 (313), Spring 1990, pp. 56-62 (with J. Wickham)

"Novels, Nuns and the Revival of Irish Industries: The Rector of Westport and the Foxford Woollen Mill 1905-1907" Cathair na Mart 8, 1988, pp. 86-99.

 

Research Reports

Drinking, Smoking and Media-Based No-Smoking Intervention: Analysis of Recent Statewide Studies of Young People, submitted to the Department of Health, 1996.

Utilisation Patterns and User Perceptions of General Practitioner Services: Results of a 1993 National Survey, submitted to the Department of Health, 1994.

Health and Autonomy Among the Over-65s in Ireland, submitted to the National Council for the Elderly, 1994 (with T. Fahey).

Promoting Better Health Through Lifestyle Change: Final Stage Report: The State of Irish Mainstream Health Promotion, The Findings Available From Community Quasi-Experiments and Conclusions, submitted to the Department of Health, 1993.

Profiling the Socio-Economic Context of a Population's Health, submitted to the Mid-Western Health Board, 1993. 

Promoting Better Health Through Lifestyle Change: Second Stage Report: Mechanisms of Community Intervention, submitted to the Department of Health, 1992.

Community Initiatives Human Resources Evaluation. HORIZON Programme. Working Document for Ireland, submitted to DG V, Commission of the European Communities, 1992 (with S. Leigh-Doyle).

Community Initiatives Human Resources Evaluation. EUROFORM Programme. Working Document for Ireland, submitted to DG V, Commission of the European Communities, 1992 (with S. Leigh-Doyle). 

Evaluation of Actions in Favour of Disabled People in Ireland Co-financed by the European Social Fund submitted to DG V, Commission of the European Communities, 1992 (with D.Redmond, B. Dillon and M. Wiley).

Promoting Better Health Through Lifestyle Change: First Stage Report: A Review of the Literature on Intervention Strategies, Techniques and Evaluations, submitted to the Department of Health, 1991.

Health Service Utilisation and Public Attitudes Towards the Health Services in Ireland: Results from the 1990 European Consumer Survey Supplement Inquiry, submitted to the Department of Health, 1991.

The Use of Social Indicators to Identify Areas of Particular Disadvantage within Ireland, submitted to Combat Poverty Agency, 1989.

Women in the Irish Electronics Industry, submitted to the Employment Equality Agency, 1984 (with J. Wickham).

Technological Manpower Policy and the Irish Electronics Industry: Some Research Issues, position paper prepared forthe National Board for Science and Technology, 1983 (with J. Wickham).

 

Research Bulletins

Muintir na Tire Seeks Funding for Rural Sociology in 1960s Ireland National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) Working Paper 63, November 2010 (with M. Feeney)

Communities, Schools and the Diffusion of Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Messages: Experiences and Results of the the Kilkenny Health Project NIRSA Working Paper 48, July 2009 

Educational Developmentalists Divided? Patrick Cannon, Patrick Hillery and the Economics of Education in the early 1960s Institute for British-Irish Studies (IBIS) Working Paper 95 

Americanisation and Irish Industrial Development, 1948-2008 NIRSA Working Paper 41, November 2008

Marshall Plan Technical Assistance, the Industrial Development Authority and Irish Private Sector Manufacturing Industry, 1949-52 NIRSA Working Paper No.34, February 2008

`It Was a Sorry Story… Now We Can Think in Terms of Planning’: The OECD Dimension of Irish Education and Science Policy Innovation, 1958-68 NIRSA Working Paper 31, October 2007

The Pitfalls of Pioneering Sociological Research: The Case of the Tavistock Institute on The Dublin Buses in the early 1960s NIRSA Working Paper 25, December 2005

The Transatlantic Politics of Productivity and the Origins of Public Funding Support for Social Science Research in Ireland, 1950-1979 NIRSA Working Paper 22, December 2004

Lindsay Crawford's 'Impossible Demand'? The Southern Irish Dimension of the Independent Orange Project NIRSA Working Paper 5, February 2002

 

Conference Papers

2010

“Irish diplomacy encounters the paranoid style of US politics” paper presented to NUI Maynooth Department of Sociology seminar

2009

“`A Shop Steward is as remote as a Baluba Tribesman’: Bringing Catholic Social Principles into the Irish Business and Trade Union Worlds, 1945-1965” paper read to the Catholicism and Public Cultures Conference, IADT, Dun Laoghaire, June

“Great hatred, little room, less money: Irish institutional applicants for Ford Foundation funding, 1958-1968” paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference”, Limerick, May

“Educational Developmentalists Divided? Patrick Cannon, Patrick Hillery and the Economics of Education in the early 1960s” paper read to Politics, Economy and Society: Irish Developmentalism, 1958-2008 Conference, UCD, March 

2007

“The market for sociological ideas in early 1960s Ireland: civil service departments and the Limerick Rural Survey, 1961-66” paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Limerick, May (with Maria Feeney)

2004

“Four glimpses of the Dublin literary and political career of Joseph Edelstein” paper read to Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages conference “Jewish Ireland”, Belfast, September

“Democracy and information denial: how the present government eviscerated the Freedom of Information Act” paper read to Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth, conference “Is Ireland a Democracy?”, Maynooth, April

“The Pitfalls of Pioneering Sociological Research: the Case of the Tavistock Institute on the Dublin buses”, paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Athlone, April

2003

“Singing from the same hymn sheet? The Catholic Church, the media and management of National Schools, 1900-2000”, paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Ballyconnell, April

2002

“Long term memory, short term memory and the fallen Parnell” paper read to the International Geographical Union Cultural Study Group conference “Perspectives on Landscape, Memory, Heritage and Identity”, UCD, December

“A convent entrepreneur and employer: today’s heritage industry and earlier accounts of the Foxford Woollen Mill’s early years”, paper read to GMIT Department of Heritage Studies/NIRSA conference “Ireland’s Heritages: Critical Perspectives on Consumption, Method and Memory”, GMIT Castlebar, October

“International influence and internal mobilisation: raising industrial productivity in the Republic of Ireland, 1950-1970”, paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Galway, April

1996

“A militant among the magdalens?” paper presented to St. Patrick’s College Maynooth Department of Sociology seminar

1994

“Religiously-mixed marriages in twentieth century Dublin: a case of radical disruption or of long-term continuity?” paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Derry

“Hechter’s Internal Colonialism and Hutchinson’s Cultural Nationalism” paper presented to UCD Department of Sociology seminar

1992

“George A. Birmingham: first novels and fierce controversies” paper read to Westport Historical Society as part of Westport Arts Week 

“Evaluation research methods and community health promotion” paper presented to Economic and Social Research Institute seminar

1991

“The peculiarities of Dublin’s industrial development under the Union”, paper read to the Lipman Seminar on Ireland, Dublin

1990

“Migration, Coexistence and conflict in the Victorian UK city” paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Dundrum

“Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and Liverpool: nineteenth century demographic patterns”, paper read to the Lipman Seminar on Ireland, Dublin

1989

“The politics of Ireland’s Gaelic League” paper read to International Sociological Association Research Committee on Sociolinguistics conference on Conversation, Discourse, Conflict, Trinity College Dublin

1988

“The relative autonomy of multinational corporation branch plant management”, paper read to Aston University/UMIST annual conference on the Organisation and Control of the Labour Process, Aston University (with J. Wickham)

1987

“The last boy’s club? Training, education and gender in electronics factories”, paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Dublin (with J. Wickham)

1984

“Dependent Development and Urban Industrial Structure: the case of nineteenth and early twentieth century Dublin” paper read to Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY, Binghampton, New York seminar

1983

“Women workers and bureaucratic control in Irish electronics factories” paper read to the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Cardiff (with J. Wickham)

1982

“Technical training and technical knowledge in an Irish electronics factory” paper read to conference on research into the microelectronic revolution organised as part of the United Kingdom's IT 82 Year, County Hall, London (with J. Wickham)

1981

“Technocratic ideology and the reproduction of inequality” paper read to the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Aberystwyth (with J. Wickham) 

1980

“Wages and conditions of labour in Dublin, 1890-1914” paper presented to Irish Labour History Society/Irish Congress of Trade Unions “The Making of the Irish Working Class” International Conference, Dublin 

“Vertical integration and the organization of political nationalism in Dublin before 1914” paper read to the Sociological Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Derry