In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery chat to Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride about their recent ARINS publication: For and Against a United Ireland.
The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.
Journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?
O’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions. With cartoons by Fergus Boylan.
The book has been shortlisted for An Post Book Award 2025 - BEST IRISH-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR. See shortlist
Book tickets to see the authors debate the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland in The Lyric Theatre, Belfast and The National Concert Hall, Dublin in November 2025!
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This is episode 47 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.
Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.
ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com
ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.
All content for The Royal Irish Academy is the property of The Royal Irish Academy and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery chat to Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride about their recent ARINS publication: For and Against a United Ireland.
The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.
Journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?
O’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions. With cartoons by Fergus Boylan.
The book has been shortlisted for An Post Book Award 2025 - BEST IRISH-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR. See shortlist
Book tickets to see the authors debate the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland in The Lyric Theatre, Belfast and The National Concert Hall, Dublin in November 2025!
---
This is episode 47 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.
Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.
ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com
ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.
Historical early meteorological observations from Ireland in the archives of the RIA (1783-1854)
The Royal Irish Academy
48 minutes 8 seconds
5 months ago
Historical early meteorological observations from Ireland in the archives of the RIA (1783-1854)
As part of Biodiversity Week 2025, Dr Carla Mateus delivered a lunchtime lecture in the Royal Irish Academy on the topic of historical meteorological records held in the Academy Library's archive collections.
Historical meteorological observations are crucial to better assess past climate variability and trends and the frequency, intensity, duration, and distribution of extreme weather events, and to put the current climate change into historical context. The records preserved in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy date from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century and are of cultural and scientific importance. Many of the records were sent to the Academy by diligent observers interested in science and the arts, others were collated in response to an Academy initiative to organise a system of meteorological observations in Ireland in the period 1850-52.
This lecture highlights the role of the Royal Irish Academy as a curator of historical meteorological records across the Island of Ireland, as a publisher of diverse papers on instrumentation and meteorological observations, and as a learned body which encouraged a standardised approach for reliable weather recording.
The meteorological records include observations of air temperature, maximum and minimum air temperatures, wet bulb, sea temperature, rainfall, pressure, wind direction and force, cloud cover and weather remarks. Many well-known historical extreme weather events are covered by instrumental observations and documentary weather remarks, such as storms and air temperature extremes.
The Royal Irish Academy
In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery chat to Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride about their recent ARINS publication: For and Against a United Ireland.
The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.
Journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?
O’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions. With cartoons by Fergus Boylan.
The book has been shortlisted for An Post Book Award 2025 - BEST IRISH-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR. See shortlist
Book tickets to see the authors debate the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland in The Lyric Theatre, Belfast and The National Concert Hall, Dublin in November 2025!
---
This is episode 47 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.
Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.
ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com
ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.
