Newsletter October 17 2024
Impact of Brexit across Northern Ireland
This week, TASC Social Inclusion Researcher Dr Sara Singleton launched her latest report “The Social and Economic Impact of Brexit Across Northern Ireland: Regional and Sectoral Perspectives.” This policy study, based on semi-structured interviews with 19 leaders from politics, civil society, and the public sector in Northern Ireland, reveals diverse perspectives across sectors and regions on Brexit's impact, but consistently highlights concerns about prolonged uncertainty due to the political impasse and the suspension of Northern Ireland’s devolved government at Stormont.
Dr. Singleton presented the report at the FEPS “Beyond the Border” conference in Brussels this week.
Improving Political Discourse in Ireland
TASC hosted presentations of interim findings by David Kitching (Bassline Strategy) and Cathal Lathrop (Frameshift) of research supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung exploring recent reactionary and populist shifts in Irish political discourse. Anna Kraft (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) and Shana Cohen (TASC) introduced the event, with Poppintree Youth Project invited as a discussant.
David Kitching presented findings of Language Analysis of the rhetoric used by politicians from across the political spectrum to frame contentious issues such as migration, gender and climate change, conducted with Oisín Ward (TCD) and Tiarnán McDonough (TASC). Cathal Lathrop presented findings from interviews with young men identified as potentially sympathetic to far-right narratives. Both sets of findings will be incorporated into a forthcoming report.
The event was well attended and the discussion that followed featured input from a range of academics, civil society organisations, trade union representatives and others with an interest in understanding and responding to recent increases in political disaffection, violence and anti-establishment views in Ireland and across Europe.
TASC Participates in Sex Worker Awareness Training
Last month, TASC staff participated in a training with Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI), an Irish organisation whose mission is to work with current, former, indoor, outdoor, and online sex workers of all genders, to develop and strengthen their human rights and safety in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The training covered key topics, including the definition of sex work, appropriate language and terminology, barriers and stigma faced by sex workers, legal models and their impact, services for sex workers (including SWAI), and how to provide sex worker-friendly services.