Ciaran Parker
I'm an eternal student. There are so many things we must find out about our world and FutureLearn has enabled me to partially quench my thirst for knowledge, though I'll never stop learning.
Location Cavan, Irish Republic
Achievements
Activity
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Kevin has touched my heart. He views his time studying history at undergrad level as misspent. How I agree. That's just what I did, but then I compounded my waste by doing a PhD in medieval history. Ok, so I did learn some important stuff about the past but not really relevant in today's world
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Sure did. It was an eye-opener!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I must admit a liking for the second.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I'm partial to a mojito or three ..
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Eating patterns were traditionally dominated by English mores, so it is interesting that one sees a recrudescence in the 'traditional Sunday roast lunch' or the reappearance of the 'meatn2veg' - undercooked gristle and overcooked vegetables, all ridiculously over-priced. Like all conservative revanches, this was a reaction to the excesses of green gastronomy...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
But let's stay a moment with the poulet-patate. Homo sapiens, his classical descendants and medieval interlopers could not have enjoyed it until the discovery of the potato and it's introduction into western European diets, something which was far from straightforward. What is more, the poulet-patate's appearance in a meal underwent a serious change, after the...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Is it possible to see 'the meal' as a performance, with differing audiences? One important shift occurred when the food was produced by those who prepared it, or by close relatives. The game was captured by the male, yet prepared by the female. But then industrialisation made the production of the food more foreign. It took place maybe far away. The meal...
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@NiraRamachandran I hope it is realised that pubs are an essential part of Irish identity too. Many are different from their English counterparts, but they all face the same challenges.
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I feel your pain. Since I've become practically immobile a trip to my local has to be planned like a military operation. As I've never driven a car I must get a cab, and even though the distance isn't great, I've already spent money before I've even got there. Thankfully, I never have any problems getting into them.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
This is a great course! pubs mean so much to people. When I was very young I hated pubs as places of drunkenness. They were where my father, a man from Northants, spent far too much time and money. Once while on holiday he gave me his glass to finish. It was nearly empty but I was only seven! My appreciation of pubs and their impact on society has broadened so...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Victoria mentions that her first pub was called The Cross Key. An inn with this name was established in Co. Cavan in the mid 17th century and the location was ever after known as Cross Keys. (The village has since earned a degree of notoriety for a later hostelry known as a place where an underaged youth could get served; as it also housed a disco it also...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I am a passionate partisan of the New European Bauhaus and its ideals. It offers hope for a great future at a time when we see a resurgence of those forces which destroyed the original Bauhaus.
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@InekeFioole no doubt you have heard Miller Light described, very aptly, as 'the taste of nothing in a glass!' Retsina is probably the most hideous drink in the world, made from third-rate wine to which something ghastly is added. When it is served very chilled on a Greek island, at noon on am August day when the temperature hovers above 40 ' centigrade, it is...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I don't really know what my 'online presence' says about me. Naturally, I desire that I leave as positive an impression as possible. But, at the same time, I hope that those who really want to know me will utilize other, broader means of assessment than a quick peek at the Internet.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I believe the neck-tie to be the most sartorially ridiculous article of attire in the world. It serves no practical use, though, together with the western-style business suit, it has become a must-have element in the he uniform of a political leader. Most third-world leaders now sport it instead of military fatigues. Its wearers may well be guilty of the...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The reason I use a Tablet is that I'm able to work while lying on my back. This has been for me the most productive posture for me. I should use my PC more, but increasingly I associate it's usage with discomfort and back pain. I don't use a smartphone as the text appears as too small.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I had never heard about the Social Model of Disability. It has great potential to change our worlds. In this regard, this may have been the single, most important course I've ever taken with FutureLearn. Pardon me if I seem some what arrogant, but it has crystallised a lot of things I already knew about disability, or maybe only sensed.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
We must never give up on hope, the belief that things can and must get better. Frustration is a natural phenomenon, but it must be seen in the same way as taking a breath. I see the struggle in terms of a duty owed, to myself but more importantly to everyone.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Medicalisation is often forced by regulations that make provision of welfare benefits dependant on the existence of a medically-diagnosed condition.
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Law and Policy have to be implemented by human beings. They may be victims of prejudice. When blatant acts of discrimination occur these often go unreported, as there are few lawyers interested in pursuing these claims.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
In the Irish Republic Disability Policy is still dominated by providing for the disabled's welfare needs. Concomitantly, there is a linked desire to ensure that antiquated notions of welfare entitlement such as Means Tests are robustly enforced. This is pursued through means of 'campaigns' against 'welfare fraud'.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I had never really thought about disability pride. I am all for it. But forgive me when I say that I wish I wasn't disabled. Things would be so much better. To take disability no 1, visual impairment. I would be able to see and recognise people freely. Does this lessen me as a disabled advocate? Am I a 'self-hating cripple'?
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I have always sought to improve my sight, as it is no joke being disabled. I have held out hope of some decisive surgical intervention. Unfortunately it is not to be. I always avail of physiotherapy when it has been offered, as I found confinement to a wheelchair to be so limiting.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Those who are labelled with the impairment of dementia often have their basic rights taken away from them. In Ireland judges accept diagnoses handed out by hospital doctors. The subjects are denied the ability to defend themselves as they are pronounced as being 'personae ad litem'.
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You never mentioned you loved in Saudi Arabia!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Thank you for introducing this outline of disability struggle. With deep shame I say that I was ignorant of UPIAS, Vic Finkelstein and Mike Oliver.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Societies may change but while there may be nuanced alterations to how disability is viewed, these are largely cosmetic. Sociewty in the Irish Republic has changed radically over the last half century, due to the decline of the Cathollic Churcdh, but the disbling barriers still remain. I believe the said religious organistion openly discrimates against people...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I want to just comment on a statement made above. "If disabling barriers can be identified, then they can be removed." Perhaps, in a perfect world! It has been my unfortunate experience over forty years here in the IRish Republic that in many cases, where a disbling barrier is identifi4ed, far from it being removed or amleiorated, it is often consolidated and...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Another form of disabling barrier is psychological. I often find travel to be traumatic because of the onset of irrational fears.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Disability stems from society's inability to deal with impairment.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi all! I am Ciaran from the Irish Republic. (Finally they have named a storm after me!) I have a physical and a sensory disability and I am very excited to find out more about disability studies.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
It must have been disappointing and frustrating that those types of compatibility issues should emerge so quickly. It was a good idea to produce both an original tape content plus an edited version. I imagine most people ultimately choose the edited one for ease of listening. Nevertheless, there will be a hard core of Gerhard scholars who will embrace all the...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Well done on such a marvelous achievement!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The RCM's collections contain a true Aladdin's Cave of materials, some on composers who are well-known like Ralph Vaughan-Williams, but also about lesser figures such as Leonard Salzedo. My head is truly spinning from my brief perusal.
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Fascinating.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I enjoyed the Gerhardt. I thought it inherently beautiful. The Boulez was static and I considered the Cage to be confused. Gerhardt used contrast throughout, as well as rhythmic compulsion.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
It is outrageous that Roberto Gerhardt should be cast asunder on the waves of oblivion. He was as a great composer. Before taking this course I didn't know of his role on electronic ,USOC, though I did not know much about electronic music either! His fate has not been helped by having an Iberian first name and a German surname. He was not one of us!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I am confident that Ligeti would have had as huge an impact on electronic music as he exerted on acoustic music through his long career as a composer.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I need hardly point out that Ligeti was a Hungarian composer, though he left ethnic identification behind him when he was compelled to flee Hungary following the Soviet invasion of 1956.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I wonder what Mahler would have made of electronic music?
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi everybody! I've known the work of Roberto Gerhard for ages, especially his symphonies and piano concerto. I was unaware of his contribution to electronic music.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
An excellent, thought-provoking introduction.
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My God! No doubt you heard about the German spy who was trained to speak with the best cut-glass accent, but was soon captured because he was supposed to operate in Newcastle where his accent clashed with local usages. It was a case of Auf wiedersehen pet! Such behaviour by an Ofsted inspector was outrageous!
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@JanB THank you. I didn't realise it had been aired again. I suppose this has happened too t the follow-up series, Elizebeth R?
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I feel that King Hal's court was just too dependant on the sudden fluctuations of the monarch's mood, a situation which grew worse with his age. Queen Bess's court was not without its intrigues and factions of course.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Some of my fellow students may recall a BBC drama series of the early 1970s entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Some of the sixteenth-centuru music was provided by the late David Munrow,, who has remained a hero of mine ever since.
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For an example of little has changed, we need only look to the United States where executions, while not open to the public, are usually carried out in the presence of observers, while there is also a larger crowd of those wedded to the death penalty outside the prison gates. Execution can never be excused, either then or now.
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They both died in open rebellion.
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... but you may study here online where their permission is not needed. If this is so, it provides yet another positive aspect of Future Learn and online education.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I see myself as a user-legitimator, as I have always been open to the adoption of new technologies.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Matthew V
Too true alas!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi! I'm Ciaran and I have an interest in the various cultures of the world. I have an avid interest in learning, and the best way of learning is by observing. For many years have been drawn to Korean culture and I have completed courses on Hangul and Korean philosophy. For me, the Korean language is fascinating and I intend to study in in greater depth. The...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I have never had a sweet tooth, and so avoided a child's addiction to sweets. However, I still take sugar with coffee and I adore chocolate. I have never believed myself to have a huge appetite. Overeating has been linked psychologically with gluttony. I have never been a big meat eater, though I adore dairy, from milk, through butter to the full range of...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Anne R
Hi, I'm 58 and I have had ms for over twenty years. So far I have avoided putting on too much weight, but I feel u able to take full opportunities to exercise fully as my mobility is limited. I want to remain as healthy as possible.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Karen Conley
But surely animation films are self-definig, in that they use animation which may be produced by artists, or by computers.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Superhero films say an awful lot about the values of a society. Things are black and white, good and evil. There SUperhero is ALL good, the supervillain the complete opposite! no complexity. A thriller is more complicated:ultimately the good guy wins, tough it may have taken a while to discover who he is. Also, this discussion seems to have centred on males.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The description of 'foreign language'as a separate genre is almost racist and xenophobic.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Why not ALL or more than one genre?
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Ciaran Parker replied to Xhenson Cela
Erotic film suffers from the wilful confusion with pornography, which is viewed as exploitative, of low quality, and sometime s linked to criminal activity. But this is in itself interesting and worthy of debate.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I think it has LOADS to do with detective fiction!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
THe SCots language has an innate dramatic musicality. Burns' has been known since its publication by its four-word title. This can be easily translated into English, but it loses its power. It's also pretty meaningless. It consists of the partial use of a modal verb construction.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Eva ANGLESSY
Merci!
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Congratulations on your translation. 'Sae' is the same as English 'so'.
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Financial exclusion is a major problem in the Irish Republic. Many sectors are affected, not least those living in rural areas and who are old. There was a lingering mistrust of financial institutions. Many older people are dependent on means-tested benefits. These are sometimes policed rigourously, especially when governments announce yet another campaign...
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It's interesting that you mention the use of ignorance. Participation in this course is surely a means of countering that ignorance. Knowledge should be power.
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Well said!
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Well not every user of a fintech service owns a smartphone. Though they see the benefits of owning a device which can act like a smartphone.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The single word which sums up this course is inspiring.
It has revolutionised my understanding of the term landscape from a fuzzy, quasi-romantic idea into a much more robust concept which has far reaching implications for us all. -
Ciaran Parker made a comment
In the west of IReland and in upland areas throughout the island Dry stone walls are common. In one location on CLare ISland there is a length of unbroken Dry stone walling which runs for many miles which was erected in the early years of the twentieth century by the COngested DIstricts BOard to delineate common land.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi everyone! I have a PhD in medieval Irish history, but this was only based on written records. I have always been anxious to explore how we can gain insights into the past through exploration of other sources, of which landscape is so important. I have a particular interest in placenames and how this can point to differences in land use.
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I feel uneasy that so much is being left up to "the young" those people behind the magic age of 30 (or even, god help us) 40 can still play a part and be excited by the possibilities that are opened up each day. I am 57 and I believe that there are many of my age group who can contribute, albeit from tablets resting on Zimmer frames in their rest homes!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
For people in the west or using a language which originally developed there, we qçept that writing systems are based on alphabets, where individual character representations represent individual phonological sounds. Elsewhere, writing systems are more complex, as with Chinese. We must buy alive to the fact that there are still some vernaculars which do not yet...
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This is very informative.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
It's statement 1. Statement 2 seems innocuous enough. But the devil is lurking in the verbal undergrowth. How are we to measure prosperity if not by falling back on crutches such as Gross Domestic Product or other self-defeating fallacies of the linear economy?
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I would love to walk more if I physically could.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I used to ride quite a lot but a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis has put pathe to my cycling alas. I used to face all the problems you've outlined, but I obstinately refused to eschew my bike unless the weather was really atrocious.
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Surely more frequent services should reflect times of greater demand, but seldom do.
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Public transport in towns and cities involving s assembling at stops. Security at bus stops is provided by other passengers. If a stop is not popular a user is at the mercy of any anti-social behaviour that exists and is often thankful if it stops at vandalism of the bus stop.
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It al ays seems to be crowded. It can be hard to get on a bus and it is difficult to move around on one. When the driver announced that there is only room "on top" he (and it is sadly usually a he in Ireland} might as well deny any access.
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The vehicles do not give much confidence as far as safety is concerned.
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At present public transport is free at non-peak times for the blind and visually impaired. But for those with mobility issues such as myself. It is difficult to get to a transport stop, and once there near impossible to get on or off the vehicle.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Cathy Kelly
The impact of railways on IReland was fascinating. At one level they were seen as destroying Irish manufacture, unable to cope with products we managing from England. They were also the means by which so many people left Ireland as migrants, and the stations were considered places of sadness. Their I,pact on popular culture was immense. the Gaelic Athletic...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Jill Hind
@KathleenKerryDexter Thanks! Anything about the Trans-Siberian Railway is sure to attract my interest.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
My answer is the same. Before I was an optimist but of the hopeless hue. I am now a hopeful optimist.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
It really depends on the characters of either office holder. I believe that the US 'Founding Fathers' would been horrified at the thought of someone like Trump holding executive office, though they were mostly slave-holders.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The holder of the office may have had great difficulty in arriving there. The next most difficult manoeuvre is staying at the top. There are any number of issues that can ignite revolt. As a leader of a political party the prime minister knows that there is a rump of residual opposition. All likely assassin's have daggers, but the luckiest will have concealed...
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Like you. I was ignorant of this change, even though I live in the Irish republic where our codified constitution may only be amended after a referendum. Was v. V. Putin' responsible for creating such a distraction? Are we not entitled to ask what else was changed?
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I would have preferred a forth choice. Not eas though not impossible. By convention a prime minister need not inform his cabinet of his intention.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Technical Support
Can even the king stop him? I know the monarch can refuse an election if the chance of forming a stable government may exist.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Respect for the principle of The Rule of Law should have seen him and colleague Rishi Sunak resign, or at least sincerely offer to resign. I admit that don't like Johnson. I don't feel any hostility towards Rishi Sunak.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Constitutional Conventions are exceedingly interesting. They have greater clout than ordinary laws though they lack legal enforceability. They do allow politics to work. The rime Minister (whose title may go back to a constitutional convention) probably has too much power, especially in the exercise of prerogative powers, but cannot rule like a dictator, at...
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John Stuart Mill overcame his natural bonhomie / to write Principles of Pollitical Economy.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
John f. Kennedy once said that people thought he could do anything thing, but he liked to remind them that this was untrue. "I'm only the President."
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi! I feel that politics works better in the UK than the us. This ma be down to prejudice. I hope that throughout the course we are never allowed to forget the existence of a parallel political world at the state level.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
President Herbert Hoover once claimed a desire to met a one-armed economist because all economists he knew made an argument beginning: "On the one hand ... But then on the other hand ...' I was always interested in comics and toyed with the idea of studying it. My grea hero was John Kenneth Galbraith. I was dissuaded from my intentions by those mistaken...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Aye Thu San
Good luck!
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I believe that the unwillingness to disclose the evidence against them diminishes the concept of legal certainty.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
A school classroom is not the best place for sex education.. it may be a vitally important topic but the location is conducive to much sniggering.
