Summary of the impact

This project is dedicated to the study of Ulster poetry, and focuses on enhancing knowledge of vernacular literature. It researches and utilises literary archives across the region to look at identity and cultural diversity within Northern Ireland. The core impact lies in:

• increasing awareness of and participation in the literary, linguistic and cultural traditions of Northern Ireland;
• interpreting this literature for audiences external to academia;
• facilitating contact with this literature in order to allow people to appreciate connecting with voices from the past;
• and, recalibrating literary knowledge with significant impact on education, policy makers, creative media and the general public.

Summary of the impact

In 2010 Fennell led an AHRC-funded multidisciplinary team developing new ways to analyse the digitised 1641 Irish Depositions corpus (AHRC-749-BF). The team developed an innovative collaborative research environment exchanging knowledge with IBM LanguageWare, Dublin, and modifying IBM's software to analyse variable, `dirty' data. Investigating evidential quality, language development and the language of violence and atrocity in 8000 witness statements, the research advanced a prior AHRC-IRCHSS-funded digitization project, creating novel interactions with an early modern corpus and generating new insights into the Catholic-Protestant divide in Ireland and the UK which impact on current behaviour, policy and historical memory.

Summary of the impact

Research by Anke Ehlers' group at Oxford University has had major impacts on the treatment and outcome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The group developed and validated a psychological model of the key factors that lead to PTSD. A novel form of cognitive therapy (CT) that specifically targets these psychological processes was then developed. Randomised controlled trials showed that CT is highly acceptable and highly effective in recent-onset and chronic PTSD, in adults and children. It is one of the recommended first-line interventions in the NICE PTSD guideline. It has been made widely available in the NHS through Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), and is being disseminated in other countries. Separate research by Ehlers showed that a previously leading treatment, debriefing, was ineffective, leading to it not being recommended by NICE.

Summary of the impact

This innovative research has had an enduring influence on shared education policy debates in Northern Ireland. It directly affected the understanding and attitudes of the most important education policy actors, including the Department for Education Northern Ireland and the Good Relations Forum. It has been significant in two ways. First, it has been widely acknowledged as providing especially robust and reliable evidence of public support for greater sharing in education (e.g. through shared campuses for Protestant and Catholic schools). Secondly, it has been recognised as a model of best practice for consulting the two main communities, unionist and nationalist, about reforms to education provision.

Summary of the impact

Public administration in Northern Ireland evolved in piecemeal fashion after the prorogation of its Parliament (Stormont) in 1972. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and restoration of devolved government created a momentum for radical public sector reform. In 2002 the Government-appointed Review of Public Administration was launched to examine governance arrangements and to propose reform options. Carmichael and Knox researched the origins and knowledge base of the Review and its likely impact on services. This research resulted in significant impacts, changing proposals for reform in respect of the civil service, local government, central-local relations, community planning, and non-departmental public bodies.

Summary of the impact

Bull's research on the legacy of Italian terrorism has enhanced public understanding of the lack of closure around the political violence that convulsed the country in the 1960s to1980s and in doing so has contributed to processes of commemoration, memorialisation and reconciliation. It has benefited communities of interest in civil society, primarily Associations of Victims, school children, and the wider public. Bombing attacks on innocent civilians and an `armed struggle' carried out by ideologically-inspired groups in Italy over the period was responsible for over 15,000 violent acts, resulting in around 500 deaths, and over 1,100 injuries. The Italian Victims' Associations with whom Bull has worked have tried to establish the truth, keep alive public memory, inform the public, and especially the young. They have welcomed the active collaboration and input of informed academics such as Bull.