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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It seems to be an age-related thing. I grew up in the 1970s and certainly the offal meaning was still current then.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Professor Wolffe is correct in saying that religion per se didn't cause the conflict in Northern Ireland, but it was too good of a label not to apply. There was, and probably remains a yawning chasm of ignorance of what "the other side" stands for. I recall, from around 1990. a meeting that was organised by conservative members of the Protestant Church of...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I can answer that question because there was a time when I joined ceremonies of religions to which I did not belong. There seemed to be a. for want of a better term, a buzz... People were genuinely happy to be there.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Our upbringing and exposure to a rather narrow form of religious observance colours our thinking about religion. Its practice takes pl;ace in a defined setting, a church or temple. A theatrical aspect is foremost. Once we have seen the performance it rarely has much impact. But for others their religion is far more about living their faith at every level. The...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Shifa Shahin
What a beautiful poem, but to describe it as that is to run the risk of making it into a commonplace. For me beauty is not a mere verbal abstraction but proof of the existence of a creator. The lines
The meaning of the four holy books
Is hidden within a single letter.
are reminiscent of the search of the Estonian composer Arvo Part for the single...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The performance of the song is very profound and it reminds me of the way in which medieval religious texts were often sung to popular melodies of the day.. It works at a number of different yet complementary levels. There is the most immediate sensation of the the performance, and then there are the powerful lyrics which are built upon powerful yet simple...
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While Catholic church attendance in Ireland underwent a severe decline it has started to improve again, due, in no small measure, to the healthy dose of immigration we have experienced, whether from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
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One thing that all organised religions or faith-traditions hold very uncomfortably in common is a lot of very sordid dirty laundry. It is to be hoped that they can make genuine reparations. Yet, even if they do, does this end the exposure of behaviour that falls well short of that which is expected, and which they may demand of their followers. A second...
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All religions practice an enforced ignorance. They tell their believers that their leadership know better than they do. Until comparatively recently, most people were unable to find out about other people's beliefs.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
A decidedly religious person would be, no doubt, a Muslim cleric in Bosnia who frequently drinks wine, who laughs and who occasionally plays football.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
The world's media have been responsible for this over simplification of Shari'a; they speak of how 'Shari'a law has been imposed in a country or federal state, and people in the global north are left with the impression that has thereby become an Islamic state.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Shifa Shahin
Every religious tradition has a history of division. Some closest to the religions consider this as refinement.
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All religions proclaim that they are trying to improve people, yet there is still a huge amount of fear engendered among all believes. There may be the fear of the other, as well as the fear of the self and how it is important not to stray from a narrow path. The response of the vast majority of religious believers is to show kindness to those not sharing...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I'm pleased that he sees Emotional Intelligence as part of an entrepreneurial mindset. It is a firm of intelligence which I believe I possess.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
'Failure is a teacher, it's not an undertaker ...' That's cool!
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Ciaran Parker replied to Kalem Mcdowall
Copyright and intellectual,property conceits are vital, but there are still many areas still covered by 'the Law of the Jungle'.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Well done on a stimulating and informative course!
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Ciaran Parker replied to Barbara K-S
I am confused.com!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Whole it is traditional to see London as being supplied with opulent sp
Ices from far-awy locations, we must not forget the important role held by one location in the supply if a slice which is still highly expensive: the saffron growers of Saffron Walden. -
Ciaran Parker made a comment
A wide-ranging kaleidoscope of talents, expertise and experience.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Susan Anne Murray
Poo Niccolo! This is a case if the messenger being hated for the message!
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I remember how, in the 1970s, I found this cookbook of German recipes translated into English. There was a recipe for a fish called Soup of lights.
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It is easy to forget sign languages.
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Diolch yn fawr. But what is the status of those who 'hoffi mynd i'r Ty bach'? Well the term isn't a classic oath but it is use may cause confusion!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I am from the county of Cavan in the Irish Republic. On a map the county appears like a sinuous piece of chicken or beef which is being pulled by a piano wire. It is called the Lakeland County and, in a similar vein of inaccuracy it has been said that there are three hundred and sixty five lakes in the county - one for every day of the year! I have quipped...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
This was a great course exploring the genius of Janes Joyce, native of Dublin City, citizen of the world!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
I knew Joyce through that magical piece of doggerel he penned before taking up his exile: Gas from a Burner. I have made it my party-piece, as it provides me with an opportunity to say out loud some choice words like bastard, bugger and whore - and get away with it! I was aware of the linguistic marvel that is Finnegan's Wake. Well done to the course leaders.
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
There has been little said about Joyce's medical studies. Obviously, his heart was not in becoming a doctor. But what prompted these studies? Obviously there would be the social cachet of being a medical practitioner, surpassed only by the discovery of a vocation for religious life.
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Let us not forget to get important dichotomy: spoken and written language or discourse. Perhaps it is the inevitable result if pursuing a seni-eremitical existence, but I don't do a lot of spoken discourse. I am often accused of producing 'flowery language'. Another way os describing it would be vulgar language with attitude. I do not set out to produce...
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
In my opinion I believe that irrational discounting is probably the greatest problem. At each election we see the rise of dark forces which many of us believed had ben silenced long ago so that they now seize the reins of government. This is usually because of the powers of these actors to manipulate people's fears. Well I am worried, not about racist nonsense...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Svea M
You mention 'the standard for all citizens'. What about the physically disabled, of who I am sadly one? I would live to be able to walk, but it is no longer a possibility. Before becoming disabled, I prefer to use public transport, but now, as a wheelchair user, public transport is Inaccessible. I still do my bit fir the environment, ensuring that lights are...
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Ciaran Parker replied to Ella Q
Very-well argued!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
Much of the earliest examples of old Irish to survive come from ecclesiastical sources and include glosses. The language continued to develop on the ground, and poetry firmed a vital patr, not only of the entertainment landscape, but also of the political at that time.
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Let us not forget the BBC 4 announcer, I think she is called Amanda, who signs off her broadcasts by wishing her listeners Ee vye or Good night in Manx, or her colleague, my fellow countryman Al Ryan who ends programming with the cognate Oiche mhaith!
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Ciaran Parker made a comment
My first language is English, and the historical texts were written in Middle English. If they were written in Old English, I would have had greater difficulty with them, although I have since studied old English.
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Ciaran Parker replied to Nontsikelelo Martel
A really great definition!
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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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@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
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!
