The HardiBlog

Geraldine Curtin is a Library Assistant working in our Archives and Special Collections department in the Library at University of Galway.   Geraldine has just published her second book, Young Offenders: Children and crime in Ireland, 1850–1908.   In advance of the launch of her book I sat down with Geraldine to discuss the story behind its creation and our discussion began with a simple but important question as to what inspired her to write this book. In 1998 Geraldine visited the National Archives and through conversation with an archivist she learned the National Archives held the prison registers for every jail in Ireland for the 19 th century.   The archivist showed her the prison register for Galway jail, and the contents immediately sparked her curiosity, particularly the large number of women and children listed in this register.   She decided to base her Master’s thesis on the women imprisoned in Galway in the 19 th century and later she pursued a PhD f...

By joining global movements to reform research assessment, protect access to information, and accelerate the transition to open publishing, the University of Galway is contributing to a more equitable, sustainable publishing ecosystem. The University of Galway joined the  Irish National Chapter  of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment,  CoARA , in 2024. The four core commitments of CoARA are as follows:   Recognise diverse contributions to research   Base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation   Abandon inappropriate uses of journal- and metric-based evaluation   Avoid the use of rankings of research organisations in research assessment     The National Chapter provides a platform for Irish members of CoARA to exchange knowledge and mutual learning on issues that are specific to Ireland, such as peer review processes, revision of promotion criteria, adoption of DORA and/or other statements on the responsible use of...