Tá Comhairle Mhúinteoireachta na hÉireann i ndiaidh aitheantas a thabhairt do chlár nua céime a bheas á reáchtáil trí Ghaeilge, rud a chuireann go mór leis an gcúrsa. Sheol Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh agus Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Leitir Ceanainn (LYIT) an B.A. (Riarachán Gnó) ní ba luaithe i mbliana. Beidh an cúrsa ar siúl in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, Gaoth Dobhair ó Mheán Fómhair 2008 ar aghaidh. Agus é ag caint faoin bhforbairt nua seo dúirt Éamonn Mac Niallais, Riarthóir Ionad an Acadaimh i nGaoth Dobhair, go bhfuil, "méadú suntasach tagtha ar na deiseanna fostaíochta atá ar fáil in eagraíochtaí atá ag feidhmiú trí mheán na Gaeilge nó go dátheangach, sa Ghaeltacht agus sa Ghalltacht le blianta beaga anuas. Dá bhrí sin, féadfaidh céimithe an chúrsa seo a bheith ag súil le deiseanna iontacha fostaíochta amach anseo. Ciallaíonn an t-aitheantas seo go gcomhlíonann an chéim na riachtanais acadúla atá de dhíth ar mhúinteoirí le clárú leis an Chomhairle Mhúinteoireachta le Gnó a theagasc i meánscoileanna. Cuirfidh sé sin le líon na ndeiseanna fostaíochta a bheas ag céimithe agus ciallaíonn sé go bhfuil an cúrsa i bhfad níos tarraingtí do mhic léinn." Is é an B.A. (Riarachán Gnó) an chéad chlár céime a bheidh á reáchtáil in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, Gaoth Dobhair agus tá sé mar aidhm ag an gcúrsa scileanna praiticiúla agus anailíseacha a thabhairt do mhic léinn le cur ar a gcumas feidhmiú go héifeachtach i dtimpeallacht dhátheangach gnó agus riaracháin. D'fháiltigh Uachtarán nua-cheaptha OÉ Gaillimh, an Dr. James Browne, roimh an dea-scéala seo agus dúirt sé go bhfuil, "áthas ar leith ar OÉ Gaillimh go bhfuil an B.A. (Riarachán Gnó) á thairiscint i gcomhar le LYIT. Táimid ag comhoibriú lena chéile agus ag úsáid ár n-acmhainní i gcomhphairtíocht lena chéile chun cúrsa tarraingteach trí Ghaeilge a sholáthar don phobal san Iarthuaisceart." Leag an tUasal Paul Hannigan, Uachtarán LYIT, béim ar thábhacht na comhoibre idir an dá institiúid tríú leibhéal freisin agus an clár nua seo á fhorbairt. "Tá aitheantas forleathan bainte amach ag Scoil Ghnó LYIT as feabhas a cúrsaí gnó agus i láthair na huaire tá breis is 1,000 mac léinn ag freastal ar chúrsaí fochéime agus iarchéime san Institiúid. Tá ceann de na ceantair Ghaeltachta is mó sa tír i nDún na nGall agus cúis áthais dúinn deis a fháil comhoibriú le hOllscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh chun cúrsa nua gnó a reáchtáil trí mheán na Gaeilge." Tá Údarás na Gaeltachta ag tacú leis an gclár agus dúirt Príomhfheidhmeannach an Údaráis, Pádraig Ó hAoláin, go léiríonn an cúrsa cé chomh tiomanta agus atá Údarás na Gaeltachta d'fhorbairt eacnamaíoch agus theangeolaíoch na Gaeltachta. "Níl an oiread béime anois is a bhí ar na tionscail thraidisiúnta déantúsaíochta agus is cinnte go raibh éifeacht shuntasach aige seo ar chúrsaí fostaíochta sna ceantair Ghaeltachta. Caithfimid dul san iomaíocht i ré an domhandaithe agus tá géarghá le hardleibhéil eolais agus scileanna chun dul chun cinn a dhéanamh. Cabhróidh tionscnaimh cosúil leis an gcúrsa céime seo le muintir na Gaeltachta aghaidh a thabhairt ar na dúshláin nua seo agus ní hamháin tionscail ardleibhéil a mhealladh, ach gnóthaí dá gcuid féin a bhunú freisin." De bhrí go bhfuil an cúrsa seo á reáchtáil go háitiúil agus siocair go bhfuil Údarás na Gaeltachta ag tacú leis, beidh sé níos fusa do dhaoine tabhairt faoi bhunchéim a bhaint amach. Is léir d'Éamonn Mac Niallais go dtuigeann daoine gur deis iontach í seo chun céim a fháil, "Tá an-suim léirithe ag mic léinn lánfhásta sa chúrsa seo – daoine nach raibh deis acu oideachas tríú leibhéal a bhaint amach roimhe seo nó daoine ar mian leo tabhairt faoi ghairm nua ach níl na cáilíochtaí cuí acu. Ciallaíonn an tacaíocht fhlaithiúil atá á tabhairt ag Údarás na Gaeltachta don chlár seo, mar aon leis na buntáistí a bhaineann le maireachtáil sa bhaile agus clár céime á dhéanamh, gur deis iontach atá ann do dhaoine céim tríú leibhéal a bhaint amach. Tá an clár seo feiliúnach go háirithe do mhic léinn lánfhásta a bhfuil leanaí óga acu". Tá tuilleadh eolais faoin B.A. (Riarachán Gnó) le fáil ag www.acadamh.ie nó trí theagmháil a dhéanamh le hIonad an Acadaimh i nGaoth Dobhair ag 074 9531919 nó ríomhphost a sheoladh chuig gaothdobhair@oegaillimh.ie. -Críoch –

Leading researchers in pain medicine and health economics at the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway will supervise two Health Research Board-funded summer scholars in projects on Chronic Pain over the coming months, following a highly competitive awards scheme for summer research scholarships. Edel Smith, a second year economics and maths students and Gerard Healy, a second year medicine student will be supervised by Dr Brenda Gannon, Senior Researcher, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology (ICSG) and Drs Brian McGuire and David Finn, Co-Directors of the Centre for Pain Research, NUI Galway, respectively. Efficient expenditure on health services requires detailed information on the costs of various medical conditions. The first project deals with health economics and seeks to explore the costs in one Pain Clinic in order to build a platform model of detailed costs among the most severely affected population, i.e. those attending a regional Pain Clinic. The project aims to collect data on the economic cost of chronic pain among patients attending Pain Clinics. Those attending specialised Pain Clinics tend to be at the most "chronic" end of the pain spectrum and frequently have a high level of disability and associated costs. The second project will evaluate whether variation in the psychological status of chronic pain patients undergoing an interventional pain management procedure, significantly influences the pain relief following the procedure. Chronic pain is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon and psychosocial factors are known to influence the onset, course and response to treatment. This study will examine whether variation in the outcome of interventional pain management can be explained by pre-treatment psychological factors, such as anxiety, pain-related beliefs and treatment expectations. This research hopes to highlight the importance of optimization of a patient's psychological status prior to embarking on expensive invasive treatments and may suggest a potential cost saving benefit of multidisciplinary care for all patients in the management of chronic pain. Dr Brenda Gannon, said: "These two innovative projects will provide important data for clinicians and service planners. With the increasing need for transparency in health policy and expenditure, these projects will highlight critical health outcomes of treatments and relevant costs incurred by chronic pain sufferers. These studies will play an important role in advocacy for patients with chronic pain". The projects are being carried out in collaboration with Dr David O'Gorman, Consultant in Pain Medicine and Nancy Ruane, Pain Nurse at UCHG. ENDS

The era of grand estates in western Ireland has been captured in a unique project by a team of researchers at NUI Galway. The comprehensive electronic database and archive devoted to landed estates and gentry houses in Connacht, c. 1700-1914, was launched recently at the University by Minister of State, Dr Martin Mansergh, T.D. The database contains references to over 1450 houses and some 1,650 estates. The aim of the resource is to assist and support researchers working on the social, economic, political and cultural history of Connacht from c.1700 to 1914. The project involved the distillation and collation of data from a broad range of historical sources, and its concise codification on an estate/name basis. According to NUI Galway's Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, who was Project Principal: "For the first time ever researchers will have ready access to a comprehensive database of sources relating to the world of the landed society of Connacht from the end of the seventeenth century to the beginning of the break-up of the large landed estates under the land purchase schemes that followed the Irish 'land war' of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. This is the world of landed estates and gentry houses that dominated rural society from the era of the penal laws until the eve of the great war". The project, whose senior researchers were Marie Boran and Brigid Clesham, was hosted by the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at NUI Galway and funded by the Irish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS). The Project is one of the first of its kind to be completed under the Research Infrastructure Grants scheme of the IRCHSS. For more information visit www.landedestates.ie ENDS

The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway will be running a unique competition from August to September in conjunction with boards.ie, Ireland's largest discussion forum site. The competition is an open contest in which entrants can win over €4000 in prizes by submitting an interesting creation based on a data set of discussion posts from boards.ie. The data reflects ten years of Irish online life, collected from between 1998 and 2008. boards.ie is one of Ireland's busiest websites, with over a million unique visitors a month. The most popular discussion areas are 'after hours', soccer, motors, poker, and computers. Popular topic threads include: a virtual pub (over 4000 pages); member discussions (2800 pages); poker stories (1800 pages); Liverpool rumours (1250 pages); recruitment in the Gardaí (800 pages long); and a freebie list (250 pages). Ten years of discussion data from boards.ie (approximately 9 million documents) has been represented in the Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC) open data format, developed by DERI at NUI Galway for expressing the information contained in social websites (forums, mailing lists, blogs, etc.). Dr John Breslin, a researcher with DERI and co-founder of the boards.ie site said: "Entrants may create whatever they feel is interesting based on this data: it could be a novel web application that makes use of the data set, a report on analyses performed on the data, a tool that allows one to visualise or browse the semantic structure, or whatever else the imagination can come up with!" To enter the competition, go to http://data.sioc-project.org to access the data sets and guidelines. There will be three prizes for the top entries, as judged by an independent panel of three experts: First prize is an Amazon voucher for €2500; second prize is a voucher for €1250; and third prize is a voucher for €625. One person may make multiple entry submissions. The closing date for entry is 30 September, 2008. ENDS

The second John McGahern International Seminar will be officially opened tonight (Thursday, 24 July), by Professor Ger Hurley, Vice-President, NUI Galway, in the Bush Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim. The John McGahern International Seminar and Summer School is organised annually in Co. Leitrim to commemorate the work and literary achievements of this distinguished author. The opening address, 'John McGahern's Irelands' will be given by Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Department of History, NUI Galway. Speaking in advance of the opening address, Professor Tuathaigh said: "It is for his distinction as a writer, mainly of prose fiction, that John McGahern is honoured, and it is as a truly exceptional writer that he will be remembered. Even allowing for the austerity of this dedication to his primary vocation, the full corpus of McGahern's writing also offers a rich representation and a critique of key forces of continuity and change in Irish society (in particular the rural society of the West) in the decades between the 1940s and the early years of this century". The first volume of the John McGahern Yearbook will also be launched at the 2008 Seminar by Kevin Reynolds of RTÉ. The annual hardback volume, compiled and edited by Dr John Kenny, Department of English, NUI Galway, includes contributions from Séamus Heaney, Declan Kiberd, Joseph O'Connor, and Belinda McKeon. Professor Ger Hurley, Vice-President for Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs, NUI Galway, said: "The name of John McGahern is synonymous with the Summer School of NUI Galway. For over a quarter of a century, up to his untimely death, John contributed each year to many academic programmes at our University, but especially to its Summer School in Irish Studies and workshops in Creative Writing. NUI Galway is, therefore, pleased to cooperate again this year with Leitrim County Council, and especially its Arts Office, in organising this Seminar and Summer School here in Leitrim to mark the lifetime of artistic and literary achievement of John McGahern". Speakers during the International Seminar include: Professor Christopher Murray, UCD; Gerardo Gambolini, Argentinian poet and translator; and David Malcolm, University of Gdansk, Poland. Panel discussions and readings will also take place throughout the programme. In addition to this year's Seminar, NUI Galway has organised an intensive one week International Summer School on John McGahern's work and its contexts. This summer programme will form part of the 25th International Summer School in Irish Studies at NUI Galway. To commemorate the 25th International Summer School in Irish Studies (1984-2008), NUI Galway will present each student of the 2008 Summer School with a US first edition of John McGahern's memoir, All Will Be Well. ENDS