“The term milieu may be seen to embrace the fullness and diversity of the geographic tradition” (W.J. Smyth, 1975)
On Wednesday, the 50th anniversary edition of Milieu the was officially launched in the Rocque Lab in the Geography Department, an event that was attended by Geography staff, past and present, as well as a number of student contributors to this year’s journal.
In 1975 the first ever Milieu was published. Back then, the first Milieu editor, Jim Murphy claimed that the purpose of the magazine would be “to cater for some of our student geographical writing, especially when this entails geographical research”, and he noted that it was “intended that ‘Milieu’ be an annual publication” (Murphy, 1975: 1). The hopes of the 1975 Maynooth Geography Society largely came to pass, as Milieu would be published on an “almost annual” basis across the following five decades (with the exceptions of 2005, 2026 and another missing year in the 2010s). Over that period, the magazine has varied, in terms of length, number of articles and the balance between the more academic pieces and the more social, or fun, elements. There has been a notable improvement in production values. It took a number of decades before colour printing became part of Milieu. The production process across the first few decades was time consuming and costly, especially as articles needed to be individually typeset before the printing process could commence. By contrast, technological improvements in the 2000s have ensured that the journal is effectively ready to go, once the Editor has finished formatting the different submission (now all thankfully submitted as Word documents, and not the handwritten submissions from the earlier decades) and finalising the journal layout. The biggest change in recent times came with the onset of COVID in 2020. Under the editorial leadership of William Durkan and the “Spatial Analysis Lab” team (Siobhán Madden, Conchúr Ó Maonaigh and 2024-25 co-editor, Caoilfhionn D’Arcy), the journal had to quickly transition from a printed journal to an online journal, and it has remained so ever since. There are a number of advantages to this. With no publication cost worries and a bit more in the way of flexibility in relation to submission deadlines, it has allowed for an increase in the volume of submissions that can be accepted and included as part of Milieu - the 2023 edition ran to a record 165 pages – and this year’s edition comes in as the second longest in Milieu history, running to a pretty impressive 141 pages, including the striking cover, designed by the aforementioned, Dr. D’Arcy. As a bit of a traditionalist (shock, horror), a part of me does miss the excitement people experience in seeing their work appears in a physical, printed, format.
“The Geography society was founded in 1971-72 under the patronage of Patrick Duffy…The aim of our society is to cater for the geographical interests of both geography students and the student body as a whole. Since its foundation one of the principle activities has been the organisation of evening lectures, where speakers from within the college and from outside are invited to talk on some topics within their particular fields which are of geographic interest.” (Seamus Ryan (“Auditor”), 1975, 2)
Milieu is officially the journal of the Maynooth (Student) Geography Society, but the nature of the Society’s involvement has changed in recent times. (Puts on “Back in my time…” voice…) In the first few decades of Milieu, even if the editor was usually not a member of the Society, the Society committee had a job of work to do, in trying to get submissions for the journal (most of which back then tended to be original pieces, whereas we’ve a greater proportion of revamped/edited student essays in more recent times), but also in covering the costs of Milieu, which tended to be pretty high in the 1980s and 1990s, as noted already. Committee members needed to seek advertising from various businesses in the town (and hope that other student societies had not already eaten into a business’s advertising budget), but they also needed to ensure that they sold enough copies of Milieu to the student body to help cover any remaining costs, or at least enough of these costs to avoid getting into debt/bother with the Students Union. To ensure enough sales, it was important to have an official launch for the journal (with a number of boxes of the journal ready for sale on the day), but it was also important to visit the Geography lectures and try to sell Milieu at the end of the lecture. (The key here was to sell Milieu in the lecture hall, and not outside it, as students often felt encouraged to buy Milieu if they thought this would impress their lecturers!) Some Society members also took up the reins of editing. Dave Martin back in the 2010s was one of the more recent examples of this, while Greg (“Perry”) White not only edited Milieu in 2008, but also ensured that the journal got the glitziest launch possible, managing to book Carton House for this, resulting in one of the best attended Milieu launches ever and involving people who had not previously been to a launch and haven’t been at one since then! Since COVID and the move to an online journal, which means there is no need to raise money through sales or advertising, the link between the Society and Milieu has undoubtedly weakened, especially as the editor also has tended to be the person who also takes up the slack in terms of trying to get article submissions.
I have been lucky to contribute to the journal in many various guises, dating back to my debut in Milieu 1991 when I wrote a short article as a Second Year Geography student on the risks of political conflict in Yugoslavia, before then being involved in the Society Committee for the following year’s edition. After a brief cameo in the 1995 Milieu (with my third article relating to the Former Yugoslavia), I finally took up the editing reins in 2000 for the 25th anniversary edition and have filled that role on three other occasions, 2001, 2024 and 2025, while also being a member of the editing team on other occasions, such as 2004 and 2023. (I am not the other current staff member to have featured as a former Milieu editor, with Conor Murphy and Louise Sarsfield-Collins, as well as Caoilfhionn, also having past experiences as Milieu editor.) So Milieu has been very much part of my (many years of) experiences with the Geography Department here in Maynooth. I do not want to go all How Green Was My Valley here, but – even with the technological limitations of past decades – it has never seemed as hard to put together an edition of Milieu and in previous years it has been something we always seem to just get over the line just before the final days of lectures. Happily, we managed to slightly break from that tradition this year and avoid the very last week, when no one really wants to/has time to attend a Milieu launch, so as to ensure there was a “proper launch” for this 50th anniversary edition. (This is also a good time to recall the efforts William Durkan, formerly “of this parish” and now spearheading geographical teaching in UCC, who ensured we had a Milieu across each of the four COVID/post-COVID years in his role as editor – without William’s hard work, Milieu probably would have died in 2020.) Everyone is busier. Students are busier. Staff are busier. And the future outlook is for even busier times. It is getting harder for Milieu to find a place in this “busy-ness” and the journal faces some challenging times in the coming years, if it is to survive, at least long enough to get to a fiftieth edition (in 2028).
Ultimately Milieu MUST be a journal that represents the Maynooth Geography student body, and particularly the undergraduate students. This year (as in 2024) I asked the Final Year Geography students, if they wished, to contribute their favourite memories of their time with us in Maynooth Geography, and you can see these contributions towards the end of the journal – thanks to all the students who contributed. Many of our Final Year undergraduate students will be leaving us for pastures new in the next few days/weeks, and I wanted to get as many of the voices of those students represented in this year’s edition. To our Final Year students, can I say thank you for all of your hard work and dedication over the past number of years – we as staff are always (or should be always) conscious of the level of engagement and quality of work produced by our students, many of whom have other personal and/or health issues to be working through at the same time. Please never under-estimate the level of work that you have produced over the past few years, but also do not forget the degree of skills, some of which would be geographical, that you have learned, and practiced, in your time with us (and, looking ahead, do make sure to give these elements full justice on your CVs). Hopefully we have also helped you become more critical and fair-minded and more willing to take on board a diversity of viewpoints; vital skills to have in an increasingly challenging local, national, and global environment, in a world that is marked by “echo chambers”, “no platforming” and an increasingly polarised social media environment. Life is not black and white, but instead offers varying shades of grey, and the real excitement/learning comes from engaging with these and taking account of different opinions. Hopefully the critical skills you have learned in your time as Maynooth Geography students will allow you to successfully do so.