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The island's population numbered a few dozen families throughout the 18th century, corresponding to a population of no more than a couple of hundred people; it was recorded as numbering 30 families in 1710, 47 in 1724, 40 in 1735 and 30 in 1760. They rented their land from two branches of the Sinclair family, the Sinclairs of Mey who owned Uppertown and the Sinclairs of Freswick who owned Nethertown. The latter acquired Nethertown in 1721 and eventually took possession of Uppertown as well by obtaining the wadset from the Kennedys, reportedly through skullduggery. According to the deathbed confession of one of the witnesses to the transaction, the laird, Sinclair of Freswick, obtained the "assent" of the deceased Kennedy holder of the wadset by placing a quill in the dead man's hand and moving it to make the corpse write its name on the document. The other witness committed suicide, perhaps out of guilt. The island was reasonably profitable for the Sinclairs; in 1724 the islanders
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paid an annual rent of 1,300 marks (equivalent to about £125 at 2011 prices), part of which was paid in surplus grain ferried by Stroma's boats to the Sinclair granaries at Staxigoe near Wick. They were self-sufficient in dairy produce and were known for the quality of their cheese-making; Daniel Defoe thought Stroma cheese was excellent.
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19th and 20th centuries
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By the early 19th century, around 30 families numbering 170 people lived on Stroma, farming land allocated on the traditional run rig system. The island was said to be "very productive in corn", though the inhabitants did not make use of ploughs; instead, they dug high beds or ridges, which produced greater yields than ploughing would have. George Low wrote in his 1774 account of the island that "the soil is good, black and deep, thrown up into high ridges by the spade, in a word the whole cultivated part of the Island is dressed like a garden and produces far greater crops than are common on plowed ground." Agricultural life on the island followed a fairly typical crofting pattern, with the average Stroma croft being about in size. Families usually kept a few cows, sheep and hens, along with a single horse and pig. They grew a variety of crops such as oats, potatoes, hay and turnips, obtained water from wells and used horses to meet their transportation needs. As well as
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agricultural exports, they also exported flagstones from the island and imported peat to burn as fuel; they were dismissive of the practice in some of the Orkney Islands of using cow dung as fuel, referring to the northern island of Sanday as "the little island where the coos shit fire". Low observed the effect of the island's climate on the inhabitants: "The men are stout hardy spadesmen as was said before, the women while young are tolerably well looked, but as they advance in age grow very hard favoured, acquiring a peculiar ghastliness in their countenances contrary to what is observed of the women in Orkney."
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The islanders also supported themselves through fishing, exploiting the high-quality catches that were to be made around the island's coasts. James Traill Calder wrote in his 1861 Sketch of the Civil and Traditional History of Caithness that "The finest cod in the north is to be got in the Pentland Firth ... Large and excellent lobsters are caught around the island [of Stroma]." It was said that the cod had "the firmest white flesh of any caught from British waters due to having to continuously swim in strong currents." As well as trapping lobsters, the islanders practised hand line cod fishing in the waters of the Firth. This involved towing lengths of line with heavy weights and a metal rod or sprool at one end, from which hung a short length of hemp and hook baited with limpets. To encourage the fish to bite, the boats had to be held still by their rowers, which required great skill in the Firth's unpredictable currents. The island was noted for its native type of boat, the Stroma
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yole, which was a direct descendant of the old Norse longship.
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Many of the male islanders utilised their knowledge of the Firth's currents to hire themselves out to passing vessels as maritime pilots. Their expertise was the product of a lifetime's experience on the waters of the Firth; as it was said, they had been "dabbling in salt water from their childhood upwards". Indeed, the whole island was drenched in salt water thrown up by the powerful tides and storms to which it was subjected, particularly in the winter. The Statistical Account of Scotland noted that during a storm the sea level on the west of the island was more than higher than on the east side, and that the spray was thrown so high that it washed over the cliff tops "and falls in such profusion as to run in rills to the opposite shore". The islanders took advantage of this phenomenon by capturing the water in a reservoir to power a watermill which ground their grain in the winter months. It is not now known exactly where the mill was or what happened to it. Although it is
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described in the Statistical Account, written in the 1790s, and a Robert Miller is listed in the 1851 census as its miller, by 1861 he had moved to farm a croft and no further mention is made of the mill in contemporary accounts.
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Stroma's violent storms occasionally wrought destruction on the island. In December 1862, a great storm broke over the island with such force that it swept right across the northern end of Stroma, leaving wreckage, rocks and seaweed on the top of the 100-foot-high cliffs and destroying the channels leading to the watermill. However, the sea's destructive power had one positive benefit for the islanders, if not for those caught out by the currents and shoals of the Pentland Firth. Over the last two hundred years, over sixty vessels ranging from fishing boats to large cargo vessels have been wrecked on the shores of Stroma, with many more vessels coming to grief on the reefs and shoals of the neighbouring mainland and Orkney coasts. Many vessels – at least 560 between 1830 and 1990 – have had to be refloated in the Pentland Firth after getting into difficulties. Shipwrecks were a valuable source of income, timber and goods for the islanders, who would salvage liberally – and often with
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little regard for legality – whenever a stranded ship was abandoned. The building of Stroma's first lighthouse in the late 19th century was initially opposed by some of the islanders who were more concerned with profiting from shipwrecks than preventing them.
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The shipwrecks continued, nonetheless, with one of the most profitable of all being the 1931 wreck of the 6,000-ton Danish freighter Pennsylvania on the neighbouring island of Swona. The vessel was plundered by the inhabitants of Stroma, Swona and South Ronaldsay. Much of her cargo of slot machines, spark plugs, clothing, tobacco, watches and car parts was looted and concealed in haystacks, oatfields, lochs and caves. David Stogdon, a lifeboatman, recalled seeing what the islanders did with their illicit salvage: "Every house was stuffed with wreck [salvage] ... clocks, telescopes, binnacles ... I seem to remember enormous dining-room tables in small cottages. And then of course from time to time they'd have cargo parts of lorries or something like that which could be put together to make a lorry and taken ashore on two or three fishing boats in calm weather. They'd land it quietly somewhere, drive it along and sell it." Customs officers, policemen, coastguards and Receivers of Wreck
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were not generally welcome – the island had no police force – and the islanders let it be understood that unfortunate things could happen to the boats of unwanted visitors: "Police boats could go missing, develop an unexpected leak or spontaneously combust." The area still presents hazards to passing ships; in January 1993, the Danish coaster Bettina Danica ran aground off the southern end of Stroma. The wreck was broken apart by the action of the sea in 1997 and only her stern section is still visible.
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Another way the islanders supported themselves was through the illicit brewing of spirits as a way of boosting their income – a common practice among the older people. An inspector who visited the island's school in 1824 described the inhabitants of Stroma as "all professed smugglers". The suppression of smuggling by the authorities led to a significant drop in the island's population the first half of the 19th century. The census of 1841 noted: "now smuggling being completely suppressed, several families have left the island and removed to the Orkneys to follow more lawful pursuits." While smuggling may have been tackled, illicit distilling continued for many years. One former inhabitant, Mrs. David Gunn, recalled in 1971 how her great-grandmother had managed to avoid the "excisemen" (customs officers) confiscating her illegally brewed alcohol:
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Despite their physical isolation, the islanders maintained a lively community. A school had been established in 1723 by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SPCK), with sixty children on its initial attendance roll. The demands of island life conflicted to some extent with those of schooling. The SPCK's inspector found only eighteen out of seventy pupils present when he visited in 1824. He found that many of the children were fully occupied helping their families in summer and only attended school in winter. Two places of worship were built within a couple of years of each other, a Baptist chapel in 1877 and a Church of Scotland church in 1878 (at a cost of £900). Although they soon became focal elements of community life, there seems to have been some bad blood between the two congregations, perhaps due to a clash between the missionary zeal of local Baptists and the Calvinism of the Presbyterian Kirk.
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The inhabitants of Stroma were highly self-sufficient, and many practiced additional trades such as carpentry or roof-laying in addition to their "day jobs" in fishing or crofting. They built their own houses and boats, produced most of their own food, maintained farm equipment, shod their own horses, and made their own clothes, boots and shoes. In the 1920s they built their own wind turbines to recharge the batteries of their radio sets. By the end of the 19th century the island had three shops including a grocery. Any additional needs were met by purchasing supplies from shops at Wick and Thurso on the mainland or by mail-order from catalogues. For a while, they were also able to use the services of a floating shop which came periodically from Orkney to Stroma. Customers were rowed out to buy groceries, flour, animal feed, paraffin and clothes in exchange for lobsters, wet salted fish and eggs.
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Most of the houses on Stroma are single-storey stone-built structures with two main rooms (a "butt" and a "ben") plus a closet (a small bedroom) and a porch. The rooms were small and simply furnished, incorporating recessed box beds. These consisted of a series of wooden planks with a layer of straw on top, on which was placed a chaff-filled mattress. The butt was used as a living room and included an iron stove with an oven, and sometimes a water tank to enable hot water to be generated, while the ben was used for visitors and as a sitting-room.
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One former islander, Jimmy Simpson, recalled that "we had about two hundred and fifty folks here when I was a boy. It never seemed a lonely place. There were always people going in and out of each other's houses, there were forty children at the school and there were two teachers. We had concerts; three concerts in the winter when you had to sing loud to get above the sound of the wind. The young people would meet at the shop in the long, long evenings in summer." The island had some distinctively eccentric characters: Donald Banks, the island's coffin-maker, was known for quarrelling with his neighbours (telling one family, "I'll no bury any more o' ye!") and combining poetry with coffin-making, as in the order he placed with a mainland supplier: Dear Mr. Sutherland, Would you be so good, To send eight planks of coffin wood. Half inch lining, (dear Mr. Sutherland,) For those who are pining ... Describing life on Stroma, Simpson commented: Decline and abandonment
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Stroma's population fell precipitously through the first half of the 20th century, leading eventually to the island's final abandonment at the end of the 1950s. There was no single cause that precipitated the collapse of Stroma's population. Living conditions on the island were always basic; there was no running water or electricity, and gas only arrived in the 1950s, which contrasted poorly with the improvements being made on the mainland. The fishing deteriorated after the First World War, and crofting became an increasingly difficult way to make a living. The island was relatively overpopulated; by 1901 the population was nearly twice that of sixty years previously, and there was little spare land left for farming. Families of six to eight children were common, but there was simply not enough work for all, so the eldest often left for the mainland or emigrated to Canada or the United States to find work. The lack of a proper harbour meant that the islanders could not make use of
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larger boats or develop a modern fishery. Young people started moving away to seek better-paying opportunities elsewhere, eventually followed by their parents.
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Both of the World Wars had a major impact on Stroma, which was only from the Royal Navy's chief base at Scapa Flow in Orkney. Six islanders died in each of the World Wars; the names of all twelve are inscribed on the island's war memorial, and during the Second World War as much as a quarter of the population was on war service. Adding to the island's economic problems, the introduction of the 11-plus exam in 1944 meant that all children over the age of 12 had to leave Stroma to complete their education at the secondary school in Wick. Because they could not commute between the island and Wick, they had to attend school as boarders, which incurred additional expenses for their parents.
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Two other factors have often been cited in Stroma's depopulation: the building of the nuclear power station at nearby Dounreay in the 1950s, which created many new jobs on the mainland, and in the same decade the construction of a harbour on Stroma on which many islanders were employed. Although it has been claimed that this gave the islanders the incentive (and the means) to leave, local historian Donald A. Young points out that of islanders who left after 1945, only one went directly from Stroma to Dounreay. Most of the rest either continued fishing or carried on crofting on the mainland, while others found alternative jobs. Some ex-islanders eventually found jobs at Dounreay, but they had already moved to the mainland for work or education.
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The Sinclairs of Mey sold their portion of the island to Colonel F. B. Imbert-Terry in 1929, who sold it in turn to John Hoyland, an umbrella manufacturer from Yorkshire, in 1947. Hoyland also acquired the remaining island estate of the Sinclairs of Freswick, uniting Stroma for a reported cost of £4,000. His tenure coincided with the final collapse of the island's population. As the tenants left, Hoyland put Stroma on the market but found no buyers. A Caithness councilman suggested various schemes for Stroma, including establishing a naturist resort and using it as a site for a crematorium, but the council rejected suggestions that it should take on responsibility for the island. As the population left, the local economy disintegrated; there were no longer enough able-bodied men to man the fishing boats, and the remaining facilities on the island were closed down for lack of custom. The last store on the island, the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society shop, closed in 1956. Only
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three families, numbering 16 people in total, were left by 1957; that year, the island's school closed, by which time it only had two pupils. The Post Office closed in 1958 when the family which operated it left for the mainland.
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In the summer of 1958, Hoyland prompted controversy by offering the island to the American TV quiz show Bid 'n' Buy as a prize. After an outcry on both sides of the Atlantic, the show's producers settled for offering a car instead. In December 1960, he sold Stroma to Jimmy Simpson, an islander whose family had moved to farm on the mainland near the Castle of Mey in 1943. Simpson had not originally intended to buy the island but happened to be talking about it with a lawyer: "I said, 'I see Stroma was sold last week, and it's not sold this week. Is it on the market?' 'Yes,' he said, 'Stroma's for sale.' I said, "What kind of money?" So he told me what kind of money, and there and then, the lawyer wrote that I, James Simpson, offered to buy the island of Stroma at a certain figure, and I signed my name at the end of it." His wife was not enthusiastic about the purchase: "Lena nearly flew at me for being so stupid. She says, 'Stroma? What on earth are you going to do with an island?'".
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He was successful in his bid and used the island to graze his animals, repopulating it with around 200 sheep and 30 cattle. It is still used by the Simpson family for sheep grazing.
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By this time, the five-member Manson family had become the last native inhabitants of Stroma, "Now liv[ing] in a silent community of empty houses, an empty church and an empty school." Although the head of the family, Andrew Manson, called the island "a paradise in summer" and a place where he was "free of outside distractions and watching my sons growing from boyhood to manhood – teaching them to live like men, to be dependent on no one," it was a bleak life for the women, who had applied for a council house at Scrabster, near Thurso. The Mansons finally left Stroma on 6 December 1962, bringing to an end thousands of years of permanent habitation on the island. Island of ruins Stroma is now entirely deserted by humans; its only permanent inhabitants are the seals, birds and sheep that live on the island. The church, school and old croft houses stand derelict, with many having fallen into ruin. The writer Bella Bathurst, visiting the island in the early 2010s, described the scene:
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Inside some of the houses, Bathurst writes, everyday objects still remain where they were left decades ago; "the bed and the limed matchboard ceiling are intact, untouched even by the damp. The kitchen table still stands in the parlour and a framed and fading photograph gazes out from the top of the mantelpiece." In another house seen 20 years earlier by Leslie Thomas, "was a rank of family photographs, shades in Victorian dress staring out forever into a room now desolate and holed, but which had once held the life of a warm family."
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Elsewhere, the books remain "dusty but tidy" in the abandoned school, and the church still contains its pulpit, "dumb and hung with ragged red tassles" with prayer books "left to be trampled upon by heathen sheep and nibbled by rabbits and rats." In the former post office, forms and licence applications and a bottle of dried ink still stand on the counter, while in a back room stands "a nice dresser, upon which [stands] a teapot and a jug and some sheet music: 'Red Sails in the Sunset', 'The General's Fast Asleep' and 'You Can't Do That There 'Ere.' Nobody on Stroma will ever sing those songs now."
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Bathurst and Thomas express contrasting views on the significance of Stroma's abandonment. Thomas regards it as a tragedy: "Of all the out-of-the-way places I have known, this was the saddest. It seemed as though its life had been ended in a fit of pique." To Bathurst, however, "it is tempting to see Stroma's abandonment as the result of some appalling trauma. Abandonment is always taken as a sign of failure, a collective death ... But Stroma does not feel sad. True, there is sorrow in seeing the once meticulous vegetable patches turned over to weeds, or wondering how many more winters the box beds will stand before they start to rot. But that isn't the whole story. What is interesting about Stroma is not the fact of its abandonment, but the tale of its past." MeyGen Ltd installed four giant tidal turbines on the ocean floor near the island of Stroma, and produced 25 GWh of electrical energy in 2019, enough to supply the electric needs of 4,000 homes. Communications
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Stroma lacked a regular connection to the mainland until 1879, when the Post Office subsidised a weekly boat service from Huna on the mainland and established a post office on the island. However, the volume of mail from Stroma proved so small that the service was grossly uneconomical. By the 1950s, the Post Office was spending 1s. 2d. for each letter worth 2½d. in postage. For many years, the islanders had no means of contacting the mainland in emergencies other than signalling with hand lamps and hoping that someone would see them. A radio telephone was installed in 1935, and in 1953 a telephone cable was laid. A red telephone box was installed in the centre of the island, symbolic of the 6 millionth phone box installation in the UK. It is still there today, though no longer in use.
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It was not until 1894 that Stroma gained its first artificial landing point, a pier built from Portland cement near Nethertown at a cost of £800. In 1955, Caithness County Council constructed a new harbour on the south coast of the island at the then great cost of £28,500. Although it was intended to help stem the exodus of people from the island, Stroma was abandoned only a few years after the harbour's completion.
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In the late 1930s Highland Airways looked into the possibility of including Stroma in the hospital ambulance plane service that was then in operation. On 19 August 1937, Captain E. E. Fresson of Highland Airways landed a small aircraft in farmland adjoining the Mains of Stroma, and the following spring the islanders cleared an area of moorland on the west side of the island to create an airstrip. The first official flight landed in June 1938. However, the Second World War prevented any further developments and a regular service was not established. After the war, Highland Airways was taken over by British European Airways, which abandoned any interest in serving the island. Today, Stroma has no regular communications with the mainland. The island's owner ran occasional boat trips there on weekends for visitors, including Prince Charles, who painted watercolours of the abandoned houses. Notable buildings Lighthouse
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In 1890, a lighthouse was built at Stroma's northern tip, Langaton Point. It was only operational for six years before being replaced, and very little is now known about the structure. The unmanned lighthouse originally housed a Trotter-Lindberg lamp which burned petroleum spirit or lythene. The fuel supply was stored in cisterns near the lantern, which was regularly recharged at least fortnightly by the local fishermen or crofters. It was one of the first lighthouses in Scotland to use this type of "scintillating" light.
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It was replaced in 1896, possibly on the same site, by a new lighthouse built to a design by David Stevenson as part of a major programme of construction works around northern Scotland. A fog warning system was installed the following year. Stevenson's lighthouse consists of a circular white-painted stone tower standing high at an elevation of above Mean High Water with a number of buildings nearby to house generators and the lighthouse keepers. The light was converted to a paraffin lamp when the former lythene lamp was found to be unsuitable. An oil store was installed in the lighthouse tower, ending the need for a separate building to hold the fuel. The lighthouse was subjected to a machine-gun attack by a German aircraft on 22 February 1941. It caused little damage and no injuries, and the keepers were soon able to make repairs.
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Until 1961 the lighthouse was administered as a shore station, and subsequently (after the resident population of Stroma had left) as a rock station. An electric lamp with a maximum power of 1.1 million cp was installed in 1972, utilising a sealed beam optic mounted on a gearless revolving pedestal. By this time the keepers and their families were the only people living on Stroma. A helicopter pad was installed to enable supplies and personnel to be flown in. In 1997 the station was converted to automatic operation, utilising a 250 watt metal halide lamp which rotates on a gearless pedestal. A lens system from Sule Skerry lighthouse was refitted in the Stroma lighthouse. The old air-driven fog horn was removed and replaced by an electric fog signal which is installed on the balcony of the lighthouse. The lighthouse station's power, which was formerly obtained from generators, is now provided by batteries which are charged at regular intervals. The current light flashes white every 20
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seconds and can be seen from a nominal range of .
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Kennedy mausoleum and the mummies of Stroma One curious side-effect of the constant spray of sea-water over Stroma – apart from making the drinking water brackish and giving the air a constant salt taste – was that it mummified the corpses of some of the island's inhabitants. They were housed in a mausoleum in the south-east corner of Stroma, built by the Kennedy family in 1677. The building still stands, although it is now unroofed. It comprises a two-storey structure which incorporates a burial vault and a dovecote. The building was constructed from grey flagstones and pink sandstone quoins. It measures by externally and standing high. The lintel of the door bears the inscription "I.K." (Ioannes [i.e. John] Kennedy) and the date 1677.
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The mummies of Stroma were something of a tourist attraction in the 18th century. The Welsh naturalist and traveller Thomas Pennant described the mummies as "entire and uncorrupted bodies of persons who had been dead sixty years. I was informed that they were very light, had a flexibility in their limbs and were of a dusky color." However, their popularity proved their undoing. In 1762 Bishop of Ross and Caithness Robert Forbes recorded in his journal that Murdoch Kennedy By 1786 the mummies had been destroyed by cattle and careless visitors as, according to Walker's Hibernian Magazine, "curiosity to see the mummies had brought many idle people to Stroma, [and] that some, out of wantonness had shattered the door, and others the bodies; and the door not being repaired, sheep and cattle entered the vault, and trampled them to pieces." There is now no trace of the original burials in the vault. See also
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List of islands of Scotland List of outlying islands of Scotland Mingulay St Kilda Footnotes References Notes Sources External links Caithness Community Website – Stroma Uninhabited islands of Highland (council area) Former populated places in Scotland Lighthouses in Scotland
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Siobhán McHugh is an Irish-Australian author, podcast producer and critic, oral historian, audio documentary-maker and journalism academic. In 2013 she founded RadioDoc Review, the first journal of critical analysis of crafted audio storytelling podcasts and features, for which she received an academic research award. She is associate professor of journalism at the University of Wollongong (UOW). Biography
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McHugh was born in Dublin, the second of six children, and graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Science. She was appointed a radio producer at RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), the Irish state broadcaster, in 1981. In 1985, she moved to Australia, to work at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)'s Radio National (then 3AR) in Melbourne. Sydney-based from 1986, she built a career as a writer of social histories, an oral historian and a maker of radio documentaries. Over this time she won prestigious national and international awards, including the New South Wales State Literary Award for Non-Fiction for The Snowy: The People Behind the Power, a history of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, the birthplace of Australian multiculturalism.
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In 2006, McHugh was awarded a scholarship to undertake a Doctorate of Creative Arts at UOW. Her practice-based research, based on 50 oral histories, examined sectarianism between Catholics (mostly of Irish background) and Protestants (mostly Anglo and Scottish) in pre-multicultural Australia. The resulting radio documentary Marrying Out (ABC 2009) won a gold award at the New York Radio Festival; the accompanying dissertation, which examined how oral history and radio production studies could mutually inform each other, won a special commendation from the noted Italian oral historian, Alessandro Portelli. In 2013, McHugh founded RadioDoc Review, a journal that brought together top international audio producers and scholars to select and assess crafted audio storytelling works, thereby interpreting and establishing a canon of the form. The aesthetics and impact of podcasting has since been the focus of her academic research, teaching and production. Literary career
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McHugh's first book The Snowy – The People Behind the Power was published by William Heinemann Australia in 1989 on the 40th anniversary of the commencement of the Snowy Scheme. A second edition was published by Harper Collins in 1995 and a third, updated edition, The Snowy – A History, with extensive foreword and afterword, was published by New South Books in 2019, to mark the 70th anniversary of this nation-building project.
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McHugh's second book was Minefields and Miniskirts: Australian women and the Vietnam war (Doubleday 1993). It recounted the largely untold stories of women who had been in Vietnam during the war, as nurses, journalists, entertainers and more; and documented experiences of the wives of servicemen who had returned damaged, mentally or physically; and women who had been active in the anti-war movement. It was shortlisted for a NSW Women and the Media award. A second edition was published by Lothian in 2005. The book was adapted for the stage by Terence O'Connell and the musical play, Minefields and Miniskirts (Currency Press 2004), debuted at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne in 2004, starring Tracy Mann, Debra Byrne, Robin Arthur, Tracy Bartram and Wendy Stapleton. It toured Australia and has been staged numerous times since.
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McHugh's third book, Cottoning On – Stories of Australian Cotton-growing (Hale and Iremonger 1996), investigated the modern Australian cotton industry. It shed light on the historical allocations of water licences that would later become a contentious issue in management of the Murray-Darling Basin and examined the industry's use of pesticides via largely unregulated aerial spraying practices. The eminent environmental scientist, Professor Richard Kingsford, commended it as a work "of outstanding importance in the management of Australian rivers." Cottoning On was a finalist in the inaugural NSW Premier's History Awards.
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McHugh's fourth book, Shelter From the Storm: Bryan Brown, Samoan Chieftains and the little matter of a roof over our head (Allen and Unwin 1999), portrayed the lives of diverse people living in social housing. Photos are by the digital artist Mayu Kanamori. Other, commissioned works include Nick Scali – My Story (Jayenne Press 2003), which chronicles the life story of the Italian multi-millionaire and furniture retailer, and Spirit of Australian Dairy: Portraits and Lifestyles, oral histories of Australian dairy farmers, illustrated by popular photographer Ken Duncan (Dairy Australia 2008). McHugh's fifth book was a fictional account of the Snowy Scheme through the eyes of a young girl, Eva Fischer, who grows up in the township of Cabramurra. First published as My Story - Snowy: The Diary of Eva Fischer (Scholastic 2003), it had three more editions, most recently as Snowy (Scholastic 2019). It was selected for the NSW Premier's Reading List for children aged c. 11–12 years.
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McHugh has also published a short memoir, "Power Cuts", in Wee Girls: Women writing from an Irish perspective (Spinifex 1996); a chapter on pesticides and the cotton industry, "Cotton" in Asimov's Elephant (ABC Books, 2003); and a chapter in an anthology about the Stolen Generations, "The Carers", in Many Voices: reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation (National Library of Australia, 2002). In recent years, McHugh has written widely on long-form audio storytelling, oral history and podcasting, for outlets such as The Conversation. Her academic writings can be found here. Radio career
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Over almost four decades in radio, McHugh has made some 60 audio works, broadcast nationally and internationally, many of which have won or been shortlisted for prestigious awards [see Awards]. Her radio career began in RTE Radio One's Light Entertainment division, where she produced high-rating live shows presented by Mike Murphy, Morgan O'Sullivan, Myles Dungan and Marian Finucane. She also produced documentaries, notably, with Shay Healy, the 18-part Jacobs award-winning social history of Ireland in the Sixties, Strawberry Fields Forever.
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In 1985 McHugh moved to Australia and produced a six-part series, The Irish in Australia, Past and Present (1985) for ABC's 3AR. In 1987, she made a radio documentary series, The Snowy -The People Behind the Power, for 2FC (now Radio National)'s new Social History Unit, featuring workers of 25 nationalities who helped build the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. McHugh produced many other series for the Talking History and Hindsight slots: on the isolated mining town of Broken Hill, Australian women's experiences in the Vietnam war, the former Indigenous penal colony of Palm Island, the history of tourism in the Whitsundays, Irish orphan girls sent to Australia after the 1840s famine, the 1854 Eureka rebellion that was said to be the birthplace of Australian democracy and more.
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She also produced a documentary for ABC's religious slot, Encounter, that tracked Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson's visit to Ireland (Reconciliation: From Broome to Belfast, 2001), a feature for Radio Eye on Samoan chieftains' cultural influence on a drug-ridden housing project in western Sydney (Estate of Mind, 1999) and a documentary, Beagle Bay: Irish nuns and Stolen Children (2000), that explored personal stories of the Stolen Generations in the lead-up to national marches for reconciliation. Among her other works was a series for Into the Music on the rebirth of Irish music worldwide, The Roaring Tiger, co-hosted and produced with the composer and musician Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald.
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McHugh's later works for ABC Radio National, also online as podcasts, include Eat Pray Mourn: Crime and Punishment in Jakarta (2013), an investigation, with Dr. Jacqui Baker, of extrajudicial police killings in Indonesia which won bronze at New York Radio Festivals; and The Conquistador, The Warlpiri and the Dog Whisperer (2018), an exploration, with presenter Margo Neale, of how two Chilean women from opposed political backgrounds ended up running a successful Indigenous art centre in the Australian desert. Podcasting career McHugh makes, researches and critiques podcasts; she also teaches and promulgates podcasting as a new media genre. Among her award-winning storytelling series are three podcasts made with The Age newsroom in Melbourne, on which she was consulting producer, advising on script, structure and sound, and assisting print journalists to make the transition from writing for the eye to thinking through their ears.
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Phoebe's Fall (2016), an investigation into the bizarre death in a Melbourne garbage chute of a young woman, won gold at New York Radio Festivals and three national awards [See Awards]. Wrong Skin (2018), examined the disappearance of a young couple from a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia and the collision of culture and power. It also won gold at New York Radio Festivals and three national awards [See Awards]. The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (2019) explores the human stories behind a North Korean drug heist on Victoria's shipwreck coast. McHugh was also consulting producer on Gertie's Law, an innovative podcast by the Supreme Court of Victoria that examines court processes.
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McHugh conceived and devised the award-winning podcast Heart of Artness, which she co-hosts with Margo Neale, Head of Indigenous Knowledges at the National Museum of Australia. Heart of Artness features the voices of Indigenous artists and the many non-Indigenous people they associate closely with to produce and market their art. It was produced as a University of Wollongong (UOW) research project funded by the Australian Research Council, in collaboration with art historian Ian McLean.
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McHugh has written extensively on podcasting, the audio medium, audio storytelling and associated topics such as the affective power of voice. Her article, How Podcasting is Changing the Audio Storytelling Genre, discusses early adaptations of radio to podcasting, while her piece for Harvard University's Nieman Storyboard, "Subjectivity, hugs and craft: Podcasting as extreme narrative journalism" positions long-form investigative journalism podcasts within the canon of Literary Journalism. She also published a book chapter, "Memoir For Your Ears: The Podcast Life" (2017).
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McHugh speaks about podcasting at a wide range of events. She was an annual speaker at the Global Editors Network (GEN) media summit in Europe (2015-2019) and an invited speaker at Melbourne's Wheeler Centre (2014), OzPod (Sydney 2017), the BAD True Crime Festival (2019) and the World Journalism Education Conference (Paris 2019). She was keynote speaker at the International Radio Festival in Iran (2010) and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)'s General Assembly in Chengdu, China (2017). She has also written articles on podcasting for WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers…) UNESCO and Transom.org and an invited series for Flow Journal at University of Austin. She has conducted podcasting masterclasses and workshops for many groups, including Rutas del Conflicto in Colombia, the Australian War Memorial and the ABU. In 2016, she began teaching a curriculum subject in Podcasting for UOW undergraduates and in 2018 launched a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), "The Power of
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Podcasting for Storytelling", which has had over 4,000 enrolments in over 150 countries.
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Oral history projects McHugh's oral history collections are archived at the National Library of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, the City of Sydney Library and Sydney Living Museums. They include interviews about the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Australian women in the Vietnam war, the cotton industry, sectarianism and mixed marriage, a history of Bronte and surf lifesaving, Millers Point in Sydney's historic Rocks area, Green Bans activist Jack Mundey, architect Harry Seidler and the Irish National Association.
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McHugh has presented on her oral history projects at Harvard University's Native American Program (2011), Concordia University's Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling in Montreal and at national and international oral history conferences. Her scholarly article, 'Oral History on Radio: The Affective Power of Sound', first published in Oral History Review (2012) has been republished in The Oral History Reader (eds. Perks, R & Thomson, A. Routledge 2016), the foremost anthology of international oral history scholarship. It is one of fifteen 'influential' articles selected for the first virtual edition produced by the US Oral History Association to mark their fiftieth anniversary in 2016.
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Awards Winner, gold, New York Radio Festival (2019): Heart of Artness podcast, Episode 2: 'Art with Heart: A Two-Ways World', with Margo Neale and Ian Mclean Winner, gold, New York Radio Festival 2019: Wrong Skin podcast, with team from Fairfax Media/The Age Winner, Australian Podcasting Awards (2019), Best Investigative Podcast: Wrong Skin podcast Winner, Australian Podcasting Awards (2019) Podcast of the Year: Wrong Skin podcast Winner, Melbourne Press Club Quills Award (2019): Wrong Skin podcast Winner, gold, New York Radio Festival 2017, Phoebe's Fall podcast, with team from Fairfax Media/The Age Winner, Melbourne Press Club Quill (2016), Phoebe's Fall podcast Winner, Australian Castaways (2017), Best Documentary: Phoebe's Fall podcast Winner, Kennedys Radio Current Affairs (2017): Phoebe's Fall podcast Anne Dunn Scholar of the Year 2014 (awarded by Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia and Australian and New Zealand Communications Association)
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Winner, bronze, New York Radio Festival (2013), Eat Pray Mourn: Crime and Punishment in Jakarta – radio documentary, collaboration with J Baker Winner, gold (Religion category) New York Radio Festival (2010): Marrying Out – radio documentary Winner, bronze, (History category) New York Radio Festival (2010), Marrying Out United Nations Media Association (Australia) Peace Prize (2010), Finalist: Marrying Out Winner, NSW Premier's History Fellowship (2005) ($20,000) Winner, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Best Radio Documentary (2004): Sweet Sorrow, with Kumud Merani – radio documentary NSW Premier's History Award (audio-visual, 2004), Finalist: The Irish at Eureka: rebels or riff-raff? – radio documentary Co-winner, National Trust Heritage Award (2004): Frozen Music, film on architect Harry Seidler Winner, Varuna Writer's Fellowship 2003.
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United Nations Media Association (Australia) Peace Prize (2002) Finalist: Reconciliation – from Broome to Belfast – radio documentary Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism (2000), Finalist: Beagle Bay: Irish nuns and Stolen Children – radio documentary Australia Council Literary Fellowship 1999 NSW Premier's History Award (1997), Finalist: Cottoning On, book Eureka Science Award, Finalist (1997): Cotton and Chemicals, radio essay Australia Council Literary Fellowship: 1993 Australia Council Literary Fellowship: 1991 Winner, NSW Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction (1990): The Snowy – The People Behind the Power, book Australia Council Literary Fellowship: 1988 Winner, Jacob's Award (1984): Strawberry Fields Forever, radio documentary, RTE, Ireland – with Shay Healy
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References External links University of Wollongong Scholars - Siobhán McHugh Siobhán McHugh's website The Australian Women's Register McHugh, Siobhan (1957 - ) Conversations with Richard Fidler: a one-hour interview about Siobhan's history of the Snowy Scheme (ABC 2019) New York Radio Festivals, Grand Jury POV: Dr Siobhan McHugh Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Mass media people from Dublin (city) Alumni of University College Dublin 21st-century Australian non-fiction writers 21st-century Australian women writers Irish emigrants to Australia University of Wollongong faculty
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Nicholas George Littlemore (born 6 May 1978) is an Australian musician, record producer, singer and songwriter. As a musician, he is the frontman of the electronic duo Pnau, an ex-member of the art-rock band Teenager and one part of the electro pop-project Empire of the Sun. As a record producer, he has worked with Elton John, Lover Lover, Groove Armada and Mika. From late 2009, Littlemore had worked with the Cirque Du Soleil as a composer and musical director for the touring arena show Zarkana, which debuted on 29 June 2011. His older brother Sam La More is also a musician and record producer. In 2019 he and Peter Mayes launched the label Lab78. Biography
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Littlemore was born on 6 May 1978 in Sydney and was raised in Wahroonga with his older brothers, James (later a music video director) and Sam Littlemore (born February 1975, later a musician and producer). In 2011 Littlemore recalled, "[m]y parents didn't push us but led us towards creative endeavours. Early on, my brothers and I were naturally interested in that. In school holidays we were doing pottery classes or life drawing. I wasn't very sporty". Their cousin, Xanthe Littlemore, is a singer-songwriter and has toured with Paul Kelly. When Littlemore was 10 years old, he met future bandmate Peter Mayes and the pair were making music together at the age of 13 or 14. Littlemore attended Barker College in Hornsby and finished secondary education in 1996. He attended the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales studying film, sound and performance.
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Littlemore and Mayes formed Pnau in the mid-1990s, initially as an acid house and trance band, while still at secondary school. The group have issued four studio albums, Sambanova (July 1999), Again (October 2003), Pnau (January 2007) and Soft Universe (July 2011). Sambanova, Pnau and Soft Universe have each peaked into the ARIA Albums Chart Top 40.
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While still a member of Pnau, Littlemore has also been involved in side-projects. In 2001 he joined his brother Sam in the group L'More and issued a single, "Takin' Hold". Sam subsequently performed as Sam La More, in April 2003 "Takin' Hold" was released in the United Kingdom. In 2004 Littlemore formed Teenager as an art rock band in Sydney and asked Pip Brown (aka Ladyhawke) to join on guitar. Brown had relocated to Australia after the disbandment of her New Zealand hard rock group, Two Lane Blacktop. Teenager issued Thirteen and the related single "Bound and Gagged" in 2006. Littlemore's brother James directed the music video for "Bound and Gagged". Mess + Noises Craig Mathieson described the album as "a pop record, albeit a particularly exotic species that equally suggests creative guile and hints of self-indulgence ... 'Pony' is the closest the album comes to cheap genre holidaying, approximating rock attitude when the organic and desperate growth of 'Bound And Gagged' is so much
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more impressive". Soon after the album's appearance Brown left to concentrate on her solo career (i.e. Ladyhawke) and she later credited Littlemore:
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In 2000, Littlemore met Luke Steele of alternate rockers The Sleepy Jackson, the pair subsequently collaborated on songwriting and performing. The Sleepy Jackson's recorded "Tell the Girls That I'm Not Hangin' Out" for their debut album, Lovers (2003). It had been co-written by Littlemore, Steele and The Sleepy Jackson's Malcolm Clark. The Sleepy Jackson and Pnau both performed "Modern Way", which was written by Littlemore, Mayes and Steele. In 2007 Pnau issued their self-titled album with Steele supplying lead vocals, and co-writing with Littlemore and Mayes, on "Freedom" and "With You Forever". Ladyhawke supplied lead vocals on "Embrace" which was co-written by Brown, Littlemore, Mayes and La More.
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While working together on Pnau, Littlemore and Steele started writing tracks for a side project, initially called Steelemore, which became the electro pop group Empire of the Sun. Littlemore was living in Sydney and Steele, then in Perth, however the pair corresponded and continued composing together. Periodically during 2007, Steele would fly to Sydney where tracks were recorded for Empire of the Sun's debut album, Walking on a Dream. Mayes assisted with recording and mixing.
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To promote Pnau internationally, Littlemore and Mayes travelled to London. In December 2007 Elton John heard Pnau's "Wild Strawberries" – the lead single from the album – while in Sydney for the Australian leg of his Rocket Man Tour. After hearing the whole album John contacted Littlemore to encourage him. Pnau returned to Australia in January 2008 to perform at Big Day Out and met John who signed the duo with his United Kingdom-based management. Pnau then relocated to London more permanently, both Littlemore and Mayes worked with John. Littlemore and Mayes established a recording studio in London and worked as record producers.
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In August 2008, Empire of the Sun issued their debut single, "Walking on a Dream", which peaked at No. 10 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The second single, "We Are the People", followed in September with the parent album released in October. The album reached No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart. In February 2009, Littlemore told Linda McGee of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) that Empire of the Sun planned to tour in August but not as a group "this is not a band project. We're not going to stand up there with guitar, bass, drums and a keyboard player and just play our songs out in a merry Indie kind of way". He described a more theatrical presentation, "I've just finished the first draft of the script and it's going to be more of a play, for want of a better term. So at the moment we've got people working in China building inflatable sets and all kinds of things and we're working with some theatre directors in London". However, from April to September that year, Steele could not contact
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Littlemore. From September Empire of the Sun, without Littlemore, performed live tours of Australia.
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Littlemore's bands have won eight ARIA Music Awards, with one in 2000 for 'Best Dance Release' for Pnau's Sambanova, and seven in 2009 for Empire of the Sun's album Walking on a Dream and the title song. Empire of the Sun – without Littlemore – performed "Walking on a Dream" at the ceremony with Steele collecting the awards on the band's behalf, he quipped "German Shepard Steele gets another award ... Everybody say hi to invisible Nick!". Ladyhawke also won two awards for her solo work.
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Since 2009 Littlemore has received medication to treat arthritis. From late 2009 Littlemore worked in Montreal, Canada with the Cirque Du Soleil as a composer and musical director for the touring arena show, Zarkana, which debuted on 29 June 2011 in New York. Pnau's fourth album, Soft Universe, was recorded in London. Upon its release Mayes confirmed Littlemore and Steele were working on a second Empire of the Sun album. Littlemore expanded, "We just started writing two or three weeks ago in New York ... Luke and I got into a studio, which was run by blind people – it was great. It's good to be in weird places with Luke, we enjoy that. He has an extraordinary mind – it's sounding so good". As from July 2011, when not touring or performing, he lives in LA. During late 2011 Pnau toured through Australia promoting their album. Discography With Pnau with Teenager With Empire of the Sun With L'More "Takin' Hold" (2001) As Vlossom Extended plays Singles As lead artist
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Production work Nick Littlemore is credited with the following work for other artists: David Bridie – Hotel Radio (18 February 2003) producer, loops, noise, programming Robbie Williams – Greatest Hits (18 October 2004) programming Van She – Van She (27 November 2005) producer, composer Darren Emerson – "Bouncer" (2005), "Hard 4 Slow" (2007), Au Go Go (EP, 8 August 2011) co-producer, co-writer Lost Valentinos – Damn & Damn Again (2006) co-producer Mercy Arms – Kept Low (EP, 2006) co-producer Groove Armada – Black Light (2010) vocals, composer Groove Armada – White Light (18 October 2010) vocals, composer WZRD – WZRD (28 February 2012) sound design Mika – The Origin of Love (16 September 2012) songwriting credits, production References External links Nick Littlemore photo at National Library of Australia
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1978 births Living people APRA Award winners Australian electronic musicians Australian expatriates in the United States Australian indie pop musicians Australian indie rock musicians Australian record producers Musicians from Sydney People educated at Barker College University of New South Wales alumni Empire of the Sun (band) members Pnau members Music managers
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Kaakinmaa is a district in Tampere, Finland, located in the city center. It includes the area south of Pyynikki Church Park (Pyynikin kirkkopuisto) between the Hämeenpuisto park and the Mariankatu street. To the south, the area extends to Eteläpuisto on the shores of Lake Pyhäjärvi. The neighboring parts of the city are Nalkala in the east, Amuri in the north and Pyynikki and Pyynikinrinne in the west. Sometimes Kaakinmaa is incorrectly considered to belong to Pyynikki and Pyynikinrinne; however, Kaakinmaa has its own district. The most important street running through the area is Satamakatu, which rises west of the slope of Pyynikinharju from Laukontori, which together with Mariankatu and Hämeenpuisto form a busy traffic route from Pyynikintori to Ratina. Along the Koulukatu street there is the Koulukatu Field, where the hockey field and ice rink are frozen in winter.
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In Kaakinmaa, the Tampere Workers' Hall and the Tampere Workers' Theatre are located, as well as the old Pyynikki Brewery and the Klingendahl factory property. Next door to Klingendahl is the former Tampere Epidemic Hospital, built in 1910, which was used as a student dormitory until the summer of 2009 after the hospital closed. Almost all of the residential buildings in the area are apartment buildings, built mainly in the 1960s and 1970s to replace the earlier wooden houses built in the late 19th century. The primary schools operating in Kaakinmaa are the Alexander School of the 1st–6th grades and the Pyynikki School of the 7th–9th grades (former Tampere High School for Girls). At the corner of Satamakatu and Koulukatu is the Swedish-language school (Svenska samskolan i Tammerfors), which includes grades 1-9 of the comprehensive school and the upper secondary school.
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A brewery has previously operated in Kaakinmaa. In 1897, a brewery was established on the corner of Tiilitehtaankatu and Papinkatu, which later became Oy Pyynikki. In 1903, another brewery operating in Tampere, Oy Iso Oluttehdas, and Oy Pyynikki merged to form Näsijärven Osake-Oluttehdas, which in 1920 took the name Oy Pyynikki Ab. Until 1992, Pyynikin Brewery produced the Amiraali beer brand, which is popular with the local population and is still available in Japan with a label with the image of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō (1848–1934) from the Tupgō flagship Mikasa's museum store in Yokosuka. The brewing business in Tampere was discontinued soon after Pyynikki Oy came under Sinebrychoff. The same fate in the hands of Sinebrychoff was later experienced by the Pori Brewery. In 2012, the Pyynikki craft brewery was established in Tampere to continue the tradition of the Pyynikki brewery, although for the time being, due to the lack of suitable premises, it operates in Rahola.
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The name of Kaakinmaa derives from the kaakinpuu tree, also known as pillory, used to punish evildoers on the site of Tampere's co-educational high school until the second half of the 19th century. After the settlement of Kaakinmaa, the kaakinpuu tree was transferred to a sand pit along the current Pirkankatu, where it was located until the new penalty law abolished cropping in 1894. The town plan for Kaakinmaa was completed in 1868. In 1870, the area of Kaakinmaa was still uninhabited, but twenty years later there were already about a thousand inhabitants. At the beginning of the 20th century, the inhabitants of Kaakinmaa were mainly engaged in various professions.
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On the western side of Kaakinmaa, along Mariankatu, in 1936–1973, there was a Christmas Sign Home owned by the Finnish Tuberculosis Resistance Association (Filha ry), which cared for the newborn children of mothers with tuberculosis. After the operation of the nursing home ended, the building was demolished and there is now an apartment building on its site. References External links Koskesta voimaa: Kaakinmaa (in Finnish) Kaakinmaa's location at Fonecta Pekka Kuusela alkoi kerätä tarinoita Tampereen Kaakinmaasta ja sai kuulla uskomattomia kuvauksia: ”Ääriporvarista äärikommariin” – Nyt erikoinen kaupunginosa sai oman kirjansa - Aamulehti (in Finnish) Keskusta (Tampere)
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Most of the eicosanoid receptors are integral membrane protein G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that bind and respond to eicosanoid signaling molecules. Eicosanoids are rapidly metabolized to inactive products and therefore are short-lived. Accordingly, the eicosanoid-receptor interaction is typically limited to a local interaction: cells, upon stimulation, metabolize arachidonic acid to an eicosanoid which then binds cognate receptors on either its parent cell (acting as an Autocrine signalling molecule) or on nearby cells (acting as a Paracrine signalling molecule) to trigger functional responses within a restricted tissue area, e.g. an inflammatory response to an invading pathogen. In some cases, however, the synthesized eicosanoid travels through the blood (acting as a hormone-like messenger) to trigger systemic or coordinated tissue responses, e.g. prostaglandin (PG) E2 released locally travels to the hypothalamus to trigger a febrile reaction (see ). An example of a non-GPCR
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receptor that binds many eicosanoids is the PPAR-γ nuclear receptor.
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The following is a list of human eicosanoid GPCRs grouped according to the type of eicosanoid ligand that each binds:
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Leukotriene Leukotrienes: BLT1 (Leukotriene B4 receptor) – ; BLT1 is the primary receptor for leukotriene B4. Relative potencies in binding to and stimulating BLT1 are: leukotriene B4>20-hydroxy-leukotriene B4>>12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (R isomer) (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=267; also see ALOX12B and 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid). BLT1 activation is associated with pro-inflammatory responses in cells, tissues, and animal models.
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BLT2 (Leukotriene B4 receptor 2) – ; the receptor for 12-Hydroxyheptadecatrienoic acid, leukotriene B4, and certain other eicosanoids and polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolites (see BLT2). Relative potencies in binding to and stimulating BLT2 are: 12-hydroxyheptadecatrienoic acid (S isomer)>leukotriene B4>12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (S isomer)= 12-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (S isomer)>15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (S isomer])>12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (R isomer)>20-hydroxy-leukotriene LTB4 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=268). Activation of BLT2 is associated with pro-inflammatory responses by cells and tissues.
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CysLT1 (Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1) – ;CYSLTR1 is the receptor for Leukotriene C4 and Leukotriene D4; in binds and responds to leukotriene C4 more strongly than to leukotriene D4. Relative potencies for binding to and activation CYSLTR1 are: leukotriene C4≥ leukotriene D4>>leukotriene E4 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=270). Activation of this receptor is associated with pro-allergic responses in cells, tissues, and animal models. CysLT2 (Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2) – ; Similar to CYSLTR1, CYSLTR2 is the receptor for Leukotriene C4 and Leukotriene D4; it binds and responds to the latter two ligands equally well. Relative potencies in binding to and stimulating CYSLTR2 are: leukotriene C4≥leukotriene D4>>leukotriene E4 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=270). CYSLT2 Activation of this receptor is associated with pro-allergic responses in cells, tissues, and animal models.
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GPR99/OXGR1 – ; GPR99, also known as the 2-oxoglutarate receptor 1 (OXGR1) or cysteinyl leukotriene receptor E (CysLTE), is a third CysLTR receptor; unlike CYSLTR1 and CYSLTR2, GPR99 binds and responds to Leukotriene E4 much more strongly than to leukotriene C4 or leukotriene D4. GPR99 is also the receptor for alpha-ketoglutarate, binding and responding to this ligand much more weakly than to any of the three cited leukotrienes. Activation of this receptor by LTC4 is associated with pro-allergic responses in cells and an animal model. The function of GPR99 as a receptor for leukotriene E4 has been confirmed in a mouse model of allergic rhinitis.
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GPR17 – ; while one study reported that leukotriene C4, leukotriene D4, and leukotriene E4 bind to and activate GPR17 with equal potencies, many subsequent studies did not confirm this. GPR17, which is mainly expressed in the central nervous system, has also been reported to be the receptor for the purines, Adenosine triphosphate and Uridine diphosphate, and certain glycosylated uridine diphosphate purines (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=88) as well as to be involved in animal models of central nervous system Demyelinating reactions. However, recent reports failed to confirm the latter findings; a consensus of current opinion holds that the true ligand(s) for GPR17 remain to be defined (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=88).
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Lipoxin Lipoxins:
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ALX/FPR2 (also termed FPR2, ALX, ALX/FPR, formyl peptide receptor-like 1) – ; receptor for Lipoxin A4 and 15-epi-Lipoxin A4 (or AT-LxA4) eicosanoids but also many other agents including the docosanoids resolvin D1, resolvin D2, and 17R-resolvin D1 (see specialized pro-resolving mediators; oligopeptides such as N-Formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine; and various proteins such as the amino acid 1 to 42 fragment of Amyloid beta, Humanin, and the N-terminally truncated form of the chemotactic chemokine, CCL23 (see FPR2#Ligands and ligand-based disease-related activities). Relative potencies in binding to and activating ALX/FPR are: lipoxin A4=aspirin-triggered lipoxin A4>leukotriene C4=leukotriene D4>>15-deoxy-LXA4>>N-Formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=223}. Activation of ALX/FPR2 by the lipoxins is associated with anti-inflammatory responses by target cells and tissues. Receptors that bind and respond to a wide
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range of ligands with such seemingly different structural similarities as those of ALX/FPR are often termed promiscuous.
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Resolvin E Resolvin Es: CMKLR1 – ; CMKLR1, also termed Chemokine like receptor 1 or ChemR23, is the receptor for the eicosanoids resolvin E1 and 18S-resolvin E2 (see specialized pro-resolving mediators) as well as for chemerin, an adipokine protein; relative potencies in binding to and activating CMKLR1 are: resolvin E1>chemerin C-terminal peptide>18R-hydroxy-eicosapentaenoic acid (18R-EPE)>eicosapentaenoic acid (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=79). Apparently, the resolvins activate this receptor in a different manner than chemerin: resolvins act through it to suppress while chemerin acts through it to stimulate pro-inflammatory responses in target cells
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Oxoeicosanoid Oxoeicosanoid: Oxoeicosanoid (OXE) receptor 1 – ; OXER1 is the receptor for 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid (5-oxo-ETE) as well as certain other eicosanoids and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that possess a 5-hydroxy or 5-oxo residue (see 5-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid); relative potencies of the latter metabolites in binding to and activating OXER1 are: 5-oxoicosatetraenoic acid>5-oxo-15-hydroxy-eioxatetraenoic acid> 5S-hydroperoxy-eicosatetraenoic acid>5-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid; the 5-oxo-eicosatrienoic and 5-oxo-octadecadienoic acid analogs of 5-oxo-ETE are as potent as 5-oxo-ETE in stimulating this receptor (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=271). Activation of OXER1 is associated with pro-inflammatory and pro-allergic responses by cells and tissues as well as with the proliferation of various human cancer cell lines in culture. Prostanoid Prostanoids and Prostaglandin receptors
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Prostanoids are prostaglandins (PG), thromboxanes (TX), and prostacyclins (PGI). Seven, structurally-related, prostanoid receptors fall into three categories based on the cell activation pathways and activities which they regulate. Relaxant prostanoid receptors (IP, DP1, EP2, and EP4) raise cellular cAMP levels; contractile prostanoid receptors (TP, FP, and EP1) mobilize intracellular calcium; and the inhibitory prostanoid receptor (EP3) lowers cAMP levels. A final prostanoid receptor, DP2, is structurally related to the chemotaxis class of receptors and unlike the other prostanoid receptors mediates eosinophil, basophil, and T helper cell (Th2 type) chemotactic responses. Prostanoids, particularly PGE2 and PGI2, are prominent regulators of inflammation and allergic responses as defined by studies primarily in animal models but also as suggested by studies with human tissues and, in certain cases, human subjects. PGD2: DP-(PGD2) (PGD2 receptor)
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DP1 (PTGDR1) – ; DP1 is a receptor for Prostaglandin D2; relative potencies in binding to and activating DP1 for the following prostanoids are: PGD2>>PGE2>PGF2α>PGI2=TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=338). Activation of DP2 is associated with the promotion of inflammatory and the early stage of allergic responses; in limited set of circumstances, however, DP1 activation may ameliorate inflammatory responses.
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DP2 (PTGDR2) – ; DP2, also termed CRTH2, is a receptor for prostaglandin D2; relative potencies in binding to and stimulating PD2 are PGD2 >>PGF2α, PGE2>PGI2=TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=339&familyId=58&familyType=GPCR). While DP1 activation causes the chemotaxis of pro-inflammatory cells such as basophils, eosinophils, and T cell lymphocytes, its deletion in mice is associated with a reduction in an acute allergic responses in a rodent model. This and other observations suggest that DP2 and DP1 function to counteract each other. PGE2: EP-(PGE2) (PGE2 receptor)
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EP1-(PGE2) (PTGER1) – ; EP1 is a receptor for prostaglandin E2; relative potencies in binding to and stimulating EP1 are PGE2>PGF2α=PGI2>PGD2=TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=346&familyId=58&familyType=GPCR). EP1 activation is associated with the promotion of inflammation, particularly in the area of inflammation-based pain perception, and asthma, particularly in the area of airways constriction. EP2-(PGE2) (PTGER2) – ; EP2 is a receptor for prostaglandin E2; relative potencies in binding to and stimulating EP2 are PGE2>PGF2α=PGI2>PGD2=TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=341). EP2 activation is associated with the suppression of inflammation and inflammation-induced pulmonary fibrosis reactions as well as allergic reactions.
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EP3-(PGE2) (PTGER3) – ; EP3 is a receptor for prostaglandin E2; relative potencies in binding to and stimulating EP3 are PGE2>PGF2α=PGI2>PGD2+TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=342). Activation of EP3 is associated with the suppression of the early and late phases of allergic responses; EP3 activation is also responsible for febrile responses to inflammation. EP4-(PGE2) (PTGER4) – ; EP4 is a receptor for prostaglandin E2; relative potencies in binding to and stimulating EP4 are PGE2>PGF2α=PGI2>PGD2=TXA2 (http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/GRAC/ObjectDisplayForward?objectId=343). EP4, particularly in association with EP2, activation is critical for the development of arthritis in different animal models.