Very moving visit to Thiaroye today. This is the site where Senegalese soldiers just returned from having participated in the Liberation of France were massacred by the French. Excavations are ongoing to find more bodies in the mass graves. Recent estimates by scholars put death toll at 300-400.

Love this. They are apparently playing the match on loop in the fanzone.

People saying the Senegalese walkoff last night was bad sportsmanship when it was clearly the continuation of a long tradition of labour withdrawal in protest at injustice that stretches back to the great Dakar-Niger railway strike of 1947-48 and beyond.

What an insane match and what a great victory. Dakar is absolutely wild with joy tonight. Senegal rek! !

Me in the fanzone in Dakar.

Great buzz around Dakar. Looking forward to heading to the fan zone later to watch the final. Allez les lions!! !

Langston Hughes on Patrice Lumumba on this the 65th anniversary of his assassination.

Langston Hughes on Patrice Lumumba on this the 65th anniversary of his assassination.

Good piece from the always insightful Roja Fazaeli about the brutality of the Islamic Republic's brutal repression of those protesting its many failures, the dangers of a sanitised nostalgia for the Shah's regime and the need for a pluralist and democratic Iran. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

I'm looking for a Paris apartment to rent for 3-4 weeks in late March - early April (preferably 2 bedrooms, although a bedroom plus a sofa bed would work). Two adults and a kid. Does anyone have any leads? Thanks!

Was feeling grumpy and then had a wonderful conversation with a brilliant Early Career Researcher, developed some exciting plans with one of our postdocs, got a great dispatch from the archives in Lucknow from the other postdoc and confirmation that our new postdoc will join us in March. Good times!

I know it's a key function of neoliberal political rationality but the belief that measuring a social or environmental problem and establishing metrics for it is somehow in and of itself a solution to the problem is so frustrating... (Yes I am filling out a form that is driving me insane)

Allez les lions de la Teranga!! Times my trip perfectly to arrive in Dakar in time to watch the final there🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳

One of my favourite artefacts of the Decade of Centenaries. For what dies the sons of Róisín, was it cut price golf? 🏌️‍♂️⛳

Has any kind soul on here completed the Fáilte Ireland Destination Support Application since they added the new required paragraphs on Sustainability and Impact? If so, please let me know. I would love some guidance!

What's the betting he drives a big fancy car that leaves little space for cyclists....

I wrote this blog piece on colonial veterans at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition. I fell down many rabbit holes while researching so I'm not sure how coherent the story is but hopefully still of use and interest. colvet.eu/exhibiting-i...

I wrote this blog piece on colonial veterans at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition. I fell down many rabbit holes while researching so I'm not sure how coherent the story is but hopefully still of use and interest. colvet.eu/exhibiting-i...

Imperialism 101...

Surprised this is airing on state television. Especially the admission that many of those killed were unarmed civilians. Just unable levels of killing, so quickly, it feels and looks like a civil war…. My heart is breaking for my family, my friends, my beautiful country. x.com/tparsi/statu...

These people did not even pretend to listen to student activists who had concrete demands connected to institutional partnerships with Israeli universities and investments in Israeli funds. Our universities do not have partnerships with Iranian institutions or investments in sanctioned funds.

Despite Internet blackout, reportedly with aid of Starlink, lots of videos coming out tonight showing large scale protests continuing in Iran. This is one of them x.com/bbcpersian/s...

Imagine coming back from the dead only to be shot...

Have to say one of the most annoying aspects of a certain type of liberal politics is people who have never organised and rarely attended a street protest telling activists they are doing protest wrong or protesting the wrong thing. If you care about something, then organise a protest yourself...

I find it interesting that the word 'acquire' seems to have become the norm for discussions of a potential US invasion and occupation of Greenland. Surely a reflection of the territory's coloniality in media geographic imaginaries. www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

Solidarity with our colleagues in Iran who are facing even more repression www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iranian...

I have no patience for people who don't live under the Islamic Republic and idealise its rule when its repressive nature is plain to see. Let the Iranian people decide who rules them and hopefully a path that is neither Shah nor Mullah can be found to let them prosper.

Was bogged down in a lot of administrative tasks today so it was lovely to hear from two of the COLVET project postdocs, one who is working away in archives in Lucknow, the other on their way to Florence for a visiting fellowship at the EUI! It's such a privilege to work with scholars like this.

Very much continuing a grand British tradition of alternating between demonizing / downplaying hunger strikes as a means of political protest. Different party, same script.

The state shot &killed people in the uk for decades, colluded with citizens to kill & has frustrated justice in uk courts ever since. Sean Browns widow awaits her day in the Supreme Court. THAT has been a warning siren ringing for decades - the colonial attitude of us being lesser stops them hearing

“What makes this so egregiously racist is that the Adelaide Writers Festival Board [sic] has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears…” Institutions censor Palestinians. Antisemitism is not defeated with more racism.

Great postdoctoral opportunity to work on Arturo Rodríguez's excellent ERC project on states of exception in interwar Europe. This post will focus on Germany. He has already put together a brilliant team so I know it would be lots of fun to work on this. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/335380

The fact that the national broadcaster is deeply problematically using the euphemistic term 'acquiring' here surely reflects the widespread colonial understanding of what Greenland is, an understanding in which Greenlanders are little more than extras in a global power game.

But Israel is a bastion of academic freedom we are told...

I see Tadhg Hickey is being a morally bankrupt idiot again... The journey from unfunny Cork comedian to uncritical stan for the Ayatollah Khamenei has been depressing to watch.

Can we please take a moment to acknowledge that Danish sovereignty in Greenland is built on centuries of colonial violence and repression, settler colonialism and resource stripping... I am fairly certain a post invasion Trump approved admin would be far worse but this reality needs to be recognised

Visited the impressive Mosta Rotunda today, one of the largest unsupported domes in the world. In April 1942 a Luftwaffe bomb penetrated the dome but didn't explode. You can still see the patch on the ceiling. This was considered a miracle by many parishioners. Ps more Maltese Arabic similarities

Saw this pub on Gozo yesterday. Was too afraid to see what horrors it contained 😂

It is interesting if incredibly grim that a government led by a human rights lawyer has embraced, albeit selectively, this line to defend its foreign policy.

Remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth in certain quarters when Catherine Connolly said this... www.rte.ie/news/politic...

It's tempting to see this as almost refreshingly honest imperialism but it is more terrifying when we acknowledge it as an even more brazen and emboldened imperialism.

Imperialism in all its forms and by all imperial powers has contempt for national sovereignty and international law. Despicable- and some would have us join a military alliance with the US.

Malta Workers' Memorial and a Palestine mural in Valetta skate park.

Mohamed Harbi has passed away- a participant in and historian of revolutionary politics in Algeria and man of principle who fought against tyranny and for social justice. What a life he led maitron.fr/harbi-mohamm...

Ireland is neither magically immune to historical and contemporary antisemitism and its recent exacerbation nor is it some sort of den of unchecked antisemitic violence. There is space for a proper discussion of this but I don't think the celebrities of X discourse should be leading it...

All my emails consuming me when I return to the office after the holidays.

On January 1, 1804, revolutionaries established the independent country of Haiti, the first nation to permanently ban slavery. As we begin a year engulfed by the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, it’s worth reading the Haitian Declaration of Independence in full. 🇭🇹

Lovely New Year's Eve visit to Mdina. Malta is such a fascinating place. Was struck by this representation of Marianne erected by the French when they captured the city, was vandalized by the locals and then re-erected by the French.

Ending the year by throwing vulnerable people who have been failed by disastrous government policy on housing under the bus. Despicable stuff. Simon Harris claims ‘significant number’ in emergency accommodation ‘don’t have housing right’ www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...

🚨PSA🚨 Brassed Off is available to watch on the Channel 4 app. Nothing more festive than a film about Maggie Thatcher savaging mining communities. It is such a good film- empathy, humour and righteous fury. Pete Postlewhaithe's best performance and that is saying something.