All the travel and the programme construction have my head fried and my body broken but nice to be back in one of my favourite haunts.

Spent the last two days listening to presentations from the latest generation of EUI History PhD researchers who are nearing the end of their theses and it was so impressive. Really cutting edge research but shared in a spirit of openness and mutual constructive criticism and support. Great stuff.

Trying to coordinate all the moving parts for the final final version of the very exciting FCHS programme might possibly break my brain but at least I'm doing it with this lovely view in the background! *Disclaimer this is not Maynooth university campus*

Its purposeful. Destroying history undermines the ability to prove claims. In the first stages of the war they attacked Ukrainian archives

FIFA never not at it. No capacity to challenge tyrants, states perpetrating genocide, racist border regime policies impacting fans etc but still find the time to ban evocations of a revolution that ended slavery and banished colonialism. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

I work for family services in Belfast. Due to the risk of racist violence we've just been officially told that all our contacts and community outreach have been cancelled. Which means families and children won't get the support that they need. Absolutely disgusting.

Luqman Saeed, an academic with Ulster University, has shared his personal experience of the pogroms the last two days, describing his situation as a de facto house arrest, under violence caused by an absence of leadership www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

I find it very hard to offer the kind of satellite analyses on my home city that several people (including Keir Starmer) seem to relish in. But the one thing that strikes me is that characterising this as solely loyalist violence is at once accurate and yet also somehow complacent

Absolutely shameless. Despicable person.

🚨 Permanent Job in Early Modern History in lovely Limerick🚨

The glee with which these thugs seize on any opportunity to whip up hate and convert it into violence is sickening. My thoughts are with all the good people of Belfast, especially those who came from far to make it their home and are now targeted by hollowed-out hard men.

someone set a car on fire and drove it into a charity shop in Kilkeel. the shop raises funds for an orphanage in Uganda

Great workshop on comparative colonial histories in Leiden today now on to Florence for this tomorrow. www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

The vibes could not be more Dutch.

Career Development Fellow in French & Francophone Studies (2 years) at Durham University 'we are especially interested to receive applications from those with specialisms in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries' Deadline 21 June, start Sept 2026 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRS327/c... @imems.bsky.social

On the road again... Off to Leiden for a great workshop on cross colonial comparative histories and from there to Florence to present the project with @camilleriana.bsky.social at the EUI and to learn about the work of the current crop of brilliant doctoral researchers.

Ultimately Israel is rational to do what they do because they are correct to assume that no one in Washington, Democrat or Republican, is actually serious about doing anything to hold Israel to account. Everyone who says they are crazy is wrong themselves until they prove Israel wrong.

Genocide is a specific legal term in international and national law which carries with a direct legal imperative to act and specific sanctions for failure to do so. It's not a distraction or a gotcha. Please listen to legal experts and historians who know about this....

Ten years to the day since I defended my thesis! So much has happened since then and I've been lucky to enjoy great support along the way. Seems fitting that I'll be back in the EUI next week. I'm also happy to say I am still hanging out with plenty of EUI comrades when I can.

Another failure in public service broadcasting. At least there are some good journalists who are willing to call this out. Wouldn't it be great if RTÉ invited the likes of @shamimmalekmian.eurosky.social on to talk from a place of real knowledge on these questions...

'The council had learned that to make the “overall project viable”, the developer needed to put 22 of the 48 homes on the private market.' This is why we cannot rely on the private sector to build homes for people. www.thejournal.ie/tullow-housi...

Cool new exposition in the IFAn museum in Dakar from the artist Cheikh Diallo.

I used to think my Room 101 would be full of rottweilers. I now know it would be a non responsive university travel agent.

The European Union will not sanction Ben Gvir for his self documented torture and abuse of the Sumud Global Flotilla activists, the Czech Republic vetoed that measure while Germany joined in vetoing sanctions on Smotrich.

What a special day this was in Dakar. Great discussions with colleagues and a fascinating testimony from the veteran Yoro Diao. Learned so much. Thanks to all who attended and all who made this happen.

Our workshop on veterans in Dakar takes place tomorrow. Here's the updated programme. If you'd like to join online, let me know and I can share the Zoom link. We will be joined by Yoro Diao, a 98 year-old veteran of the French Army who fought in Indochina and Algeria.

Hot off the press! Patrick Mahoney's @patrickjmahone1.bsky.social new book Fenian Empire, available now: lnkd.in/eW3FFERw "Teeming with individual Fenians, splits, spies, and swagger, it is a captivating read contending with ideas which are at once both historical and contemporary." Ú Ní Bhroiméil

Nice to warm up for our workshop on Wednesday with a visit to Gorée. What a special place it is.

Seeing CMAT in Dublin Saint Anne's Park last night was special. She's such a brilliant artist who combined searing political critique with a freewheeling creativity and sense of fun. The Sinéad tribute was beautiful. She's come so far since I got to chat with her in Cork post-gig in 2023.

Let's be grateful that the people who made the notorious first video for the 1916 Centenary didn't have access to this. We could have been subjected to James Connolly celebrating the contribution of American multinationals to the Irish economy and Tom Clarke celebrating the Queen's visit to Dublin.

The Algeria Ireland crew (myself, Mairéad Ní Bhriain, Slimane Hargas and Kamel Salmi) after our panel at the Algeria: Historical Struggles and Imagined Utopias Conference' in LSE.

Just learned from Phil Dine that Harrods are selling a candle for £240 inspired by the resistance leader Emir 'Abd al- Qādir. www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/trud...

Lovely to be in London for this exciting conference on 'Algeria: Historical struggles and Imagined Utopias Conference'. A little break from COLVET to go back to my first love, the history of Algeria. I'll be talking about how Algerian revolutionaries evoked Ireland. www.lse.ac.uk/middleeastce...

This guy is probably the most famous person from my housing estate😬😬. Him or my neighbour who sued RTE after the boat crashed on Cabin Fever, an ill-fated reality TV show.

Beyond all the bluster, the Irish government is asking us to believe it is legally and morally sound to facilitate an Israeli settler renting out a property built on land stolen from a Palestinian while recognising it's wrong to allow the sale of an orange from that same land. It's rank hypocrisy.

This reads more Ike a press release from this landlord than a piece of journalism. No interviews with locals or with the activists. www.independent.ie/irish-news/o...

TWO TEMPORARY JOBS IN FRENCH (different deadlines) @livunihss.bsky.social: - Part-time University Teacher in French (Mat cover, 1 Sept 26-30 Jan 27) Deadline: 25-May-26 23:30 - Lecturer (US: VAP) in French Film Studies (1 Sept26-31 Aug27) Deadline: 02-Jun-26 23:30 my.corehr.com/pls/ulivrecr...

Looking forward to heading to Dakar to next week for this COLVET-led workshop at the WARC on colonial veterans, co-organised with colleagues at UCAD and FASTEF. It will be in hybrid in format so if you'd like to join, let me know and I can share the link.

Hallo @johnsiblon25.bsky.social! I've shared your fine article here and elsewhere. A pleasure to read, and absolutely enlightening. Congratulations! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

RTE 1 Radio news report on the imminent introduction of the Occupied Territories Bill does not mention the removal of services from its ambit, drastically reducing its scope and stripping it of much of its concrete impact. Very poor reporting.

I've joked about being uncomfortable about the the way Tech Bro's have pushed me into Team Pope v's Team Tech. The papal encyclical is a good reminder that I'm not team pope. This is a deeply conservative document. It is a well designed trap for liberals who are pissed off with AI boosting 1/

Emmanuel Macron, vindicating my article on the 'neoliberal logics' of his memory policy once again. Symbolism is not nothing but it's not a substitute for restitution and radical change. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Don’t forget to register for ‘Women in Revolution’. A discussion on the revolutionary lives of women with @janeohlmeyer.bsky.social, Dr Catriona Kennedy, and @earner.bsky.social. See the rest of the thread for talk titles. Registration link👇(1/3) events.teams.microsoft.com/event/d2a073...

The special issue on incarceration for French Historical Studies is now out! In our (open access) introduction, we begin by journeying through the carceral archipelago in France and its empire from the early modern period through to today ... doi.org/10.1215/0016... 🧵🗃️ 1/7 @fuggbug.bsky.social

Great day for a match. Up the Dubs!

Turns out that the Fianna Fáil activist barracking voters about how they've never had it so good on Ballybough Road yesterday didn't do the job nor did Bertie Ahern being a disgraceful racist on the canvass.

I see people are discovering one of the resident contrarian attention-seeking clowns of UCC. Every institution has a few. Not worth the outrage they desperately seek.

Looking at these tallies and wondering when is the penny going to drop with Sinn Féin that, even on a very cynical political level, their pull to the right simply isn't working? It's been years of underperforming at this point

So grim to see openly xenophobic candidates doing well but government and SF's embrace of some far right talking points has, as happened everywhere else in Europe, only legitimised these views further. The state has also continued decades long neglect of inner city communities fuelling resentment

People saying that convicted criminals shouldn't be allowed stand for election (a) are negating the principle of rehabilitation and (b) ignoring the fact that so many politicians throughout Irish history, good and bad, have had a whole ream of convictions connected to their political activism.