Not up to the standard of the famous mushroom guy, but these are pretty cool in my parents' garden in Carlow.

Completed his studies in Ireland's finest, most learned county! That is Carlow, to those Philistines who weren't aware. 🇲🇱

Come along to hear this fantastic lineup speaking about one of the most important issues facing our sector!!

An unwilling part, I'd imagine, if you could ask the reindeer. But it's a very cool acquisition.

Cornwall and owlets, what's not to love?

A fun little piece I did on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, with some interesting snippets from the RIA collection, for your delectation!

I can only conclude that the format will be Agatha Christie-style and that one more Westlifer must die each night. Weren't there more of them??

This is how you blurb

A last visit to @nmireland.bsky.social Words on the Wave to see the third opening of the St Gall gospels. Not my boy St John, but still, not too shabby. Also revisiting a relic label we studied in my palaeography class & one of the world's most famous library catalogues. 😍 Farewell, Swiss friends!

Having a cracking day with @annewelsh.bsky.social on this training! One of the many pleasures of being the secretary of the @laibluesky.bsky.social Rare Books Group...

You've got just over an hour to get here for this!

The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 P 26, the Book of Fenagh. This 16th century manuscript is mainly a revision of an older Book of St Caillín which no longer survives. The mark the manuscript’s 500th anniversary in 2016, an online exhibition was created and two lunchtime lectures were delivered

All the learning! Hurray! 🙌

Dublin, sure you're only gorgeous.

Discover how libraries are helping the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to recover Ireland's history. Join us for a lecture with Dr Sarah Hendriks and see the RIA Library's physical exhibition. 3pm, Wednesday 8 October. Visit https://www.ria.ie/events/ for booking @virtualtreasury.bsky.social

We've had a great month of provenance adventuring with Madeline and I can't wait to share more soon!

By consulting the English Short Title Catalogue, and assuming the mindset of a Victorian, scissor-wielding lunatic, I have at last figured out what imprint I am looking at... another win for pedantic cataloguers everywhere!

À demain!

I had read about the similarity between the Hereford Gospels and some of the St. Gallen manuscripts, but WOW. Look at those swirls! So grateful for the opportunity to go see Words on the Wave last Friday.

Not sure if the cataloguing shaming here is more inspiring or terrifying.

✨ Culture Night at the Royal Irish Academy ✨ Step inside this Georgian gem and explore the Library Reading Room, where the earliest example of Irish writing, the 6th century Cathach will be on display 📜. Find out more: https://culturenight.ie/event/culture-night-at-the-royal-irish-academy/

Twenty years ago we re-mortgaged our house to start Bluemoose and find great new writers who were being overlooked by the industry. In the last 2 years we've had 2 BBC TV series adapted from books we published. Not bad eh! www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

A very jolly time with the Earls of Ormond at Kilkenny Arts Festival a few weeks ago, which I kept forgetting to share!

Collections 🤝 Crafters Absolute magic

Because as we know, women very rarely have pockets 😢@theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1928.6 178 and 1928.6.179.

Come along to this lunchtime lecture if you love birds, records, museums or any combination of the above!

Meet the fiercely independent women of medieval Ireland #speirgorm www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

We are delighted to announce the first batch of the new Early European Print collection, now freely available to explore online here: www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/collections/... Read more about collection and some of its highlights in our latest blog post: ow.ly/g1MH50WxSmH

Find someone who loves you like this snail loves the poppy seed head in my garden.

Help! Anyone able to make out this former owner's name? Probably Irish language?

“We’re close to drought conditions this year. We’ve been out watering trees all over the city. We need trees that can resist both flood and drought. Not all native species will survive what’s coming.” www.dublininquirer.com/native-trees...

I reckon Sir Walter Elliot was a fan of the Morning Chronicle. #JaneAusten #Persuasion

Catching up on From That Small Island on RTÉ - fantastic! Just two nitpicks: the papyrus font for the document recreations (the Irish script is really famous) and the academic wandering into the stacks to retrieve an archival box herself is literally the most unrealistic thing I've ever seen on TV.

Insect pigments today at Montefiascone!

Noticeable difference between the earth colours and synthetic colours (i.e. requiring a chemical process to create; heat application, addition of acids, etc). What a wonderful palette!

Day 2 in Montefiascone: metals! Including gold... 😍

On a busman's holiday at the Monte Project learning about medieval pigments! 😍🖌🪨💎

So glad this exhibition is getting such great coverage. It really is monumental and we are incredibly lucky that it is free - not very common in this day and age!

On the train reading Robin Flower's account of a tax man being savagely murdered by a poet in early medieval Ireland as told in the Leabhar Breac. I see the lad beside me has an ID card to say he works for the Revenue Commissioner. I hope I haven't made him uncomfortable.

I'm giving this 15 min tour tomorrow, if you are Dublin city centre-based? I will make you excited about the Tudor Privy Council, or die trying... This is part of the 175,000 new documents on Irish history that was all over the news yesterday! www.ria.ie/events/libra...

📢Attention Cathedrals!📢 Lambeth is opening a new programme to offer free cathedrals visits from our expert collections care team, to advise on a range of preservation issues.📚 More details here: www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/cathedral-li... @englishcathedrals.co.uk

The choir were discussing ways of quickly recognising the first page of this psalm. I said that the decorated capital surely made it obvious. That was not the winning answer...

Read about the LAI Rare Books Group's annual visit. This year the group visited the Special Collections & Archives at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick @ullibrary.bksy.social  bit.ly/4e9XfHh

My colleague Dr Joseph Flahive @ria.ie is next up!

Suppressing a small 'whoop' as Dáibhí Ó Cróinín gives the Cathach a shout-out while outlining the history of the contested term "Libri Scottice scripti".

Immo Warntjes masterfully explaining why St Gall is the most important repository in Europe for the study of history before the year 1000! I, too, raise my hands in worshipful respect for this list of records! 😉

Excited to attend some of the lectures about the St Gall mss at Trinity College today!

From amazing retrieval systems, to exhibitions, to digitisation suites to the loveliest of reading rooms and most stunning of books! Enormous thanks to the Special Collections team @ullibrary.bsky.social for hosting the @laibluesky.bsky.social Rare Books Group for our annual visit this year!

Image: RIA MS D ii 3, f. 11v (left) and St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 51, p. 208 (right)