Hoglets in my brother's garden in Surrey...

On my way to LHR. I was folding my stick when I was seated on the plane to put it away. Couldn't get it to fold. So I twisted a section, & a ton of sand fell out all over the person beside me! Must have been from a recent trip to Curracloe! Don't know how it got into the stick, some form of osmosis!

Scaffolding down...

#IrishHistory #IrishLaw #IrishStatutes #ILD Good news for those working on Irish history from 1692 to 1800. The Irish Legislation Database is back online at a new address. resources.qub.ac.uk/ild/ Much thanks to Prof David Hayton. Please share widely.

Our Document of the Month is now online: a photograph of the first mobile library in Ireland which was set up by Feargus Murphy, librarian in Lismore, Co. Waterford. www.ucd.ie/archives/col...

The experiences of people born in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home are being shared in a new exhibition at Galway City Museum.

My nephew & 3 friends are visiting from Australia: one each from England, Vietnam, India and Japan, all first generation immigrants to Oz. My sister sent me a photo of them all drinking tea with my 86 year old mother in her C18th kitchen. They then went off to watch two other nephews play hurling. 💚

Almost 200,000 historical records have been released online by the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. The release of the records will cover seven centuries of Irish history and will make over half a million documents free and permanently available to the public

Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed

#OTD 1922 the Record Treasury within the Four Courts was destroyed. Ernie O’Malley, garrisoned inside, later wrote in The Singing Flame: 'The yard was littered with chunks of masonry and smouldering records; pieces of white paper were gyrating in the upper air like seagulls.'

Ironically, the trudge is due to the fact learning to research, evaluate and write is difficult, and the box-ticking is so Deloitte know you have those skills. (Trudge is weirdly undervalued. Employment generally includes quite a lot of it, except, apparently, if you write opinions for a living.)

Lovely bit of comedy timing when you see the goalkeepers.

The colours! (Wexford, near Ferns.)

Dublin looking good in the sunshine...

We announced recently the transfer of an important 17th c. Irish Franciscan manuscript to @ucdarchives.bsky.social Read about the transfer of the manuscript & its digitisation, part of a partnership with the Irish Franciscans going back to 1997. ucdculturalheritagecollections.com/2026/06/23/1...

The triggers I thought were filed away — in my mind, in my chest, in the way I now glance at strangers on the U-Bahn — rose at once. Today I'm going to my work in Germany feeling, for the first time, afraid of people. Sadly.

The shame... 😔 #Belfast #Newsnight

Mum, my sister, and I drink one bottle of bubbles every weekend. This is delicious. Crisp and light, lots of bubbles. From The Allotment Wine Company.

This was a lovely day. So much goodwill and friendship facilitating a common endeavour: securing, preserving and making available the Franciscan mansuscript and archival heritage.

Calling all curators, librarians, and archivists who work with religious objects or collections associated with prayer! The Prayticipate COST Action will hold a networking event in Limerick on the 1-2 October. Funding available! prayticipate.eu/activities/p...

Afternoon programme.

Looking forward to today's Archiving Conflict and Reconciliation workshop today in PRONI. I'm up first with @cecilearchives.bsky.social and Antoine Yenk.

Quiet train to Belfast this afternoon. Quite a few reserved seats empty.

Fin Dwyer invited me to make a series on Ireland's global revolution. There's been nine episodes, final one coming next Friday. So far race, religion, antisemitism, India & Egypt, smuggling, the Bolsheviks, activity in America and Britain ... shows.acast.com/irishhistory...

Found a new fudgy chocolate cake recipe to bring to a birthday get-together. No flour which I think makes chocolate cakes dry. Melt butter and chocolate. Mix in sugar. Whisk in eggs and chocolate powder. Whisk double cream until thick and fold in. Bake. handletheheat.com/flourless-ch...

The Opening of the Sixth Seal by fellow Wexfordian Francis Danby is a notable Irish depiction of the apocalypse. Article here about it as an anti-slavery statement by Danby: universitytimes.ie/2026/02/art-... DIB entry for Danby: www.dib.ie/biography/da...

Immigrants do not have to contribute exceptionally to deserve safety Immigrants do not have to permanently grovel to their new country to justify their existence Immigrants are allowed to be just as mediocre, grumpy or homesick as anyone else

“Last night we had really racist pogroms, or attempted pogroms, on the streets of Belfast.” Matthew O'Toole tells @lewisgoodall.com of having to drive children, whose homes were set on fire during the Belfast protests, to places of shelter. “I’m not sure that experience will leave me for a while.”

Obviously most violence last night was by loyalists. But persistent reports of attempts by fascists to involve nationalists and also reports today (from republicans) of groups threatening immigrants in nationalist areas. This is new. It's not 1920 or 1969.

Using race as the defining characteristic of violent action is just racist, nothing more.

Schools closing early in south Belfast in anticipation of more trouble. Thing is, last night involved hundreds, not thousands, and some of the blockades involved dozens. Most working class protestants are not out rioting. They need leadership.

My friend's mother's carers have been told to stay at home this evening for fear of racist violence against them.

Check out @fergallenehan.bsky.social’s article on the Irish revolution in Nazi Germany. Part of a forthcoming special edition on multilingual responses to revolutionary Ireland that interrogates questions of translation, language ability, and transnational appropriations and solidarities.

All books belong in every library. Pay no attention to any argument by loo lahs presenting themselves as concerned parents that *any* book is inappropriate in a library. Ireland was famous for its avid censorship of books throughout the 20th C, the same time it is now famous for abusing children.

Leaving Curracloe around 8.00pm yesterday.

Great to finally see this manuscript up online. Thanks so much to Anne Marie in ISOS, @kate-manning.bsky.social & UCD Archives, Professor Mícheál Mac Craith OFM, and all the Franciscans who preserved this ms over the centuries. Looking forward to researching these texts further! #hagiographyiscool

It's very exciting to have a new UCD-OFM addition to ISOS (@dias-isos.bsky.social). We are very grateful to the ISOS team for their work in enabling the UCD-OFM manuscripts to be viewed online by everyone free of charge.

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

Olga Cronin, ICCL Senior Policy Officer, spoke at the AI Committee this week, highlighting the work we have done with Digital Rights Ireland to urge An Garda Síochána, Coimisúin Na Meán and the DPC to fully investigate Grok’s faciitation of the creation of CSAM and other illegal and harmful content.

This website will select a Rothko painting based on the weather where you are, just choose your location. rothko.joonas.wtf

Staff have dealt with this very well. Removed all the reservation notices on the seats in all the carriages and managed to place everyone in carriages with functioning air conditioning. Also handed out free water several times. 👏

25°C on the train from Galway to Heuston and no air conditioning. Staff are going through the train to offer reseating or water. 🥵

The festival closes with Yonit Kosovske and Rachel Factor playing Bach's Art of Fugue on two harpsichords at 9.00pm. Not to be missed!

Vespera (new baroque instrumental ensemble under the direction of baroque violinist Claire Duff and including all four ConTempo members) will play a programme of C18th music for string ensemble, with harpsichordist James Taylor in St Nicholas Church, Galway at 6.00pm. Great music, great players!

A highlight for me is this programme at 9.00pm this evening in St Nicholas Collegiate Church. If you can, you should absolutely go. This is beautiful music.

Superb opening concert at GEMF last night. No-one programmes like Mark Duley! Absolutely glorious music with wonderful performers. Heinrich Schütz is such a wonderful composer, more people need to know this!

Some musicians tuning up before the rehearsal. Caught a bit of a preview of tonight's concert in St Nix at lunchtime. 22 May 2026, 18:00-19.15 Including Resurgam, English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Claire Duff (violin), Bogdan Sofei (violin) and Malcolm Proud (organ).

We were delighted to welcome author & journalist Ronan McGreevy to the JJ Library last Thurs to discuss his new book 'Seán Lemass: The Lost Memoir'. The book draws from a series of interviews with Lemass conducted by businessman & hotelier Dermot A. Ryan, which are preserved @ucdarchives.bsky.social

En route to Galway for work. And then, the Galway Early Music Festival. Programme below. When you click to book, scroll all the way to the end for a Festival ticket which gets you in to every concert, workshop and more for €80! www.resurgam.ie/gemf2026-pro...