This reminds me of once being on the aircoach from Cork to Dublin and a girl answered her phone and said without pause that she would be at the Workmans in ten minutes. We had just past Tipperary.

This is where the absence of strategic oversight hits: in what way is it wise for the UK to lose expertise in China?

Exciting moment tonight at a horror writers’ panel where it struck me that the “you have to set your story in the past cos of mobile phones” era is over, cos now your phone will lie to you, mislead you, freak you out, let you down, and do all sorts of sinister uncanny shit.

Remarkable to hear RTE mention the words "shoplifting" at the end of the News but not mention the words "security guards" or "choked" or "physical assault." Despite the fact there's no evidence so far of the first and video evidence of the second.

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Become a legend. Buy an island pub. The Jolly Roger is for sale. Sherkin Island, County Cork. #Speirgorm #Ireland #Pub www.hodnettforde.com/properties/t...

Come to Sherkin Island. Get a BA in Visual Art with TUDublin. See the world differently. Maybe stay a spell longer... 4 years. Part time. Contact Jesse Jones [email protected] www.tudublin.ie/study/underg... #speirgorm #art #Ireland

A great interview with the fabulous Eimear O'Herlihy - director of the always wonderful and imaginative West Cork Literary Festival.

The Kings Speech 2, this time it's political

A fellow Labour Party member once described Wes Streeting to me as Zippy from Rainbow if he'd been radicalized by Mumsnet. which is a very specific set of references but also disturbingly accurate.

Much like Irish media playing up party's like Aontú. Reform gets a disproportionate amount of air-time from Brit media.

“Sudan is an atrocities lab right now.” UN Aid Chief @tomfletcherun.bsky.social tells @mehdirhasan.bsky.social about the dire conditions he saw on the ground in Sudan, and how funding cuts have meant humanitarians must choose which lives to save there. Watch: zeteo.com/p/un-humanit...

The local island pub has been colloquially renamed "The Strait of Hormuz". Because no one knows if it is open or closed. #speirgorm #localgossip

Lovely little video showing Sherkin Island artists and how the environment shapes them. #Speirgorm #Art www.irishtimes.com/video/video/...

A Harvard study just published estimates Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has already caused 600,000 deaths 2/3 of them children. That is his legacy in this world.

Back garden view this evening. The nights are stretching, lads.

$2 trillion the value of labor and life stolen on Barbados alone. An “accounting of the harm that was done” indeed. 🗃️🇧🇧 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

"And while the debate previously centred around climate, security is firmly at the heart of today’s discussions." Climate, energy and food security cannot be treated individually or separately from human, national and collective security. They are all interdependent and part of a complex system.

The perils of freelancing - when you are editing documents on Merino wool in one tab and San Marino's foreign policy in another.

Booking for the West Cork Literary Festival 2026 is open!

what it's like to be in a room with war criminals.

The language of genocide. Overt, and unabashed. Not one of these people should ever again be able to set foot outside the USA without fear of arrest.

As a lifelong BBC Radio 4 fan could not be happier to tell you all that #FewAndFarBetween will be Book at Bedtime airing every evening at 10:45 for 2 weeks. Beautifully narrated by Tara Lynne O’Neill and expertly produced by Michael Shannon. Listen along live or listen back on BBC Sounds

Today I was sitting in a café next to a group of older women who were discussing the Louis Theroux documentary. 'There's a name for it, you know', one of them announced gravely - 'It's male toxicology'. #overheard

Another #painting from the southwest of Ireland. "Bantry Bay II" came out of a perfect day cycling in West Cork, where in the middle of it myself and the bike had some lunch as we took in the views of all three hundred and and sixty degrees of beauty. #art #SpeirGhorm #ColorADay #BlueTue

If anyone is into knitting or crochet, a Bantry business that was hit by the floods could really do with a bit of support. #speirgorm bantryyarns.ie

This is disgusting. Rationalizing the bombing of a school that reportedly killed 108 girls. But since she asked, "Currently, 161 public schools operate on military installations across the United States." www.militaryonesource.mil/education-em...

Myself and Colin Breen have written in "Maritime Ireland" about seaweed harvesting on Ireland's coastline, in 19th century. These are local rights, well known and established through built features (e.g. wrack walls, kilns, etc). There is no way that such rights be taken over by foreign companies.

The president, who drones on about protecting women’s sports, publicly mocked the women’s gold-medal hockey team. A reminder this was never about protecting women’s sports and it was always about transphobia and misogyny.

After Pope Leo declined to join President Trump’s Gaza “Peace” Board, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — a Catholic — criticized the pope as “partisan, political, and controversial.” Meanwhile, Leo’s top Middle East envoy dismissed the board as a pay-to-play “colonialist operation.”

To give you an idea of how deranged the UK has become about gender stuff, here's Enid Blyton - the absolute avatar of classic English conservatism and a huge fan of racist "gollywogs" - casually describing a gender non-conforming kid in the 1940s and having their friends be totally cool with it.

You know you're editing an international relations book when you've finished all the referencing up to the end of T and you still have 6 pages to go.... #editing

As a keen forager whose speciality is seaweed and sustainable sourcing I beg you to sign this. There are currently two corps with applications to strip the Irish west coast of seaweed. We cannot let this happen. Please sign and share. #irish #ireland

Gender genocide in Afghanistan: "after the demise of the present generation of female doctors, midwives, surgeons and nurses who are still permitted to work, women will receive no medical aid whatsoever."

The whole series is discounted *for today only* so pass it on, tell a friend, stock your kindle etc etc but before midnight…

Quote from the Albanese interview: "In 2024, Germany arrested more Jewish people than in any other year since the Holocaust. Why? Because they were standing against Israeli violence in Gaza."

USAID wrote a 2024 cable warning that north Gaza had become an “apocalyptic wasteland” with dire shortages of food and medical aid. Biden’s Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew blocked it from wider distribution amid a review of Israeli conduct in the war. www.reuters.com/world/early-...

The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.

'I'm in love again,' exclaims my husband, rapturously, as he breezes past me to watch the post-match interviews. #manutd

This is so difficult to read. apnews.com/article/immi...

The term martyr means “witness.” The man was murdered for bearing witness, literally bearing it, not arms but a camera. Murdered for seeing.

It has gotten so bad that the @nytimes.com has stopped using the passive voice to describe the violence.

I don’t want to hear anything from an elected official unless it’s a plan to defund the DHS and impeach Noem, Bovino, etc. No texts. No emails. No talk about the economy. Step up or step off.

All of this violence is aimed at shrinking civic space and eliminating the capacity for - and people's belief in - collective action at the level between the state and the individual.

Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him. White. Hot. Rage.

I'm told this will be out in early to mid December. Please forgive coming episodes of shameless self-promotion and make a note of launch dates in your diaries! UCC 19 February Boston College 11 March NYU Glucksman House 12 March Royal Irish Academy 25 March www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...

Anyway, it turns out that taking a break from reading the news to edit someone's book chapter on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen is not a mood lightener.