It begins…

As always, great stuff, and love Liam’s piece on Guinness label context. It’s fairly difficult to find much from those now-gone competitor breweries.

Jambe de Bois.

Hands, everywhere!

Hello from Antwerp by day!

Antwerp is very pretty at night. Will report back on its daytime lewks tomorrow.

Antwerp! Finally.

Evening re-share…

Finally on a train to Antwerp after a crazy turbulent flight from Madrid. Gonna need those good local beers to chill out. Also, I LOVE TRAINS. Not really planes.

Is it ‘Damn-ing’ with faint praise to say this is the best beer I’ve had in my brief time in Spain? I’ll get me coat…

Do you like pub fireplaces? SAME. Here’s the pubby roundup of some of my faves in Dublin…not all just the usual suspects. #SpeirGorm www.weirdodublinpubs.com/weirdo-guide...

Brilliant news! Congrats, @annapr.bsky.social!

I ate an artichoke! It wasn’t awful! No sign of Jarvis Cocker, though…

Wish we had more co-ed/non-religious secondary schools, too…

Gave the Madrid hotel tea a chance, but in this instance, it’s not a bad thing that the cup is comically small. Lip balm for scale.

One of the items in my bag got flagged for extra screening, and didn’t just get an extra look-see/swab, but a thorough check and sent through on its own multiple times before it was allowed back to me. The item in question…

The absolute delight of getting the ‘your room is ready’ notification from the hotel before you even get to the airport - heading off on a work trip and will be grateful for the chance to get in the room early to be alone before having to People all week…

Another gorgeous Macnas parade to close out the #BramStokerFestival.

Great #BramStokerFestival Mount Jerome Cemetery tour - with a @swanriverpress.bsky.social shout-out at LeFanu’s grave.

Last chance to see?

Getting our Bram Stoker on.

Next up in my queue!

Excellent as always, and a great highlight for @braciatrix.bsky.social’s annual reminder that brewsters do not equal witches…

#Parkrun number 137. Ran a fair bit extra today.

What Dublin pubs did we bother in October? Find out here. (My cat decided I should be awake some time ago, so figured I’d be useful). #SpeirGorm www.weirdodublinpubs.com/2025/10/

Saw a Mystery Beast while out trick-or-treating.

Friday beer, Halloween edition. #DrinkIrish

Took a Halloween stroll to St Michan’s 2 years ago…just a few weeks later, the mummies were destroyed. #SpeirGorm

🧵I've posted them before, but here's my thread of horror/kids' TV double-bill cinema posters. Happy Halloween... #halloween #cinema #graphicdesign #poster

Here is a little more information on Oweynagat, it really is a special place: www.tuatha.ie/oweynagat-ca...

Another new #beershirtfriday design - have been saving this one that we picked up at Kraftpaule in Stuttgart over the summer. Ideal for #Halloween and #díademuertos!

The full list of this year’s #SpookyBooks for #31DaysOfHalloween - and #PhantomsFriday!

If you live in Bristol, do feel free to repeat any of these faux-authentic genuine fake urban myths wherever you can be overheard. In a year's time I want someone to be telling me about Scarecrow Hill as if it's a thing they've heard from a friend of a friend.

Re-sharing for #PhantomsFriday and, of course, Halloween.

Happy Halloween! With Samhain now widely recognised as the origin for modern Halloween Ireland seeks to tap into it as a new tourist theme. Maynooth University hosted a symposium on the emerging ‘Samhain Industry’, which our Dr Lucy Moreau attended and wrote on: 👀 www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studie...

This list is far too short, but I present to you the best pubs in Dublin for ghosts… www.weirdodublinpubs.com/weirdo-guide... #SpeirGorm

Re-posting last year’s perfect #Samhain turnip, spotted in Phibsborough. #SpeirGorm

Behold... the 2025 face pumpkin! Inspired by many things, but first and foremost I went back to my jack o' lantern roots with an archaeology reference. The Undine / Vodena Vila sculpture from Lepensk Vir, from 6300 - 5900 BCE.

For your #Halloween amusement, a new Yma Sumac music video featuring Carroll Borland and Bela Lugosi from Tod Browning's "Mark of the Vampire" (1935), photographed by James Wong Howe. Song written by Les Baxter, of course. Edited by me. 🔥 #exotica #musasky #musicsky #belalugosi #YmaSumac

Discovered that Serious Eats seems to have been semi-nuked...had to dig out my old Halloween article on the haunted Lemp Brewery from the Wayback Machine: web.archive.org/web/20111028...

Oh, hey, look - the place I'm going late next week!

In the absence of #BookologyThursday, #FolkloreThursday and #FolkyFriday this week, you might like to join us for #PhantomsFriday this #Halloween instead. Any #ghost related posts - eg words, art, #folklore, #legends, haunted places - all will be very welcome. Just use the hashtag to join the feed!

Have you heard the spooky tale of the Hairy Hand? 👻✋ Research papers relating to the Dartmoor legend of the Hairy Hand (as well as black dogs, ghosts, vampires, monsters, witches & more!) can be found in the archive of folklorist Theo Brown. 📷 EUL MS 105 #FolkloreThursday #HairyHand #Halloween

#FolkloreThursday afternoon re-share. One day to go!

New from Lankum: Ghost Town. Incredible, and just in time for Samhain.

Fantastic news!

I love few things more than haunted pubs.

Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!

This week’s pub-going was all about a place we had not revisited in years, despite being nearby not infrequently… #SpeirGorm www.weirdodublinpubs.com/weirdo-guide...

BLOG POST: “It’s still a breathtaking to stand on that beach. To hear water lapping over stone, intensified by the passing of passenger boats, and the cries of seabirds. And to sense that beneath your feet, no doubt, are the stems of a million clay pipes.” boakandbailey.com/2025/10/the-...