Seamus Heaney's 'Death of a Naturalist' at 60: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/seamus-...

From the archive for William Trevor, #BornOnThisDay in 1928, thoughts on NIGHTS AT THE ALEXANDRA, a poignant collection of short fiction. There is such sadness, loneliness & yearning here. Beautiful, bittersweet stories, exquisitely told. #BookSky 💙📚 #BOTD jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2023/03/28/n...

Covid accelerated tech adoption. Online shopping, cashless payments & telemedicine are all higher than pre-Covid. But education wasn't transformed. Most kids are still being educated in physical schools. Replacing schools with screens is really hard! substack.nomoremarking.com/p/motorways-...

A milestone. For the first time ever, we have surpassed 2 million books on our website. That is 2 million books available to you through an independent, online bookshop. With competitive shipping prices. Shop local. www.kennys.ie

📢 Voting is now open in the @rcpi.bsky.social presidential election! I am standing for a College that is more inclusive, trusted and impactful: for doctors, patients and the future of medicine. If you are eligible, I would be most grateful for your vote. #RCPI #MedicalLeadership

Seamus Heaney's 'Death of a Naturalist' at 60. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/seamus-...

Happy 60th Birthday.

Puck: it's almost dawn; even the ghosts have gone to bed #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... One of my favourite images from the 2005 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Greg Doran, des. Stephen Brimson-Lewis: Oberon (Joe Dixon) & Puck (Jonathan Slinger), watching the beginnings of the dawn.

Death of a Naturalist’ turns 60 🎉 First published on 19 May 1966, #SeamusHeaney’s landmark debut collection announced a major new poetic voice. To mark the 60th anniversary, we’re revisiting the collection through a new lens: www.nli.ie/news-stories/stories/seamus-heaney-man-myth-making-poet

“What surprised me about A Hosting is how moving it is: so many authors turning their troubles into beautifully-shaped art, so many working away in a vibrant and mutually-supportive literary environment” - Thanks to Julian for this thoughtful review of A Hosting

My review of this convincing study.

Here's the online, full-fat version of my rundown on the six shortlisted titles for the International Booker Prize. Which "will charm many readers but may not be weighty enough to win"? Which has classic sitcom elements, even though it's about prisoners being hunted and shot?

Fortnightly 205: Some consciousness hygiene open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

Hear from Louise Brangan, author of The Fallen: The Magdalene Laundries and Ireland’s Legacy of Silence and Lara Feigel, author of Custody: The Secret History of Mothers: two authors shining their light on secret corners of opaque and misogynistic systems. 🎫 ilfdublin.com/whats-on/fes...

Fortnightly 205: juliangirdham.substack.com/p/205-some-c...

My review in today's paper.

Sarah Gilmartin: ‘Even before relationships and infidelity, desire is a great driver’

It’s not often that something on social media stops me in my tracks, but this week I was transfixed by a recent interview with Bob Odenkirk who was describing a near-death experience, and the strange way a particular novel was able to help him make sense.. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/novels-tel...

Kindle sale today: 'A Rebel and A Traitor' by Rory Carroll, which I recommended in the 'Irish Times'. www.amazon.co.uk/Rebel-Traito...

Are we the only recent Indie Publisher to have a book Selected as a set text on a national exam board? From September 2026 Leonard and Hungry Paul By @ronanhession.bsky.social will be on The National Junior Certificate in Ireland. Marvelous.

Portraits of a Poet | Seamus Heaney 🎨 📅 Sat 30 May, 2pm: https://www.nli.ie/exhibitions-events/portraits-poet-portraiture-seamus-heaney Explore how artists like Edward McGuire, Barrie Cooke & Louis le Brocquy captured Heaney’s life, character & imagination across painting, drawing & sculpture.

Some thoughts on why and how teachers can maintain our reading lives, inspired by my experience in collaboration with @marcusluther.bsky.social and our little group reading Bleak House. open.substack.com/pub/declarat...

Teachers! Don't miss #researchED Cork, September 2026. Join leading voices & local experts in education for an inspiring day of networking, professional learning and evidence-informed insights. researched.org.uk/event/resear... #edchatie #EduSky #SpeirGorm

Fortnightly 205 is along this time next week. Meanwhile -

Teaching 'Small Things Like These'. Repeat webinar via @clanavtra.bsky.social Wednesday 14th October, 7.00pm. Free registration: edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-...

Report on last night's English Meet for English teachers in and near Dublin: the best kind of CPD. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/english...

Report on last night's English Meet for English teachers in and near Dublin: the best kind of CPD. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/english...

Claire Keegan talks to Dua Lipa about 'So Late in the Day'. More: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/claire-... youtu.be/LdRL491yBQs?...

Teaching 'Small Things Like These'. Repeat webinar via @clanavtra.bsky.social Wednesday 14th October, 7.00pm. Free registration: edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-...

Revising and thinking about 'Othello': a free webinar for teachers of English in the Leaving Certificate (Higher Level) Wednesday 7th October 2026, 7.00 - 8.00 pm via @clanavtra.bsky.social Register: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Lysander: I LOVE HELENA!😍 www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... In @the-rsc.bsky.social / DASH Arts Dream, dir. Tim Supple 2006, Puck gradually entrapped the lovers in webs of white tape. Yuki Ellias (Hermia), Shanaya Rafaat (Helena), Chandan Roy Sanyal (Lysander), Prasanna Mahagamage (Demetrius).

Join our exhibition guides for a virtual tour of 'Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again' 📅 Weds, 20 May at 1pm: https://ow.ly/IOay50YSnie Enjoy a fascinating journey exploring the highlights of Heaney's archive, from his rural origins through to his remarkable career as a poet.

What happens when we lose spaces where people sit together& practice thinking collectively?This free event marks the publication of Between the Lines - Julia Bell, Professor of New Writing at Birkbeck talks with Dr Doug Cowie & @BobEaglestone.bluesky.social englishassociation.ac.uk/reading-the-...

New on the blog today. I've written about INCIDENTS IN THE RUE LAUGIER by Anita Brookner. I loved this precise, psychologically astute novel in which a young woman's life is cruelly shaped by an ill-advised love affair at an impressionable age. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/i...

Learning is a difficult and slow process. There are no shortcuts. And it is this process (reading, thinking, engaging) that makes analysis itself possible - to suggest that the heavy lifting can be outsourced in this way fundamentally misunderstands, and indeed undermines, the purpose of education.

On Thursday 7th May, the 5th English Meet for teachers in the Dublin area. Very small number of (free) tickets left: www.eventbrite.ie/e/english-me...

On Thursday 7th May, the 5th English Meet for teachers in the Dublin area. Very small number of (free) tickets left: www.eventbrite.ie/e/english-me...

Fortnightly 204: Maggie Smith’s A Suit or a Suitcase, the enduring value of paper textbooks, Writers against AI, Shakespeare and Bernardine Evaristo ranked, learning styles and other edu-myths, Matisse in Nice, the Bleak House slow read, Ben Macintyre, and more open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

Three tickets left for the English Meet on Thursday 7th May (free). #edchatie www.eventbrite.ie/e/english-me...

(New). On the enduring value of paper textbooks: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/on-the-...

(New). On the enduring value of paper textbooks: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/on-the-...

The Fortnightly returns next week after its Easter holiday. Meanwhile, here's #203 again. juliangirdham.substack.com/p/203-neithe...

Reading unpublished empirical research on AI in UK schools from a project I'm involved in, and I'm sorry but anyone who thinks AI is simply improving teaching and learning is just wrong. It is interfering in classroom practices and relationships in complex ways that need documenting then addressing.

A great read on AI in schools, including this powerful analogy for allowing AI to automate vital steps in a child’s learning progression and cognitive development: “We don’t say to the parents of an eight-month-old, ‘Don’t encourage your child to crawl—that’s a useless skill.’ ”

Three tickets left for the English Meet on Thursday 7th May (free). #edchatie www.eventbrite.ie/e/english-me...

We are saddened to hear of the passing of author and poet David Malouf at 92. As the very first winner of the Dublin Literary Award in 1996 for Remembering Babylon, his work helped shape the story of our award from the beginning. His later novel Ransom was shortlisted for the award in 2011.

Hurrah! Our brochures are here. Collect from cafes, bookshops, libraries in Cork city & county, download from our website or order a copy for home delivery (for the cost of postage). Read about our gorgeous cover art, Seán Keating's The Window at link in our bio www.westcorkmusic.ie/literary-fes...

(New). For 'Leader' magazine. On the persistence of edu-myths like learning styles and the 'learning pyramid' in Irish education, in textbooks, tech companies and even public representatives: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/learnin...

Congratulations to @martindoyle.bsky.social on the launch of A Hosting,a career spanning collection of 60 interviews with Irish writers over 35 years. A phenomenal achievement. What a great record of Irish writers and writing. Will be widely read and studied I'm sure.

Danger of attending a book launch at Hodges Figgis. You have to buy associated books.