The Occasional 14 Patrick Radden Keefe,, the short novels of Alfred Hayes, Wendy Erskine at the Dalkey Book Festival, Claire Keegan & summer books, Tessa Hadley, Mandy Brown on reading & attention, Gloria Mark on attention, Marc Watkins on analog teaching. open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

Tomorrow morning, The Occasional for paid subscribers of The Fortnightly: Patrick Radden Keefe, Alfred Hayes, Wendy Erskine on 'The Benefactors', Claire Keegan & summer books, Tessa Hadley, Mandy Brown on reading & attention, Gloria Mark on attention, and lots more. juliangirdham.substack.com

Reading is how we attend the world, *which is also how we change it.* https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/umyazu

as genai proliferates, it has become difficult to avoid it. at @aial.ie, we're compiling a list of genai-free tools, libraries & websites to support research across tasks;grammar/spell check, coding/code review, data analysis (esp large scale text classification) & graphing/data visualisation recs?

Books newsletter: International Booker Prize fund doubles Plus details of our summer fiction series - great original stories from Rónán Hession, Elaine Garvey, Alice Ryan, Abbie Spallen, Neil Tully, Caragh Maxwell and the winner of €3,000 Moth Short Story Prize www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Claire Keegan: ‘I failed English in the Leaving Cert’ www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/the...

Some more pics from the Serpentine’s DAVID HOCKNEY exhibition, A YEAR IN NORMANDIE. #Art #ArtSky #Hockney #RIP

AI can now generate a unique textbook for every child based on their interests, which is genuinely impressive. But impressive technologies don't always help students learn. Personalised textbooks could be another solution in search of a problem. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/why-person...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! The penultimate great political fiction in this series is not strictly a fiction: it’s Annie Ernaux’s retelling of her own life in The Years (2008). What does this book tell us about the passing of political time? What comes next? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

207: Lizard handbags and so forth The final Fortnightly of this academic year: Wendy Erskine, Julie Parsons, Edna O'Brien & Andrew O'Hagan, summer reading, Gustave Caillebotte and more. open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

Final Fortnightly of the academic year is out tomorrow morning. juliangirdham.substack.com

Irish education's Wile E.Coyote moment: juliangirdham.substack.com/p/extra-iris...

My review in Saturday’s paper.

Extra: Irish education, sunk cost fallacy & Wile E. Coyote open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

I have an essay in the Irish Times this weekend reflecting on the intimate practice of writing about queer history in Belfast. Warning: contains pillow talk www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

This description of the Irish Curriculum spec for the English LC by @finn_mcredmond is a perfect example of the vacuousness of many curricula. Typical of what we often see when curriculum developers are afraid to specify actual content and scared of setting high expectations.

Join us online to discuss this month's Book Club pick, "Finders Keepers" by Seamus Heaney. 📚 Friday, 26 June at 1pm: https://ow.ly/1NF450Z71F5

Summer reading suggestions, in the latest 'Occasional'. substack.com/profile/8045...

'...standing in that flood of evening light, framed against...the spirals of mauve flowers, they looked illuminated, glorified. ‘A couple,’ Hugh thought before he could stifle the thought, not his mother & Rob Quillet but a man & a woman close together.' 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/02/t...

A response to today's Higher Level English Paper 2 (Literature) in the Leaving Certificate. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/leaving...

Join us online to discuss this month's Book Club pick, "Finders Keepers" by Seamus Heaney. 📚 Friday, 26 June at 1pm: https://ow.ly/1NF450Z71F5

Response to this morning's Leaving Certificate English Paper 1: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/leaving...

A lovely piece on reading, writing and English teaching by Conor Farnan: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/conor-f...

Summer reading possibilities.

Which is why the LLM experience (particularly in companionship cases, or masquerading as humans on websites) rings so hollow and dehumanizing. A language that always misses; used to describe an experience that never happened; an invitation with bad directions to an address that doesn’t exist

A lovely piece on reading, writing and English teaching by Conor Farnan: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/conor-f...

Louise Brangan & her new book ‘The Fallen’ about the Magdalene Laundries, Conor Farnan & English teaching, Seamus Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist' on its 60th birthday, Robert Caro, Claire Stoneman on schooling & luxury beliefs, Matt Ryan & CanonChat, and lots more. open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

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