Here's a summary of how a group of Irish leftists first invited me to give a talk on human rights in the war and then somehow started treating me as a fellow comrade who has to meet their purity standards, aka love Russians because you know they good. tomasoflatharta.com/2022/10/14/t...

Oh the Phoenix Magasine has gone bust. Glad that my (not so secret) admirer will no longer be able to publish libellous shite about me there. I had to ask Frontline Defenderd to make this profile for me for a good reason. www.frontlinedefenders.org/ta/node/7857

If you don't like what people say about Ireland online with regard to Aughinish Alumina exports to Russia, just wait until 16,000 Ukrainian refugees are ejected into the streets from August with nowhere else to go. Happy EU presidency of Ireland. english.nv.ua/nation/16-00...

Could not agree more. '... this war is unlikely to end at a negotiating table in Geneva or Istanbul. It will end when the cost of imperial ambition becomes unbearable for the Russian elite and the broader society... [The defeat] must be driven by a collapse of the regime’s capacity to function.'

Many in Ireland hate militarisation and military-industrial complex. Shame they actually have nothing to say about Ireland aiding Russian military-industrial complex.

Podcast: the Penal Laws Cathal Brennan and John Dorney discuss the anti-Catholic legislation that defined Irish life from the 1600s up to the 1800s. www.theirishstory.com/2026/06/06/p...

'Progressives' for Russia, as ever.

New, interesting (we hope!) episode on the anti-catholic legislation that dominated irish political life from the 1600s to the 1800s, known as the Penal Laws. Enjoy! irishhistoryshow.ie/115-the-pena...

Late to this, but extraordinary stuff. So Aughinish Alumina is, say its Russian owners, producing material that's definitely not for the Russian war but also somehow important enough to trigger one of the classic Russian coercive instruments: the weaponisation of energy. www.rte.ie/news/munster...

Bedad, it’s the badb catha.

Ok if sponsoring Russian war machine to kill Ukrainians is fine, how about that Shahed that injured Romanian fellow EU citizens today? No qualms there either?

Lads, gloriously scrambling your jets when Ukraine is getting bombed is no good. You can't count on UA's overstretched air defence to protect your own citizens. Gotta use those jets, you know, to shoot down stuff. It's not 2022 to act all surprised like nobody has seen this coming. Come on.

The interminable question of 7up in Irish official medicine never ceases to puzzle me

Btw, an example of russia trampling the linguistic minority rights it claims to defend so fervently: in free Ukraine, the Bulgarian minority has access to schools that teach Bulgarian whereas in the Ukrainian territories Ru occupies, the authorities have removed Bulgarian from the school curriculum.

B'fhéidir é 🙄

Book Review: Bloody Summer, A New History of the 1798 Rebellion: A fair minded concise but comprehensive look at the evetns of 1798 in Ireland. By James Quinn. www.theirishstory.com/2026/05/25/b...

Was editing my thesis for submission so hard that I forgot whether I had fed the cat. I will never know whether the furry bastard is his first or second dinner now. Plans for distraction tomorrow: to boil my watch instead of an egg or something.

Remember when Pope Francis scapegoated non-Christian Russian minorities (Buriats and Chechens) for atrocities in Ukraine? Because, you know, Christian Russian soldiers are paragons of virtue in a war or something. www.vice.com/en/article/p...

If there was no assimilation of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, why are their representatives fighting Russia's war of conquest in Ukraine right now? Some Ru libs like Kara-Murza blame them for atrocities bc fellow RU 'Slavs' wouldn't do such a thing to brotherly Ukrainians - a bonkers claim ofc.

'Colonialism only when sea and Muricah/Brits/French etc' strikes again.

1/5 Delighted to say that my first book, Explaining Northern Ireland Party Stances on the EU: Dividing Lines Before and After Brexit, is now available for pre-order with Routledge. It’s been a long road, and I’m very glad to be able to share it. www.routledge.com/Explaining-N...

For context, see Michele Horrigan's brilliant Stigma Damages project: www.stigmadamages.com Or, indeed, switch to satellite view on Google Maps. The imprint of the plant is visible from quite a distance.

On top of the being the main source of aluminium for the russian aerospace industry (i.e. all them missiles and drones heading for Kyiv) Aughinish Alumina is also the biggest single consumer of fossil gas in Ireland - about 11% of total use in 2021, more now. www.irishexaminer.com/business/com...

Omg there's total loot in Boots on Halfmoon Street right now. Tons of good OPI polish on ridiculous discounts, literally for 5 eur. I can't keep this just to myself. Cork city, ofc. #speirghorm #speirgorm

But sure let's go back to arguing about Ukrainian flags over town halls in Britain, which not a single Ukrainian ever asked to fly or fight about.

JD better be careful not to break his back doing all this mental gymnastics.

If Ukraine was separated from Russia by sea, this behaviour by Russians would be called imperial innocence. But, as we know, colonialism is only when sea and all. /s

Podcast: The Boer War, with Spencer Jones. Cathal Brennan and John Dorney interview historian Spencer Jones on the Boer War in South Africa of 1899-1902. Pic is of the Irish Brigade with Boer forces. www.theirishstory.com/2025/06/27/p...

Russian decolonialism or whatever it is that 'anticolonial progressives' impute to them.

Such a throwback to the vibes of the Kharkiv counteroffensive and Kerch bridge strike. Russian propagandist now stealing UA trope of 2022-24 'things are gonna get worse' is priceless, because it is - for them. UA indigenous deep strike capabilities are only teething and testing the waters.

📢 CfP: Society for the History of War Conference 2026 📍 University of Limerick 🗓 26–27 Nov 2026 Papers & panels invited on all aspects of war & violence incl. gender, memory, civil wars, cultures of conflict, and lived experience. 🗓 Deadline: 3 July 2026 📩 [email protected]

Though I did like it when the dude in Homeric armor was throat yodeling in Dune:

Kevin Sorbo has no speaking rights on ancient Greek-themed cinema after he has done this.

Fremen in Dune 2 striking spice depots, diminishing Harkonnens' spice profits rings very different in 2026, if you know what I mean.

Whoever decided to binge re-run Dune 1 and 2 in Imax in Omniplex cinemas today is a genius. If you are seeing this, please do more of this!

Just saw Nolan's Odyssey trailer on a big screen. It looks like Nolan wanted to make a dark epic Euro saga and went for the Viking vibes but a Greek myth. Would work ok as self-aware kitch if garnished with neo-Scaldic and 'epic Viking beats' soundtrack 😝

Presented without comment

In the world of bad news all around, the new Hungarian foreign policy is like a little ray of sunshine. It might not last but I am choosing to enjoy it while it does.

I am delighted and proud to share with you the programme for the last conference in our #ERC research programme "The Age of Civil Wars in Europe, 1917-1949". Robert Gerwarth, @sdanisimova.bsky.social and I will be happy to welcome you at UCD in Dublin on 25-26 June. civil-wars.eu/wp-content/u...

These 'peace negotiations' are a joke that keep getting funnier. There is Trump admin RU diplomacy of relatives and doofuses and then there's this guy who had been literally on Russian payroll for years (not sure if he still is).

New podcast, interview with @gerardshannon.bsky.social about his new biography of Rory O'Connor irishhistoryshow.ie/114-rory-oco...

I am sceptical of the increasing cheering that Russia is doing badly on the battlefield. They are grinding UA settlements all around the frontline still. But it is testimony to UA's military resilience that Russia won't be able to take all of Donbas any time soon to declare an face-saving victory./1

For a nation that is so hell-bent on aggressive wars, average Russians are such a collective princess on a pea. They don't mind war crimes and genocidal wars in their name (ICC warrant for Putin, anyone?). But they draw a line at such minor inconveniences the loss of internet and Telegram 🥹

A massive quadrocopter got into a habit of flying over my home in Cork. What on earth is it supposed to be doing? Reconnaissance? Deliveries? Photoshoots? 🫥

Yay!

My dad vibing with his choir Kalyna at Cork Choral Festival. They're singing a capella now, fair plé 🤘

New book review on the site: The Story of Us Independent Ireland and the 1926 Census - an engaging and accessible introduction of the recently released 1926 census @johngibney.bsky.social www.theirishstory.com/2026/05/02/b...

Eastern European pro-Russian whack-a-mole. Orban out, Babish in, God knows what's going come from Bulgaria's new govt, while Fico is in a bipolar phase - going to Moscow but promising to support Ukraine's EU bid.

Glad to know that the horrible war inflicted on my country is a standup routine for a given comedian. They must think they are edgy and deep or something. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...