That is a terrible example to set. A highly sectarian decision which exacerbates the current delicate situation. I despair of this place. Bring on a new Ireland, united and shared by us all.

I’m enjoying Julie Andrew’s reading of Pride and Prejudice on @bbcsounds.bsky.social It is as fresh and challenging of women’s role in society as it ever was. The statue definitely captures the character of Jane Austen. Wonderful.

The Israeli UN rep called Francesca Albanese a witch & said her report on the ongoing genocide in Gaza was just ‘another page in her spell book’. Her brilliant response is that if she had spells (as a witch) she’d end their crimes. #endthegenocide

@mrjamesob.bsky.social you can speak to living victims of #Royal sexual abuse. Look into #Kincora Boy's Home and Lord #Mountbatten. Open secret in Northern Ireland. Start here 🔽

“For Ni Aolain, the response needs to ‘hold two things at the same time: we need to remember what was great about the radical peace that was achieved here in Northern Ireland – and we need to recall that a better peace is possible”. rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/10/16/r...

Maybe they should send this to Buck House - Mountbatten might be very apt for Andrew but maybe not the best of choices?

RIP - a great woman whose courageous challenge in the courts gave to Irish women the first steps towards control of their own reproductive bodies. Rest in power, Mrs McGee #speirgorm

Such a dreadfully sad story. The lives of two women ruined by the actions of Figgis would be a more fitting tribute than the headline of ‘personal tragedies’.

This has become a great Christmas tradition. Order your cards here 👎

Soldier F found not guilty in Bloody Sunday murder trial. So no convictions for the murder of 13 people during an anti-internment March in Derry in 1972. So much for the rule of law in the UK? ‘And in the dirt lay justice like an acorn in winter.’ The Road to Derry, Séamus Heaney, 1972.

This closes tomorrow at 5pm - please give it one last share if you can!

Never too late to do the right thing…

Oh wow, I have something that connects me to Abraham Lincoln…other than anti-slavery of course!!

Manchan Magan also said, as a member of Irish revolutionary family, they all learned French and German at home. His grandfather had imported guns for IRA and language facility was a huge asset!! His brother Ruan said they spoke French around his hospital bed.

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I listened to this after hearing his brother Ruan’s eulogy at the funeral, giving his side of rescuing Manchán from the cowshed in India so that they could make a film for TG4. But this is mad craic altogether. Fantastic! @blindboyboatclub.bsky.social

So everything quiet in the other 6 counties of Ulster??

As a (struggling) student of the Irish language I totally endorse this - we can’t understand our present without a knowledge of our language. Even though I’ll never be fluent I’m so pleased to begin to grasp the origins of our landscape & hugely indebted to Manchan Magan.

Last roses from the garden rescued before #stormamy hits.

I loved his programmes. Had the pleasure of meeting his formidable and wonderful grandmother Sighle Humphries, former vice-president of Cumann na mBan. He will be much missed. RIP.

Glad to see this review by @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social on @marg50.bsky.social 's Rebel Women

Wow. Progress. At long last.

Tomorrow's front page 📰 Is sharing this image a crime?

Well done you! I’ll never progress beyond the Bunrang!

A fine piece by one of the best of us. As a fellow-novelist and fellow-Irishwoman, I'm proud of, and greatly admire, its humanity, humour, courage, grace and commonsense #Spéirgorm #Ireland

Lovely to be back in my study with the added bonus of the company of Daisy.

Hugh Bonneville is a legend.

A beautiful thread. Thank you. I love seeing Leech paintings when visiting National Gallery but many of these paintings are new to me.

Absolutely. It needs to be a key issue in tv debates. This is so important and yet again underlines frustration of us northerners denied a say in the election.

At Murlough Bay yesterday to attend the 109th anniversary of the execution of Roger Casement, humanitarian and Irish patriot. His last wish was to be buried here and de Valera agreed, but his remains lie in Glasnevin cemetery. A campaign to re-bury Casement is active. I’m proud to give my support.

If their past activities took place in County Antrim do let me know!

Grateful to the wonderful Feile an Phobail for the invitation to speak on Rebel Women of Belfast. A great audience, including relatives of some of the women. Past and present are very close & opportunities to talk about the difficulties of the past so important.

Fintan Ward Hillyard. 5 August 1985 - 16 December 2014. It would have been your 40th birthday today, beautiful man. “Time does not bring relief…I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him in the shrinking of the tide.” (Edna St Vincent Millay)

Yet more evidence of WM govt controlling the past in NI: closing formal routes to justice, preventing info on state collusion being shared with victims’ families, while spending extravagantly on discredited official history. Families, like Paul Thompson’s, deserve better. www.rte.ie/news/regiona...

‘Handala’ was illegally boarded by Israel military in international waters, around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Before interception the 21 crew made this statement: if attacked they will join the global hunger strike for Gaza.

“All these traumas are the reason why the Irish took almost 150 years before they could memorialise what they experienced in the 1840s. Those who inflict starvation are aware of this, they know that what they’re doing is actually dismantling a society.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

His gentleness. I could weep.

And Israel will claim this as Hamas propaganda? Is the world waiting for more people to die?! And then there will be no more witnesses…

🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency. They are out of energy and they are starving to death. I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it. 🧵

Listen. Eminent human rights lawyer Michael Farrell on why he resigned from the ECRI, European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, due to its silence on apartheid Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. European institutions are truly complicit. #GazaGenocide www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Birding highlight of the year. One of the best birds in County Antrim. Corncrake calling on Rathlin Island. Also Puffins. 128 for County Antrim this year. #birds

I’m delighted to read a review of Rebel Women in Fortnight. Many thanks to @hayleybrabazon.bsky.social for her thoughtful and perceptive comments.

🚨 BREAKING - Civil Disobedience in Derry this Saturday. In opposition to the "biggest threat to civil liberties here since the civil rights movement was battered off the streets close on 60 years ago" - veteran civil rights activist Eamonn McCann Full: www.derrynow.com/news/local-n...

1. Yesterday, 86 people were arrested in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." They are the opposite of terrorists. They were protesting *against* terrorism. 🧵

On the way to the shops with my grandsons. May they always love and support each other. I’m very conscious of all the children unable to do such a simple thing as they face the horrors of war & genocide.

This objective is not about temporary concentration and … the purported goal of “defeating Hamas,” but rather concentration and evacuation as an objective in and of itself. www.justsecurity.org/116459/israe...